How to fix these common mistakes
A simple way to avoid these three problems is to word your goal as though it has already been achieved. You can call this 'tomorrow's truth' or 'future fact' (credit to Stacey Barr for that term).
So here are our original three examples...
- Build warehouse C17
- All staff to complete health and safety training 101
- Sign up for the 'saw-dust and running' diet plan
Rewriting these goal statements as 'future fact', they become...
- We offer timely delivery to our customers
- We have a safe working environment
- I maintain a good body weight
These look good, but they still have a problem: woolly words.
Woolly words: sound great, hard to pin down.
Woolly words are words that sound inspiring, but are really hard to measure or describe. Extreme examples include...
- Fabulous
- Best in breed
- Synergetic
- Bleeding edge
- Brilliant
- Inspiring
These are words that you will often find in advertising copy, mission and vision statements. They can make the reader feel great, but can be very difficult to clearly define and, as a result, measure.
In our example, our woolly words are...
- Timely
- Safe
- Good
If you still need persuasion that wording counts, check out this 'wording horror story' regarding the Cobra Effect!
3 great goal statement examples
Let's see what our three goal statement illustrations look like after replacing those woolly words with clear simple language:
- Our products are shipped without delay
- Our team go home safely each day
- We maintain a healthy body weight
When it comes to knowing how to write a goal statement, describing an ideal future state of the result we care about is one of the most powerful and natural ways of doing this.
Write as though it has already been achieved, making sure you avoid letting woolly words creep into your statements.
Put it into practise
There we have it! If you follow these 3 simple steps as well as the guidance on how to avoid the 3 most common mistakes, you will be writing goal statements that are in great shape to not only be turned into KPI trees, but also to guide your action setting to achieve your goals. Check out some final FAQs below and browse the Made to Measure blog for more valuable knowledge on all things KPIs.
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