Speaker 1: I'm here to chat with you today about the importance of goal setting and action planning. Teams often feel really great after leaving the strategic planning sessions, and then a few weeks or months pass and the momentum starts to slow down or fade. Part of this is often due to the lack of having SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, as well as action plans that can help drive momentum towards these. Without these SMART goals, teams may lose alignment if they don't have a list of shared goals and outcomes that they're striving to achieve, and then align with the organization's strategic priorities to reach its vision or one destination. Without SMART goals, it'll be difficult, if not impossible, for your leaders to determine your progress towards the outcomes that you want to achieve, and to see if you're ahead, behind, or on track, until it may be too late to adjust the course. So what we really want to use goals for is proactivity, and then the actions will help us to reach those goals. We've worked with hundreds of organizations to develop and implement their strategic plans, and we've learned that there are clear and aligned SMART goals in place, or when there are clear and aligned SMART goals in place, teams start to strive towards the same goals, they are more proactive, and they adjust their actions as needed. And it's also really important that they're tracking, monitoring, and reporting on these on a regular basis, but we'll talk about that in another video. Many researchers have built on Locke's theory of goal-setting, and the consensus is that SMART goals are one way to help organizations, teams, and individuals to boost engagement, accountability, commitment, and overall performance. When your organization sets SMART goals, your team will be rowing your metaphorical boat in the same direction, towards the same desired outcome and endpoint. You're all aiming for the same thing. Additionally, when you pair this with consistent tracking, monitoring, and reporting, SMART goals will help your team to become proactive, strategic thinkers who are regularly assessing feedback loops, determining if the actions you are taking are really helping you to achieve the outcomes you're aiming for, and if not, then allowing you to make those adjustments as needed. While this is impactful for all organizations, there's another benefit for organizations who may have to answer to boards or stakeholders. When you outline and monitor SMART goal progress, you end up with this great reporting data that you can share. So that's not the main purpose of having SMART goals and action plan, but a residual benefit is being able to easily report on your progress and where you're at. In our implementation workshop on goal-setting and action planning, we work with your leadership team to ensure you have clear and articulate benchmarks for success, and then a plan of actions to help you work towards them. Beyond developing SMART goals to ensure you're aiming for shared outcomes and building accountable teams, this will also help your organization maintain your ongoing alignment and momentum to implement your strategic plan. Your organization can have a brilliant high-level strategic plan, but without SMART goals, your execution may fail. By ensuring that your organizational leaders develop SMART goals that align with the vision mission, your organization will be more likely to implement your plan. By completing this workshop alongside our implementation modules, leaders and their teams will strengthen their overall capacity for execution. If you'd like to learn more about this workshop or any of our other modules as a part of our implementation programming, click on the link included with this video or visit our website at www.smestrategy.net.