Goal Setting Strategies: 6 Frameworks for Achieving Goals

We’re all navigating increasingly complex and speculative futures, brought on by AI disruption, fast-changing workplace expectations and geopolitical upheavals. In this context, goal setting can provide a huge benefit: a structured pathway to our pursuit of fulfilling and financially sustainable careers that balance knowns with unknowns, growth with experience and experimentation with opportunities. 

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Why Goal Setting Improves Results

Extensive research attests to the effectiveness of explicitly setting goals. Psychologist Elliot Berkman defines goals as desired outcomes that would not happen without effort and action. We want to achieve them, but they are at least a bit difficult to attain. But he presents strong evidence that goal-setting strategies that align our motivational processes (desiring a particular outcome over others) to our cognitive processes (knowledge, skills and strategies for taking needed action) can help us accomplish things.

A separate study by Gail Matthews showed that explicitly writing your goals down, taking action and maintaining accountability increased chances of achieving desired outcomes by 33 percent compared to not taking such measures. Clearly, following a structured framework for your goals can help to accomplish them.

6 Goal Setting Frameworks

With the aforementioned benefits of goal-setting in mind, let’s explore some established frameworks to operationalize the practice of setting and achieving goals.

SMART

SMART is a framework for setting goals using Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound as structured criteria. Management consultant George Doran first presented the framework in the early 1980s as a way to improve goal clarity for managers, and people in professional and educational settings have used it to turn ill-defined intentions into clear and measurable goals ever since.

The highly structured nature of SMART goals makes them particularly suitable for goals that you can achieve within a few months at most. They’re also useful in contexts that require swift execution. That’s because the framework offers clearly defined criteria for goal definition, specified time-frames and accountability for follow-through.

SMART Goal Example

An example of a SMART goal is “I will increase my sales calls by 10 per week to generate five additional qualified leads per month for the next three months.”

This goal maps to the SMART framework by being specific (“increase my sales calls” is a specific action), measurable (“10 per week” and “five additional qualified leads per month” assign particular numbers that you can track), achievable (as increasing number of sales calls by 10 per week isn’t unrealistic), relevant (“five additional qualified leads per month” is very relevant for revenue growth) and time-bound (“for the next three months” establishes a clear end point).

OKRs

OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results, are another commonly used goal-setting framework within companies. In this framework, individuals measure the achievement of goals — referred to as objectives — by one or more key results.

Former Intel CEO Andy Grove created the OKR framework. John Doerr later popularized it in his book Measure What Matters, which highlights how setting OKR goals helped corporations like Intel, Google and others achieve significant and sustained growth. 

OKRs and SMART goals are both used extensively in corporate settings, but they differ in terms of structure and purpose. SMART goals are designed to be highly specific, while OKRs are expected to be more aspirational and less tightly defined. Thus, in practice, SMART goals are a better fit for expectedly achievable goals, whereas OKRs are better suited for stretch goals. Given their broader scope and because more than one key result may be associated with a single OKR objective, this approach may take longer to achieve than SMART goals.

OKR Example

The OKR formula looks like this: I will do X as measured by Y. An example OKR is as follows:

• Objective: Increase company’s revenue. 
• Key Result 1: Generate 200 new leads each quarter.
• Key Result 2: Increase weekly sales calls from 30 to 50. 
• Key Result 3: Improve conversion rate from 15 to 20 percent. 
• Key Result 3: Close $1M in yearly sales.

The WOOP Method

The WOOP method, which stands for “Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan,” is a goal-setting method developed by psychologists Gabriele Oettingen and Peter M. Gollwitzer from New York University. It has four main steps: identifying your wish, envisioning the best outcome, anticipating any obstacles that may get in the way and building a specific plan to achieve the outcome. 

The WOOP method is effective not just for professional settings but also more broadly for younger students and patients pursuing long-term health goals. The scientific evidence for this method is detailed in Rethinking The Positive by Gabriele Oettingen. 

What is particularly attractive about the WOOP approach is that it does not tell us to do away with our wishing or dreaming; instead, it gives us a pathway to turn our dreams into reality. WOOP is useful for bridging longer-term and deeply felt aspirations to short- to medium-term tactical goals.

WOOP Example

For example, your wish may be to increase team productivity this quarter. The outcome you desire is for the team to consistently meet their deadlines and complete projects more efficiently to drive a 20 percent increase in the number of projects completed per week. A potential obstacle blocking this outcome is that you tend to avoid addressing performance issues and let delays slide. So, the concrete plan you develop is this: When you are reviewing project progress, if you notice a missed deadline, then you will address it with the person responsible within 24 hours with clear expectations and next steps to get the project back on track.

Backcasting

Backcasting, also sometimes called mirror planning, is a goal-setting approach that starts with defining an ideal future outcome and working backward with intervening milestones to figure out how to get there, including possible obstacles and ways to overcome them. Dr. John B. Robinson formally presented the concept of backcasting in the 1990s as part of his futures planning research.

There are three main components to a backcast plan: a defined future vision with a target completion date, intervening milestones with dates, possible challenges and mitigation plans. Thus, backcasting, by its very definition, is best suited for goals that are large and far enough out that they require some speculative planning. Compared with forward planning, research shows that backward planning produced greater motivation, higher expectation of success, lower time pressure and better outcomes.

Backcasting Example

Here’s a small business example that starts with a future goal and then breaks it down into immediate and near-term milestones:

• Future goal: Consistently make $100,000 per year in revenue.
• End of year milestone: $100,000 total revenue.
• Six-month mark milestone: $50,000 revenue with consistent monthly sales.
• Four-month mark milestone: First steady customers.
• Two-month mark milestone:  Secure your three customers.
• One-month mark milestone: Finalize messaging and pricing.
• Right now: Define product/service, begin price discovery test messaging.

HARD Goals

HARD goals refer to a framework where goals are Heartfelt, Animated, Required and Difficult. Mark Murphy introduced this framework in his 2009 book Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your Employees to Give It Their All and They’ll Give You Even More. Murphy came up with this after observing the phenomenon that, despite following the steps, employees were disengaging from traditional goal-setting approaches. 

Murphy’s thesis was that people would be more likely to stay engaged and persist over a longer duration if their goals were emotionally compelling. To achieve the latter, a HARD goal must be connected to a person’s core beliefs (heartfelt), vividly visualized in one’s mind (animated), feel necessary and urgent (required) and push for growth beyond one’s comfort zone (difficult). Given the focus on heartfelt and difficult-to-achieve goals, pursuing HARD goals tends to be most feasible over medium- to long-term timeframes.

HARD Goal Example

An example of a HARD goal is “Increase employee retention by 15 percent over the next 12 months through implementing regular career development check-ins.”

This goal maps to the HARD framework by being heartfelt as increased retention positively impacts employees morale and company culture, animated as fewer exits can be visualized as stable, high morale, closely bonded team, required as stability is critical to an organization’s growth, and difficult as achieving a 15 percent improvement in retention in 12 months will demand significant lift from managers in terms of prioritization, time investment and follow-through.

BHAG Goals

BHAG (pronounced bee-hag) stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. BHAG goals were first introduced by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

The purpose of BHAGs is to engender transformational, long-term change within organizations over substantial timeframes, on the order of 10 to 25 years. 

There can be different types of BHAG: the most common are target-oriented BHAGs, which aim for measurable outcomes over a particular time-frame; competitive BHAGs, which involve outperforming a rival; role-model BHAGs, which focus on a role model and setting a goal to emulate their success; and transformation BHAGs, which involve organization-wide transformations such as pivoting the business model, overhauling the organization structure or altering the growth strategy.

BHAG Example

For example, a small business might set a target-oriented BHAG to grow its company from a local business into a nationwide brand serving customers in all 50 states within 20 years. It’s a lofty, long-term goal, but one that is exciting to rally a team around.

Choosing Appropriate Goal Setting Frameworks

The goal-setting framework one chooses depends on a number of contextual factors.

Are you setting a professional goal? If so, perhaps SMART or OKRs, which are the most proven in professional settings, might be the most apt. If the goal is overarching with multifaceted results, however, SMART might be too narrow, so OKRs are the right framework to capture its complexity. Are you making a personal decision? If so, perhaps the WOOP method, which has been widely used by individuals for personal decision-making, would be the best fit. 

Are you making a significant transformation at the personal, familial or organizational level that will likely take several years? If so, a BHAG is what you should plan for. Will the path to achieving the final outcome have some uncertainties? Then consider making a backcasting plan.

You should also consider which framework resonates with your personality. If you thrive on structure, one of the more constrained frameworks like SMART may be a great fit. If you see yourself as a dreamer, perhaps you’ll be drawn to WOOP. If you find yourself bored with activities that are too easy or need your work to be closely aligned to your values to feel motivated, HARD may prove to be the framework that helps you achieve the best outcomes. 

There may even be a complex goal that requires using two frameworks. For example, you may have a BHAG where you achieve sub-goals using one of the other frameworks. Taken together, no one framework works for every goal or every person.

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Common Goal-Setting Mistakes

What could go wrong with goal setting? Let me identify some common mistakes and how we might avoid them.

Setting Too Many Goals at Once

The first mistake people make is setting too many goals at the same time. This can quickly become overwhelming and derail progress. So, consider your goals carefully, prioritize them in the order of importance and then pick one or two that you aim to achieve. 

Unclear Reasoning

Second, not spending enough time asking why something is important and who it is important for. Sometimes we set goals that are important to other people we care about, but not necessarily to us. Remember, goals that don’t truly motivate may not get the effort they require.

Too Easy or Too Hard

Motivation brings me to the third common mistake: not finding the “zone of productive struggle” — goals that are too easy won’t hold our interest over time, and unrealistically difficult goals may deflate and discourage us. To find the right balance, ask yourself: Does more than 50 percent of the goal feel achievable even if it requires stretching, effort and learning? Does 100 percent feel achievable? If the answer to the first is yes and to the second is no, you may be in the right zone.

Not Setting Subgoals to Enjoy the Process

A final mistake we commonly make, especially when our goals take a while to reach, is that we start fixating on the mountain top and not on the climb, thus risking losing the excitement, the drive and the joy that got us started. To avoid it, set intervening milestones, regularly track progress, learn from mistakes and celebrate small wins.

In reality, most meaningful goals are not a single event. Rather, they are a series of interdependent events that we achieve over time. So, if the process of goal achievement feels slow, if it requires multiple iterations, or if the path occasionally feels unclear, don’t give up — remember that the final outcome is just the visible moment, the real work is everything you do leading up to it.

Frequently Asked Questions