Loose Goals
I would love to have SMART goals all the time, but sometimes executives resist being specific. Sometimes it's more valuable to keep options open...
Context
The organization is in a transitional moment, perhaps a merger. Executives are reluctant to commit to specifics. There are some charts in your BI system, and a giant list of KPIs, but the results are not reviewed regularly or formally.
Discussion
I would love to have SMART goals all the time, and for many years tried to create them everywhere I worked. But I sometimes found a surprising resistance, even among senior executives. For years I assumed I was just communicating badly, because every executive must want clear goals, no? How else are they going to accomplish anything?
It turns out I had a bias. Early in my career I worked for high-growth B2B SaaS companies where the metrics were super-obvious. We were awash in seats and ARR and what would later be called the pirate metrics. I just assumed this was a natural way to work if you wanted high growth.
And it is, but...
Most companies aren't yet on a straightforward growth trajectory. They have new leaders parachuted in to solve old problems. Or, there is an established cash cow business and a lot of other businesses that aren't producing returns, with a lot of managers associated with those businesses. Often there's a whole system in place that involves not looking closely at where money is made.