Developing SMARTIE Indicators of Success

Well, this year has certainly begun like no other. And we recognize you may be wanting to put your attention more toward political activation than strategic planning.  But when you (or your organization) are ready to craft a plan for 2021, know that just because you may *still* be working from home in your sweatpants, doesn’t mean you need to have goal season pass you by!

As your friendly evaluators, we want to share some timely tips to make sure this year’s goals are SMARTIE – an acronym we explore more in today’s post! Even if you aren’t a resolutions kind of person (believe it or not, our team was split on this!), we hope you’ll find these strategies useful as you’re setting goals for your organization and initiatives.

Whether it’s a personal goal or one for work, we recommend spending some time identifying your indicators of success. Are you familiar with “SMART Goals” but not SMARTIE? In 2018, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services Data to Enhance Effective Practice (DEEP) Workgroup released an evaluation guide that included the SMARTIE framework. It was new to us at the time, and we appreciated the upgrade’s inclusion of technology/data security and its emphasis on equity. Read more about the SMARTIE framework and then give your indicators just the boost they need to carry you through 2021!.

Once you’ve had a chance to work on them, we would love to know -- How can your goals help you work SMART(ie)R, not harder?