Specific and Strategic Courageous Action

“To set and work toward any goal is an act of courage.” -- Stephen Covey

Dennis Sparks recently wrote in his blog about the power of setting incremental goals, saying

Large goals can overwhelm school leaders who may not know where to start and how to maintain momentum over a period of many months and years. That’s why it’s important that leaders break large goals into small parts that can be addressed on a daily or weekly basis. ("Breaking big goals into small goals," April 21 - find a link to Dennis' blog in our Resources)

We couldn’t agree more! When we teach goal setting and monitoring, the “S” of S.M.A.R.T. is a particularly powerful step for improvement progress. “S” stands for both Specific and Strategic. Strategic means that the goal focuses on the area of highest need - what we call “GAN” or Greatest Area of Need. Leaders who don’t know where to start use the GAN process to help their staff focus like a laser beam on reading, writing, math, science, or social studies - wherever student performance is lowest.

The S.M.A.R.T. Goal Process also helps leaders and staff break big goals into smaller ones by using a 4-zone analysis to establish targets. When teams of teachers track student progress on assessments, and look at students as whole children not just numbers, their conversation is deeper, richer and much more action-oriented (what Dennis calls “next action thinking.”)

In Gilmer, Texas teachers do this by placing photos of individual students on index cards and literally moving the cards up through the color-coded zones (red, yellow, blue and green) after each assessment. There are numerous examples in Gilmer of students starting in the red zone and ending in the green zone (even "special ed” students).

Of course, when these teachers set targets for each zone they also commit to what it is they are going to do to get their students there. As a result, students, teachers and leaders have moved to a whole new level of performance. A recent email from a Gilmer principal says it all: “We are beginning to get results in from our state mandated tests and they are bringing smiles to our faces.”

It has been our experience, and that of our clients, that setting and monitoring specific targets for strategic goals is one of the most powerful improvement practices leaders can adopt.