Goals and objectives

In this article you will read all about the goals you have when shaping an initiative or project. A goal ensures that you know what you are working toward. During evaluation, you can easily see if you have achieved it. That way you can make adjustments in the future where necessary. It is also important to set goals when funding your initiative or project, especially if you want to qualify for grants or funds. They generally stem from the marketing process that preceded the development of your initiative or project.

Why do you set goals?

It is important to have in mind what you want to achieve with your initiative or project. That way you are not a rudderless ship but you can continuously monitor whether you are on the right track. Where necessary, you can then make adjustments to achieve the objectives. It is also easier to check in retrospect whether you have achieved the results you wanted to achieve. Finally, objectives tell a lot about the professionalism with which you approach things and they provide a concrete insight for assessment by, for example, partners or parties to whom you request a financial contribution.

What types of goals are there?

Goals can focus on anything you want your organization to achieve. In practice, however, you never have one goal. You usually look at several areas or policy areas. In doing so, you can also link goals to the time period over which you want to measure them.

Goals linked to the deadline

The most familiar subdivision of objectives has to do with the period you want to monitor. This can include the following distinctions:

• Operational goals. These focus on a relatively short period of 1 to 2 years.
• Tactical goals. These cover a period of 2 to 5 years.
• Strategic goals. These relate to the even longer term, of 5 years and more.

Goals linked to policy topics

If you are a smaller organization or have not been developing for very long, the long-term goals may be more difficult to determine. The classification below is useful, although this also applies if you are looking further ahead.

Activity Objectives

These relate to what you are concretely doing. It goes into the activities you are doing around your project or initiative. For example, think about the number of performances you plan to put on or the artists you book.

Communication or outreach goals

These objectives relate to what you want to achieve with the communication around your project or initiative. This way you can measure whether you were able to reach those you want to reach. For example, think about the number of followers on your social media you want to have afterwards, how many people will see your advertisement, in which places you want to distribute your flyer and so on.

Impact objectives

These types of objectives are about the effects that the initiative or project should bring about. It is important to formulate it as concretely as possible because otherwise you will end up comparing apples with oranges. Consider things like the amount of profit you want to make, the number of tickets you want to sell and increasing brand awareness by a certain percentage.

Process Objectives

The objectives related to the process tell, for example, what you want to bring about with the rollout of your initiative or project. You ask yourself what the visitor (or an artist) should remember afterwards, what feelings it should evoke and the like.

SMART goals

If you're going to describe a goal, there's a handbook for that that will help you. In the field, you are bound to come across the term SMART. This is true at least when you want to claim a grant or fund, for example. The letters stand for the words specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and time-bound. If your objective meets these, chances are that another person will understand you better but it's also easier to actually draw conclusions from it during evaluation.

Specifically

In the objective, always try to describe as specifically as possible what you are going to do. That makes it clear and you can read more data from it. Avoid words that can be explained in multiple ways and make it less concrete. If you state that you will "organize a wonderful event," then everyone can give a different meaning to the word "wonderful. This makes the objective unclear and open to multiple interpretations.

Measurable

It is essential that your goal has components that you can measure. Otherwise, it is very difficult to determine whether you have achieved it and then you cannot adjust as easily. For example, if you state that you want 'more visitors than in recent years', that says little, especially to an external party. Specify specifically how many visitors you want to receive (in numbers or as a percentage compared to another number). Also state how you will measure it. Especially if you include goals like "80% of our visitors must like it. How are you going to measure this? Will you use a survey or measure responses through social media?

Acceptable

When you have formulated a goal then it should show that it is acceptable. That means that it does have to fit within the public interest and the norms and values we have all agreed upon. For example, if your artwork or event has the goal of keeping the entire city awake for three days, then you can assume that it will not be accepted.

Realistic

This ties in somewhat with the previous point. Your goal must also be realistic. You can often sense that, unless your head is too much in the clouds. That's why it's also good to have goals read by acquaintances. Say you are going to organize a dance event for 250 people for the first time, there is little chance that you will be able to program world-famous DJs. The same applies, for example, to the number of people attending your performance. If the space only allows 200 people, then it is not realistic to target 500 people.

Time-bound

It is also important that you attach a time period to it. Then you can state, and evaluate afterwards, in what time period you want to achieve your goal. For example, you might say you want to create a work of art within 3 months or attract 100 unique visitors in the 24 hours after you launch your website. It often helps if you start your goal with the words "within xxxx months/hours/days we want.....

USMART / SMARTIE(S)

Nowadays, letters are sometimes added to the word SMART. This allows you to articulate your goals even more strongly. It also gives you more factors to use in an evaluation. In this case, the letter U in USMART stands for challenging; a goal should excite. When using SMARTIE(S) then the last letters stand for Influence (you make sure your goal can be achieved without external influences) and Ecological (it is increasingly expected that you also take sustainability into account). The S stands for the English word "sustainable. That is similar to sustainability but then it is a little more focused on the fact that what you want to do should be able to last a long time under the right conditions and a little less on the environmental aspect of sustainability.

How do you describe an objective?

It is sometimes said that you should be able to describe a goal in one sentence, but in practice this is impossible. It can be a paragraph, but be careful not to make it too long and unclear. What is definitely out of the question is taking the letters SMART apart. Sometimes you see people explaining why the goal is specific or just measurable. That doesn't make it look professional. These things should be evident from the objective.

If, from your expertise, you yourself have knowledge that would fit this topic, or if you see opportunities to improve this text, we look forward to receiving your message at info@cultuuracademy.nl.