Goal Setting

Why SMART Goals Are a Trap for Ambitious People

George Doran coined SMART goals in a 1981 management-review article. The idea, reasonable at the time, was that vague managerial objectives produced vague outcomes, and that forcing people to write goals that were Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound would pull performance upward. For ordinary corporate work — hitting a quarterly

Goal Setting

OKRs for One: How to Apply the Google Goal System to Your Personal Career

John Doerr introduced OKRs — Objectives and Key Results — to Google in 1999. He'd learned them at Intel under Andy Grove, who had adapted them from Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives from the 1950s. The format became internal company currency at Google, and from there spread to