There are lots of moving parts in an agenda, which is why developing crystal clear goals and objectives is so important.  When done well, these become your “north star” around which everything else revolves. A common issue with using transformative facilitation strategies in your meetings and workshops is that they have a tendency to pick up momentum and threaten to veer off topic. Returning to your well-crafted and intentional goals and objectives helps you stay on course and avoid this pitfall.

I distinctly remember when I started out running meetings, being very unclear of the difference between a goal and an objective. What I’ve come to understand, is that the goal is your over-arching theme, for example, “The goal of this meeting is to collectively make several key decisions about fundraising for the coming year,” or “The goal of this workshop is to help participants share and learn strategies for handling confrontational situations with students.”  

The objectives, then, break down what that will look like, and actually follow your agenda.  They start with, “By the end of this meeting/workshop, participants will…” Using the first example above, about fundraising, the objectives might read, “Decide whether to hold one or two major donor events this summer; Calendar solicitation mail-out dates; Brainstorm and select newsletter topics for the remainder of the year.” In our second example, they might include, “Identify when and where most confrontations take place; Brainstorm and strategizes ways to mitigate confrontations; Decide on three key strategies they will try this month, and be prepared to report back at our next meeting.”

Limit yourself to one over-arching goal and no more than 3-5 objectives, even for a full-day meeting.  Trying to do too much can overwhelm and disempower participants. You may already be familiar with “SMART” goals.  Now is a good time to get acquainted with what that means and how you can employ them. I have found them extremely useful in setting a clear path that enables participants to follow – and lead – along with you.  Here’s a refresher.

S = Specific.  It is very easy to create loose goals for your engagement.  Setting a specific goal or objective means you have to sit down and think about what you are really looking at accomplishing with the event.  A good rule of thumb when creating Specific goals or objectives is to ask yourself a bunch of “w” questions – When? Where? Why? Who? Do a brainstorm to get all of your ideas down about what you hope to accomplish in the event using those questions, and then narrow it down to one sentence.  

Returning to our examples above, our fundraising meeting goal could have been, “Discuss fundraising activities.”  I’m exaggerating a little here, but you can see how this misses the mark because you are not going to discuss, you are doing to decide.  You are also going to decide “collectively,” which is why this meeting needs to be called; it’s hard to make collective decisions without getting together.  You’re also not just making decisions about fundraising activities, but will be focusing on “key” activities, making this more specific than if you were going to be open to all fundraising activities.  

These may seem like insignificant differences, but they set the tone and direction more clearly than a general goal would.  This becomes extremely important later, as you create an agenda that you plan to keep on course.

M = Measurable.  Measurable goals are easily quantifiable.  This often looks like putting in numbers, as in, “Decide whether to hold one or two donor events this summer.” Hey, if we decide that, then we have been successful in meeting this objective!  Or, “Identify when and where most confrontations take place.” Again, if you make a list of when and where confrontations are happening, you have met this meeting objective. Being able to hit your objectives keeps participants motivated, which is an extremely important part of transformational facilitation.  

Good questions to ask yourself as you are aiming to make your goals measurable is “How much?” or “How long?” or “How many?”  Sometimes I create my objectives, and then go back through them to make sure they are measurable, adding wording to make them quantifiable as I edit.  

A= Achievable.  This is a big one.  Will we be able to eliminate confrontations all together?  No. That would not be an achievable goal. However, we can “share and learn strategies” towards reducing confrontations.  Will we be able to create a whole fundraising plan in one meeting?  Maybe, but probably not unless it’s a full day retreat. Keeping your goals and objectives achievable helps participants walk away with a sense of accomplishment from the event.  We came to do x, and we did it!

I am notorious for trying to squeeze too much into meetings and workshops.  I am still learning how to be honest with myself about how much can be accomplished in the time allotted.  A lot of this depends on how who your participants are and how skillfully you are able to move them towards decisions and actions.  When thinking about making your goals and objectives achievable, take a few minutes to consider who is in the room. Will this particular group of participants have the knowledge, power, and/or skill to accomplish the goal, or will you have to spend time doing scaffolding or inviting other players into the room?  Which leads us to the next letter.

R = Relevant.  This goes back to the part about getting to know your audience.  There is nothing worse than walking into a workshop and realizing that it has nothing to do with your job or your needs, or that the issues you are being asked to tackle are outside of your control.  

Making your goals and objectives relevant is key in transformational facilitation because participants need to feel like what is taking place in your event matters and is useful.  I cannot underscore enough the importance of having participants walk out of your meeting or workshop feeling like they have concrete action items and tools, or have gained clarity around a topic, decision, or timeline.  Doing a workshop on reducing student confrontations with a group of participants who don’t regularly experience this problem is a waste of everyone’s time.

I’d also like to insert a cautionary note here about meetings, specifically. Sometimes we add agenda items or objectives to a meeting that are actually announcements, rather than things that need the time and space of a meeting to address.  This can feel boring and like a waste of time for participants, even if the topic is relevant to their jobs. When thinking about making your goals and objectives Relevant, consider not just the topic, but also whether this is an item that requires face-to-face time.  You may find that in actuality, the item can be covered in an “Updates” section of your agenda instead, as we will discuss more fully when we get to Agendas later on.

T = Time Bound.  Put simply, this means that your goals and objectives should be clear about when.  Is this something happening today, or in the next month or year?  Our first goal example is explicit about this, “The goal of this meeting is to collectively make several key decisions about fundraising for the coming year.”  Likewise, “Decide on three key strategies they will try this month,” and “Be prepared to report back at our next meeting,” are both examples of time-bound objectives.  

Creating clear goals and objectives, like everything else, is part of the learning process.  We will discuss how to evaluate your meetings and workshops later on, but I want to mention here that the goals and objectives you create can be directly inserted into your evaluation wording, enabling you to check on how well your group felt that the goals and objectives were met.  I often find myself surprised when participants rate one of the objectives as “not being met” on an evaluation, when I felt it was. Often, this is because my objective was more clear in my mind than it was on paper. Crafting well-worded, succinct, and SMART goals and objectives is a great skill to work on.  Have fun with it!