Category 08 · 10 frameworks

Goal Setting & Execution

Methods for turning broad intentions into specific goals and tracking progress until they are done.

SMART Goals

George T. Doran; Management Review (1981) A checklist for writing goals that are Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-related; later versions often substitute Achievable and Relevant. 02

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

Andy Grove at Intel; popularised by John Doerr, book Measure What Matters (2018) A goal system pairing a qualitative Objective with a few measurable Key Results that show whether it has been achieved. 03

Management by Objectives (MBO)

Peter Drucker; book The Practice of Management (1954) A process where managers and team members agree objectives together, then track performance against them. 04

4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX)

Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling, FranklinCovey; book The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012) A system for delivering a key goal amid day-to-day work: focus on the wildly important, act on lead measures, keep a scoreboard and hold a cadence of accountability. 05

BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras; book Built to Last (1994) A long-term, ambitious and clearly defined goal that unites an organisation around a shared challenge. 06

Goal-Setting Theory

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham; book A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance (1990) A research-based theory showing that specific, challenging goals generally lead to higher performance than vague 'do your best' goals, given commitment and feedback. 07

Kanban

Originated in the Toyota Production System; adapted for knowledge work by David J. Anderson, book Kanban (2010) A visual method for managing work in progress by showing tasks on a board and limiting how many are in progress at once. 08

Scrum Sprint

Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland; described in The Scrum Guide A fixed time-box, usually one to four weeks, in which a team commits to a sprint goal and delivers a usable increment of work. 09

Balanced Scorecard

Robert Kaplan and David Norton; Harvard Business Review (1992) A performance framework that tracks goals across four perspectives, financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth, rather than finance alone. 10

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

Walter Shewhart; developed and popularised by W. Edwards Deming, who later preferred Plan-Do-Study-Act An iterative improvement cycle: plan a change, try it, check the results against expectations, then act on what you learned.

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