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The language of goals, objectives and strategies

If it is your task to draft a strategic plan, you will be faced with the interminable problem of writing goals, objectives and strategies. Everyone who has ever had any experience in writing a strategic plan will have struggled with the language needed to make sure that goals sound like goals, objectives sound like objectives and strategies, well, so that they don't get confused with goals and objectives. It's a nightmare!

Here is some advice that may help!

One approach you can take is to focus on the VERB in the sentence. Here are some examples. Are the following sentences a goal, an objective or strategy?

The following table may help:

Goals Objectives Strategies
Achieve
Attain
Reach
Establish
Increase
Decrease
Reduce
Improve
Conduct
Provide
Produce
Recruit
Develop
Install
Create
Foster
Maintain
Promote
Administer
Erect
Host

It is a bit of a cheat, but building and using a table of verbs such as above can really reduce the amount of confusion. In the strategies column, all the verbs convey that something is actively getting done. In the objectives column, the verbs indicate that something is changing and in the goals column, the verbs indicate that there is an end result to all this doing and changing.

Here's another explanation of the difference between goals, objectives and strategies:

  Definition

Goal

A goal is where you want to be, a destination

e.g. My goal is to become a millionaire

Objective

An objective is the direction you have to take to get to your destination

e.g. My objective is to increase my wealth

Strategy

A strategy is what you have to do to get there

e.g. One strategy I will employ is to undertake education to give me the skills I need to become wealthy

Good luck with your writing of a strategic plan! Email me if you have other suggestions on how to distinguish between goals, objectives and strategies.

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