How to write goals

I've just read the Adonis book, 'Education Education Education'.  The last chapter is all about how to be a reformer.  He argues that change-leaders need to be very clear as to what they want to achieve and need to go for the big play, rather than minor tweaking.  Too often I see school development plans which seem to miss the big goals and get bogged down in minor incremental improvements.  I think school governing bodies can do better - after all, school development is what they are all about. 

Imagine you are at the start of  a sort of 400 metre race.  You're setting your goals.  The track is the route to your success as an organisation.  But you're going to build the race and the track yourself. You're going to describe what the finishing line looks like, as well as what the landscape looks like after 100 metres, 200 metres etc.  When you set the goals, describe as clearly and simply what the finishing line looks like. This will give you your success criteria.  For example,

Goal 1: Our staff retention rate will have reached 90%. 
Success Criteria: At the end of the 2013 academic year, we have 90% of staff planning to continue their employment with us

Goal 2: GCSE A*-C (inc English and Maths) attainment rate will be at 90%
Success Criteria: January's mock exam and early entry results demonstrate we are on course for summer achievement at 90%. Summer exams see 90% of students attaining 5A*-Cs, including English and Maths

They are crystal clear, with no room for ambiguity.

Too many school goals, targets, objectives are simply to-do lists, which lead to incrementalism.  e.g We will improve our attendance rates; we will increase our after-school activities;  we will introduce a new maths scheme in year 5; we will work more closely with the PTA etc

Bolder leadership necessitates creating a clear description of what you want to have achieved by X date.  You have to think hard to work out
a) what you think would be great to achieve
b) what you believe you CAN actually achieve

A and B need to be well balanced.  All A with no B is just a dream, while all B with no A leads to plodding. 

The task of leadership is to describe a future situation which is much much better than today's, and do so in great detail.  The leaders then need to gather around them people who believe they can reach that future situation.  Leaders keep describing the future landscape - the finishing line.  They keep people believing that it can be reached. 

Be bold.