Refresher: Goals, Objectives Defined

In the ongoing circular conversation about communications, Joseph Thornley records Shel Holtz's comment to the Inside PR podcast about a presentation made by Wilma Matthews, of Arizone State University..

As described by Shel, Wilma Matthews summed up the difference between goals and objectives, strategies and tactics:

   
• Set a goal: the business outcome. What you want your communications to achieve.
   
• Establish strategies: The broad approaches you are going to take in order to achieve the goal.
   
• Define objectives for each strategy. Objectives are the measurable tasks that will be undertaken in order to realize the strategies.
   
• Develop tactics - the tools that will be used in order to achieve the objectives.

And to make the concepts even more understandable, she used the Alllies during World War II as an example:

   
• Goal: Win the war.
   
• Strategy: Surround Germany to choke off the resources that fueled its military force.
   
• Objective: Invade France. This is measurable. You’ll know if you’ve succeeded and to what degree.
   
• Tactics: What will you use to do this? e.g. ships, planes, soldiers, etc.

If you think this primer on terms is wasted effort, you've never been in a meeting where defining the terms takes more time and effort than formulating the plan.

Thanks Joseph.  Thanks Shel. Thanks Wilma!

Tags: strategy, planning, communications, business

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Comments

[Tim Hicks]

That's very clear and useful. One quibble: I think those last items are resources, not tactics. A tactic would be “land a large force of soldiers at Omaha Beach with naval artillery support."

[Eric Eggertson]

True. I suspect if Shel had been writing this, rather than calling in an audio comment, he would have been a bit more careful in his wording.

[Donna Papacosta]

Thanks for recapping this, Eric. While I listened to it on FIR the other day when out walking, I remember thinking: "Hmmm, I should write that down." You have saved me the trouble.