The email finally arrived from HR. The appraisal process officially begins. This is that time of the year when an employee in a typical IT company will glorify his achievements of the past year and his/her manager will negate that by undermining the achievements. The atmosphere will be stuffed with everybody’s opinion on the probable hike and ‘Hey, what’s the percentage you are expecting?‘ becomes the temporary replacement of ‘How are you?‘ as an icebreaker. Some companies have removed performance rating process and some still hold on to it tightly like a scared kid. The process itself is a long one and if you have spent quite a while in this industry, you would already know that there is this particular term which is beaten to death every year: SMART goals.
SMART Goals are:
I stumbled upon this video from Brendon Burchard the other day. He presented this nice idea of DUMB goals. He claims SMART goals are limiting one’s performance while DUMB goals are the ones which could land people on moon. DUMB is an acronym for
Some people are in favour of this and some are sceptical. Some argue SMART goals are actually realistic and help get things done. Some say you should chuck SMART goals and embrace DUMB goals.
I support the third option. Chuck both and bury deep inside the core of the earth. Having no goal is the ultimate goal.
Here is the video of Brendon Burchard talking about DUMB goals. He is an excellent speaker, by the way. Check it out.
Pointless & Prosaic 
Nice article Sada..
Thanks Milind.
This whole post rings so true about how my experiences with appraisals processes work.
Great Article! Thomas Edison wrote: “I’ve not failed, I just found 10K ways that don’t work”. Foster this environment and you get genius!
Yeah! I personally don’t like the traditional appraisal processes and the much dreaded bell curve.
And there are few more bookish words as well that are used over and over and over again during this process. I don’t want to start a rage on those now 😀
What Edison said is true. But he did not work in an IT firm 😉
Thank you for stopping by and for the positive comment. Cheers!
Ah yes, my performance appraisal this year was bitter-sweet…”you’re doing amazing-far exceeding expectations. But you’re still new so the highest rating I can technically give you is ‘progressing’. Literally just got the email tonight that bonuses are being paid out at 124% this year. With a ‘progressing’ rate I can only get 50% this year… What. The. Hell… I love DUMB goals! Never heard that before but I think I like them better than SMART!
The verbal ratings, ratings on paper and the actual rewards are always deceiving, aren’t they? 🙂
Yes they really are. I just hate that being 7 mos into the company and the highest rating possible is progressing g because of that alone.
I look at a goal as a reciprocal matter in my experience as a teacher. Whatever goal I set for myself should be compatible with a similar mindset for those above me. Example : If I work for Donald Trump and he offends me because of his rude manner , that would negate the value of using D.U.M.B. in my own efforts.
True words! It appears as if the D.U.M.B goals are suited more for employers while SMART goals for employees.
That makes sense.
Haha, I love the flip! Whoot whoot for DUMBness!