Imagine rowing across the Atlantic ocean. Why would anyone want to do that, let along spend three years planning for it?

Adam Kreek is a Canadian Olympian, and in both the British Columbia and Ontario Sports Halls of Fame. His thirteen year rowing career included gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. He spent almost ten years teaching, using and coaching SMART before deciding to row, unsupported, across the Atlantic Ocean in 2013. He see adventure as a tool for self-development.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/magazine/what-happens-when-four-guys-try-to-cross-the-atlantic-in-a-rowboat

It was a world record attempt: 6,770 kilometers from mainland Africa (Senegal) to mainland North America (Miami). He and his three teammates almost made it. After 73 days at sea and ten days short of landfall, they capsized in the Bermuda Triangle. They were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Learning from his failures (sometimes the only way really), he published the bestselling The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen in 2019. During the three-year planning process for his Atlantic rowing expedition he became very familiar with the shortfalls of SMART.

CLEAR Goals

Kreek realized SMART doesn’t account for nor leverage the innate emotional and collaborative nature of big projects. It focuses instead on rational, logical planning. But humans are driven by emotion, relationships, and meaning.

He drew on research that shows emotional intelligence is a critical factor separating achievers from the rest. That people with average IQs regularly outperform those with high IQs in long-term performance. CLEAR hits the pillars of goal setting (values, visualization, deadlines, challenge) but emphasizes Emotional Intelligence and flexibility as a vital part of success.

• Collaborative — involves others, builds shared ownership
• Limited — in scope and time and avoids overreach
• Emotional — connects to intrinsic motivation (overlap with HARD’s Heartfelt)
• Appreciable — broken into smaller achievable steps
• Refinable — explicitly designed to evolve as circumstances change

Application

While SMART is good for individual short-term goal setting where clear ownership is important, and HARD is good for medium-term goals leveraging motivation and commitment, CLEAR emphasizes collaboration and flexibility:

CLEAR works best in:

• Team/Sport-based projects in fast-changing environments
• Agile or iterative work (product development, organizational change)
• Situations where buy-in and collaboration matter as much as the goal itself
• Goals that need to evolve as you learn more

CLEAR is less suited for:

• Deeply personal transformation goals (HARD owns that space)
• Situations requiring a firm, unwavering commitment — ‘refinability’ can become an excuse to retreat

So far we have SMART, HARD and CLEAR frameworks. Which one should you use and when?

Framework:	SMART	HARD	CLEAR
Who	Personal	Personal/Team	Team
What	Stability	Motivation	Adaptability/Challenge
Where	Operations	Change	Dynamic
When	< 1 year	1 – 3 Years	Ongoing/Iterative
Why	Accountability	Motivation	Collaboration

What I am reminded of, again, is that people are social animals with emotional interior lives. Any endeavour must consider motivation, collaboration, and connection to the wider world.

Combining the Frameworks

You can mix and match these depending on your needs and context:

• Use HARD to define what you’re reaching for and why it matters to you personally

https://practicalmanagers.com/2026/04/18/getting-hard-beyond-smart-goals/

• Use CLEAR to structure how a team pursues it collaboratively and adapts along the way
  
• All three (HARD + CLEAR + SMART) can stack: HARD sets the motivational north star, CLEAR governs team execution and adaptation, SMART tracks measurable milestones

But before you do, you should also know about Objective Key Results (OKR) goal setting as well, popular in the C-Suite, which we’ll talk about in the next post.

Learn More

You can learn more about CLEAR by visiting Adam’s website or reading his book:

https://www.valuesdrivenachievement.com

Kreek, Adam. The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen, Page Two 2019.

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