7. Goal setting: Breaking it down so it’s achievable and realistic

The staff development exercise below has been provided to help you and your organisation set goals for enhancing service accessibility and responsiveness to fathers. It is reproduced from Fletcher (2004), with permission of the author.

The exercise focusses on achieving consensus on what your service would expect and like to see in developing father-inclusive services. It builds a greater commitment to father-inclusive practice and is a starting point for getting fathers involved in the service. It is suggested you follow the process below at a staff meeting. To assist you in this process a practical example of this exercise is illustrated in An example from the Early Childhood sector. Start by drawing four columns (Goals, Expect, Like and Love) on a whiteboard.

In the first column, brainstorm a list of activities where fathers are currently involved. Add other areas of possible involvement and underline areas that the group consider are a priority.
In the next columns, write the words EXPECT, LIKE and LOVE. This will describe the three levels of goals for father involvement over 12 months.
1. The first level is titled ‘Expect’. ‘Expect’ is defined as follows: Suppose you really try to involve fathers over the next year, what would you expect to see happen, given what you know about your service and the fathers? Gently insist that this first goal be numerical. How many fathers per month, per week or per year? Write up the group’s collective answers under the ‘Expect’ column.
2. The second level, ‘Like’ is introduced as: Suppose things went really well with fathers here, what would you like to see happen? Discuss and record these answers under the ‘Like’ column.
3. Instructions for the final level, ‘Love’ are: Suppose you had a magic wand, and this project went fantastically well, what would you love to see happening with fathers? Emphasise that the goal at this level could be qualitative and encourage participants to ‘think wild’ and to ‘go for it’.

To ensure the goals can produce effective change, it is important to make sure they are:

a. Specific

b. Measurable

c. Achievable

d. Realistic, explicit and agreed by all, and

e. Time limited.

Now consider how you can make these goals SMART in the conversation box below.

Conversation box 4

Write down 3-4 SMART goals for your project

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic, explicit and agreed by all
Timely

How can these goals be achieved and used in father-inclusive practice?

Tip: Look at the resources at the end of this guide for more ideas.

An example from the Early Childhood sector

Staff meetings were held in each of the project centres to set father involvement goals for that centre. These meetings were intended to build a commitment among the staff to the project, but the discussions were also a starting point for making ‘the problem’ the lack of father involvement in centre activities rather than ‘problem fathers’.

We commenced with the basic list of activities where fathers were already involved. Other areas of possible involvement were added and priority areas were identified. We then described three levels of goals for father involvement over a 12 month period.

The ‘Expect’ goals were frequently modest improvements on the existing pattern of involvement while those under the ‘Love’ heading pictured fathers as more competent, willing and able to take responsibility for their children’s wellbeing. Even though these ‘Love’ goals were offered with humour and asides that ‘pigs might fly’, they also suggested a view of fathers which made their involvement possible. This process tended to call up an alternative view of fathers’ motivations and abilities; it promoted an identification of ‘the problem’ as fathers’ lack of involvement, rather than ‘the problem’ being the nature of fathers.

The possibilities for action following from these viewpoints are distinctly different. If the problem is lack of involvement then the task is to get the fathers involved. However, if the problem is the nature of fathers, then the appropriate action is to wonder (or complain) about the causes of this unfortunate state of affairs.

Examples of Goals – EARLY CHILDHOOD SERVICES
Goals	Expect	Like	Love
Service A: Community Based Pre-school
More informal visits, fathers to ‘stay and play’	1 father per week	1 per week in each room	1 per day in each room
Sharing own skills.	4 fathers to respond	10 to volunteer 1 hour per year	Roster – 1 hour per year
Men on committee	1 dad to come to a meeting per month	2 per meeting	2 on executive committee
Service B: Community Based Long Day Care
Attend committee meetings	2 fathers	5 fathers	Group of fathers to be responsible
Playing with children	1 father a week	1 father a day	Roster of fathers
Settling in new children	Father attends in first month	Father attends orientation and on first day	Every father attends orientation, drop off and pick up
Handymen	A volunteer to ring	To also interact with children	Fathers volunteer to do jobs with children
Attend social events	10 fathers to attend	50 fathers to attend	All attend
Skill sharing	1 father in morning	1 father in morning and afternoon	A variety of skills and a roster
Service C: Privately Owned Pre-school
Sharing own skills	2 fathers one visit per term	1 father per week	1 father per day
Story reading	1 father per term with own child and others	3 fathers per term	Father to bring a book from home to read
Staying for playtime	2 fathers per week, for 5+ minutes	1 father per day, for 5+ minutes	Every father to stay for 5+ minutes
Fundraising / Social events	2 fathers involved per event	5 fathers per event	50/50 mums and dads per event to volunteer

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