Stop Checkbox Planning. Start Setting Strategic Goals.
Hey, it's almost Q4.
You’re about to set the goals that will carry you through the end of the year and set you up for success in 2026.
Out of curiosity, will your big goals for next quarter look very different from the big goals you're working on now?
Many of us, myself included, have long been trained to believe that the answer to this question is and should be yes.
I fix the problems in my company, check the boxes, and move on to the next set of priorities.
There's certainly some value in that approach. Ideally, problem-solving is a one-and-done kind of thing: you fix something in a particular quarter and hopefully never have to deal with that issue again. (Instead, you get to deal with bigger, better, more complex issues as you grow.)
But the problem with this way of thinking is that it ultimately turns your strategic planning into a glorified, organizational-level to-do list.
When you focus too much on accomplishing goals in a 90-day period, your mindset shifts into only setting goals that could be achieved in 90-days.
But that’s thinking too small. The goals that will really move the needle for your organization are likely NOT 90-day goals.
The goals that make the biggest impact might take you two to three years to achieve. They might even be ongoing goals that are ever-present inside your business.
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Thinking differently about your goals sounds simple in practice, but this mindset reframe is so important that I blew up the way I used to set goals and rebuilt with a completely different system.
Yes, I’m talking about OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).
If you aren't familiar with OKRs, we have tons of resources available for you: webinar recordings, blog posts and articles—and a team of consultants happy to talk your ear off about how OKRs can help you grow your business more quickly.
The beauty of OKRs is that you can set Objectives that are broad enough to encompass many specific tactics, and big enough to last over much longer time periods—multiple quarters or even multiple years.
For example: my commercial painting company has had an Objective around hiring more project managers for the last two years. We’ve tried many different tactics (Key Results) to reach that Objective—with varying success. But we believed that hiring project managers was a key lever for growth in our company, based on our business model, industry, and past experience. The goal mattered enough that we kept trying.
Two years later, our persistence is paying off. We’re seeing results, but if we had tossed out that Objective after a quarter, we never would have solved this problem.
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The biggest things you want to achieve really shouldn't change every 3 months.
Your major goals should be more enduring—and probably require more time and effort than your team can possibly put in over 90 days.
A quarter goes by in the blink of an eye. (It’s practically Christmas already, isn’t it?)
So as you wrap up your strategic planning for 2025, I challenge you to think bigger. What goals are so large that they could transform your organization one year from now if you achieve them? What about two years from now? Three?
No better time to start on those goals than now.
Need help identifying the “move the needle” priorities for your business? Connect with our team—sooner than later—so you can build momentum leading into 2026.
