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Rewriting a goal so a count settles it, and building a quarter around one number, weekly and monthly checkpoints, one weekly action, one weekly figure and review dates already in the schedule.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will tell a goal a count can settle from one only an opinion can, rewrite a vague goal by naming what you would count and by when, and build a ninety-day plan from one goal, a weekly action, one weekly figure and review dates. You will also break a quarterly goal into weekly counts and monthly checkpoints, and work out the catch-up rate at a mid-quarter review.
You can read a month's figures, run a monthly review, and you have chosen who the business is for and what it will not do. This lesson turns that into ninety days of work with a number on it: one goal a Friday can settle, the weekly action that moves it, the weekly figure that shows it moved, and checkpoints that tell you in month one, not month three, whether the plan is working.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Measurable goal | A goal a count settles rather than an opinion: a number and a date. |
| Weekly action | The thing done every week that is expected to move the goal. |
| Leading figure | Something you do, such as calls made or leaflets delivered. |
| Lagging figure | The result that follows, such as boxes sold or names on the list. |
| Checkpoint | Where the count should be at each review if the plan is on course. |
| Catch-up rate | What is left of the goal divided by the weeks left. |
Get busier is a feeling. Sell ninety lunch boxes a day by the end of March is a thing the closing count answers.
The test is one question, asked on a Friday afternoon: what would I count, and by when? With nothing to count the goal is an intention; with no date it stays permanently almost-met.
A ninety-day plan is five lines: one goal with a number and a date; the weekly action that moves it; one figure measured each week; the review dates; and what you are not doing this quarter.
It is written before the quarter starts: a plan written in week ten is a description of what happened.
One goal, not three. Three goals compete for the same Tuesday, and urgency wins.
Another way: steps
Rewriting any goal so a week can settle it:
Another way: table
Four goals, rewritten so a week can settle them.
| As first said | Rewritten |
|---|---|
| Get busier | 90 lunch boxes a day by the end of March |
| Become better known | 40 on the repeat list by the quarter's end |
| Waste less food | under 10 boxes binned a week by month end |
| Improve quality | one complaint in fifty cleans this quarter |
Nothing was made less ambitious, only answerable.
Choose the one thing from the review. The monthly review points at the number that most needs to move; the strategy says which customers and which work the business is for. The quarter's goal is where those meet.
Write the number and the date. From today's figure, which the records already hold, to a figure at the end of the quarter. Check it against capacity: a goal the week cannot hold is a goal that will be missed on arithmetic alone.
Break it into weeks and months. A quarterly figure divided by twelve gives the week's; the gap divided by three gives each month's checkpoint. These are the numbers that will be read on Fridays and at each review.
Name the weekly action. The leading figure the owner controls: two office visits every Tuesday, a message to past buyers each Monday, one hour of bench time protected for same-day repairs. The action is what the schedule holds; the goal is what the action is expected to produce.
Book the reviews and name what is not being done. The dates go in the schedule before the quarter starts, and the refusal from the strategy statement is written at the bottom of the plan where it will be read.
Check the plan with three questions. Could two people disagree about whether the goal was met? Does every monthly checkpoint add up to the goal? Is there a date in the schedule for each review? A plan that passes all three can be wrong, which is exactly what makes it useful.
Neighborhood Kitchen, last day of December.
| Line | What it says |
|---|---|
| The goal | 90 lunch boxes a day by the end of March, from 68 now |
| The weekly action | call on two new offices each Tuesday |
| The weekly figure | boxes sold, written down each evening |
| Review dates | 31 January, 28 February, 31 March |
| Not this quarter | the evening menu |
Every line can be wrong, which is the point: on 31 January the count is either above 68 or it is not. The last line is the refusal from the strategy statement, repeated where it will be read.
How to set a goal and review it is teachable; which goal to choose is the learner's. This is how to work the number out and read it, not a recommendation about what to charge. What any particular business should do depends on a market nobody here can see, and on rules that differ from place to place.
Each review compares the count with the checkpoint, and the comparison points at one of three responses.
On or ahead of the checkpoint. Keep the weekly action as it is. Resist the temptation to add a second goal; the quarter's hours are already spoken for, and a second goal is how a working plan stops working.
Behind, with the weekly action being done. The action is not moving the figure as expected. Change the action, not the goal: a different day for the office visits, a different offer in the message, a different channel. Work out the catch-up rate — what is left over the weeks left — and check it is still within capacity.
Behind, with the weekly action not being done. The plan has not been tried. The question is why: too little time protected in the schedule, or an action that sounded good in December and does not fit a real week. Fix that first, before judging the goal.
At the end of the quarter, write three lines: the goal, the result, and what was learned about the weekly action. Those three lines are the starting point for the next quarter's plan, and a year of them is the business's own record of what works — which is worth more than any general advice, because it was counted in this business, with these customers, by this owner.
The weekly action is where most plans quietly fail, because it is chosen for how it sounds rather than for how it connects to the goal. Three tests help.
Is it within the owner's control? Get more customers is a result; call on two new offices each Tuesday is an action. An action is something that can be done or not done, and checked off on the day.
Is there a reason to think it moves the goal? The earlier lessons give the evidence: the buying rate from a better ask, the return share from keeping in touch, the capacity freed by cutting travel. An action backed by one of those counts is a reasonable bet; one backed by nothing is a hope.
Does it fit a real week? Put it in the schedule at a fixed time and check the week still holds the paid work. An action that needs hours the week does not have will be the first thing dropped when the week gets busy.
Pair the action with a leading figure that shows it was done — calls made, messages sent — alongside the lagging figure the goal is about. When the goal falls behind, the two together say which of the review's three answers applies: the action was done and is not working, or the action was not done at all.
A hairdresser who has rented a chair for a year decides her first real quarterly plan should be about rebooking: clients who book their next appointment before they leave. From her schedule, 38 percent of clients rebook at the chair now, and those who do return about every six weeks; those who do not return, on average, after ten.
Her goal: 60 percent of clients rebooked at the chair by the end of the quarter. The weekly action: offer the next appointment, with two specific times, before taking payment — every client, every time. The weekly figure: rebookings divided by clients seen, written on a card each Saturday. The reviews: the last Saturday of each month. Not this quarter: the product range she had been meaning to start.
Her checkpoints are 45, 52 and 60 percent. At the first review she is at 47; at the second, 55; the quarter ends at 58. She has missed the goal by two points and learned the most useful thing a plan can teach: offering two specific times works far better than asking when would you like to come back?, which she has now tested for twelve weeks. With about 110 clients a month, the twenty-point rise means roughly 22 more rebooked clients a month, each coming back about four weeks sooner — which, at her prices, is worth more than the product range would have been.
Many organizations set quarterly objectives and key results: an objective in words and two or three measurable results with dates, reviewed during and at the end of the quarter. The method is this lesson's at a larger scale, and the common failure is the same one: too many objectives, and key results nobody can count.
A goal with a number in it is measurable. Get the repeat list to forty has a number and no date, so it is never due and never late.
More goals means more progress. Three goals in a quarter is no goal: they compete for the same hours and urgency wins.
The weekly figure should be the goal itself. Often not: boxes sold is the result, the Tuesday calls are what you control.
A quarterly total is a working number. Nobody can work to it on a Tuesday; divide it into weeks.
The review can be booked when the time comes. A review not in the schedule in December happens in April.
A missed goal means the plan failed. One counted every week told you in February, which is what the count is for.
Write the intention.
$\text{waste less food}$
Nothing counts that, so nothing settles it.
Name the count.
$\text{boxes thrown away at closing}$
The count usually exists already.
Read today's figure.
$22 \text{ a week}$
The starting point, from the records.
Put a number and a date on the goal.
$\text{under } 10 \text{ a week by the end of next month}$
A number, and a date.
Name the action and the figure.
$\text{bake to last Tuesday's count}; \ \text{boxes binned each week}$
One action, one figure.
Write the goal.
$68 \to 90 \text{ boxes a day by the end of March}$
From the records, to a date.
Find the gap.
$90 - 68 = 22$
How far the quarter must move the count.
Share it over three months, rounding sensibly.
$22 \div 3 \approx 7.3 \Rightarrow 75, \ 83, \ 90$
Monthly checkpoints.
Check the goal against capacity: the counter holds 80 boxes in the rush.
$90 > 80$
The goal needs the counter's ceiling moved first.
Add the capacity step to the plan.
$\text{pre-packed boxes by February; ceiling } 120$
Otherwise March fails on arithmetic alone.
Book the reviews.
$31 \text{ Jan}, \ 28 \text{ Feb}, \ 31 \text{ Mar}$
In the schedule before the quarter starts.
Write Northside's goal for the twelve weeks.
$156 \text{ repairs} = 13 \text{ a week}$
The quarterly goal, broken into a weekly count.
Read the weekly figure for the first six weeks.
$11 + 10 + 12 + 11 + 12 + 10 = 66$
Flat, and known to be flat.
Compare with the checkpoint for week six.
$6 \times 13 = 78; \quad 78 - 66 = 12$
Twelve repairs behind.
Check whether the weekly action was done.
$\text{leaflets delivered every week: yes}$
The action was tried and is not moving the figure.
Change the action, not the goal.
$\text{leaflets} \to \text{a same-day promise on the shop sign}$
A different lever for the same number.
Find the catch-up rate for the last six weeks.
$(156 - 66) \div 6 = 15$
Two a week above the plan, which the bench can hold.
Write down what changed and when.
$\text{week 6: sign changed; review week 9}$
A review is a comparison; the record makes the next one possible.
Name the count.
$\text{customers on the repeat list}$
A thing, not a feeling.
It stands at 24. Put a number and a date on it.
$40 \text{ by the end of the quarter}$
A number and a date.
Find the monthly checkpoints.
Four goals as owners first said them, and four rewrites. Match each goal to the rewrite that says the same thing in a form a week can settle.
| Sell 90 lunch boxes a day by the end of March | Have 40 customers on the repeat list by the end of the quarter | Throw away fewer than 10 boxes a week by the end of next month | Have no more than one complaint in fifty cleans this quarter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Get busier | ||||
| Become better known in the neighborhood | ||||
| Waste less food | ||||
| Improve quality |
Complete the worked solution: a kitchen sells $79$ lunch boxes a day now and sets a goal of $94$ a day by the end of the quarter. Set a checkpoint for the end of each month.
Find the gap to the goal.
$94 - 79 =$ d
How far the quarter has to move the count.
Share it over the three months.
$(\text{gap}) \div 3 =$ m
The step each month should add.
Find the first month's checkpoint.
$79 + (\text{step}) =$ a
Where the count should be at the first review.
Find the second month's checkpoint.
$79 + 2 \times (\text{step}) =$ b
Where it should be at the second review.
Check the third reaches the goal.
$79 + 3 \times (\text{step}) = 94$
The checkpoints land on the goal at the quarter's end.
A bicycle courier is planning her quarter. She wants the twelve weeks of it to clear $1728$ dollars toward a new bike, and each delivery she takes contributes $6$ dollars toward that. How many deliveries a week does the plan need?
Answer:
Put the five steps of building a ninety-day plan into the order they have to be done in.
Number the steps in order (write the number in the box):
Northside Repairs set a goal of $168$ repairs this quarter — $14$ a week over twelve weeks. At the week-six review, the weekly figure shows $72$ repairs done so far. How many repairs a week does it need over the last six weeks to reach the goal?
Answer:
Maya has $26$ customers on her repeat list and a goal of $41$ by the end of the quarter. If the list is to grow evenly, how many names should she be adding each month?
Answer:
A dog walker wants the next twelve weeks to contribute $840$ dollars toward a van. Each walk contributes $10$ dollars. How many walks a week does her plan need?
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Contribution needed each week, dollars | |
| Walks needed each week |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Six goals, as six owners first said them. For each one, say whether a Friday afternoon could settle it — whether there is something to count, and a date to count it by.
| Can a Friday settle this? | |
|---|---|
| Get busier | |
| Become better known in the neighborhood | |
| Get the gross margin to 45 percent by June | |
| Waste less food | |
| Hold at least 800 dollars in the account at every month end | |
| Improve quality |
You can turn an intention into a goal with a number and a date on it, break it into weeks and checkpoints, and lay out a quarter that can be reviewed rather than described. Tell someone why a goal with a number but no date is never late. That is the course. You can cost a unit and the owner's own hours in it, price it, find break-even and a daily target, compare two options on the figures, describe a customer and build an offer, keep the business's money apart from your own and record it, read a month and forecast the cash, explain value and choose a channel, run the work reliably and hold the right amount of stock, choose who the business is for and what it will not do, and plan the next ninety days.
15. Your turn: 'become better known in the neighborhood', step 3
$(40 - 24) \div 3 \approx 5.3 \Rightarrow 29, \ 35, \ 40$
What each review should show.