Predicting. We all know this word and what it means, and is something we are doing everyday without ever really knowing it. Whether its telling someone what time you will arrive to pick them up, how your lunch might taste and make you feel, how many cups of coffee you will drink, what time you will actually get to sleep. These are little predictions we make to ourselves everyday.

In business, it seems no one ever wants to predict!  Most CEOs and leaders are comfortable setting a goal 10+ years away.  Why does no one want to predict where they will be in 3 years? Why is  the 3 year goal the least confident goal of all?  Some leadership teams will even set a goal 5 years away as a way to avoid setting a 3 year goal. But what is the real reason why?  The fear of being wrong!   When we predict something we have a chance of being wrong.  No one wants to be wrong – who does?  In order to be clear on where we want to be in 3 years time – we need to set a highly achievable goal for our company.   

As CEO coach, I see CEOs and leaders who don’t want to be wrong.   When I was a CEO of my first company – that last thing I wanted was to be wrong – especially with the amount of venture capital we raised. We have a fear of failure and letting investors down and when we “predict” there is a chance that we are wrong. There is a chance we could fail. We need to get over that fear of being wrong because that is what makes us better at predicting.  The more we predict the better we get at predicting.

The 3HAG  – 3 Year Highly Achievable Goal – is what I used with my companies and now use with all my clients to help this scary “predicting” monster. 3HAG connects execution and strategy in the Growth Framework . 3HAG is a strategic execution system.  It actually aligns strategy and execution to increase your probability of your 3HAG prediction.  We want you and your leadership team to be confident in where are driving the company.  

If you have a 10+ year goal – you know what direction you are heading.   If you have a 3HAG you know specifically where you need to drive as a stepping stone to get to your 10+ year goal(Your BHAG – as Jim Collins coined it._   Its know different that if you loaded your whole company on a bus  – the first question someone would ask is where are we going – BHAG – how long will it take?   And what route will we take to get there – 3HAG.  And where will our first stop be – 1HAG – 1 Year Highly Achievable Goal. Other questions will be:  Do we have enough gas or cash to fuel our journey.  (And when can we stop to go to the bathroom.) Your team wants to know the same thing about the journey your company is on. 

You need to keep them updated on progress, direction, metrics.  This is an ongoing story.  Once you set a BHAG, 3HAG and 1HAG – you are on a journey with your team – that a regular dialogue is vital.   

As a coach, if I can get that stepping stone in place (the 3HAG) with my clients – I know there will be clarity of where, what and how we will get there and this will increase the probability significantly of any team reaching their 3HAG and BHAG.   And this will create the FOCUS, FUN and FREEDOM all people, teams and leaders are looking for.  What is your 3HAG? Need some helping gutting it out and starting this journey to predictable sucess? Register for our ShannonSusko.com 3HAG workshops! This 2-part workshop, taking place in March and April, will leave you with confidence in rolling out your 3HAG with your team. Register today!