Goal Core · Strategic goals · Module
Diagnosis
A plain statement of the challenge the goal exists to answer — what is in the way, and why it matters now. Written before the goal, not reverse-engineered after it.
The idea
How it works
A goal without a diagnosis cannot be evaluated. If nobody stated what problem it answers, there is no basis on which to say later that it was the wrong goal — only that it was missed.
A good diagnosis simplifies. It takes a situation with too many moving parts and names the one or two things that actually constrain everything else. That is a harder piece of work than listing what is difficult, and it is the part most often skipped in favour of stating the ambition twice.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Describe the situation without a solution in it
If the description already implies what to do, it is a proposal wearing a diagnosis.
- 02
Find the constraint, not the symptoms
Ask what would still be a problem if the obvious complaints were fixed.
- 03
Say why now
A constraint that has been there for a decade needs an explanation for why it is being addressed this year.
- 04
Write it in a paragraph
If it takes a deck, the diagnosis has not been reached yet.
One level in
The components of diagnosis
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
The evidence behind it
What is being relied on — data, observation, customer input — so the reasoning can be checked.
LearnRejected diagnoses
The other readings that were considered and set aside, with the reason. Valuable when the situation changes.
Learn
Rejected diagnoses are the most useful and least kept component here. When a strategy stops working, the discarded reading is often the right one.
The other modules in strategic goals
Strategic themes
The few coherent lines of effort the goals group into, so that separate goals reinforce one another instead of competing for the same people.
LearnTrade-offs
What is deliberately not being pursued, recorded alongside what is. The value of writing it down is that it is available later, when the excluded option returns looking attractive.
LearnHorizon and measures
When the goal is expected to land, and what would count as having landed. One primary measure per goal; a second usually means the first was not trusted.
Learn