Goal Core · Tactical goals · Module
Initiatives
The named, finishable pieces of work a tactical goal resolves into. Each with a start, an end, and something that exists afterwards which did not before.
The idea
How it works
An initiative is bounded work. It starts, it ends, and something exists at the end that did not at the beginning. That boundary is what separates it from ongoing operations, which never finish and should not be tracked as though they might.
The most common error is naming an initiative after a desired state rather than a piece of work. “Improve customer satisfaction” cannot be completed; “rebuild the onboarding sequence” can.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Name the output, not the outcome
What will exist when this is done? If the answer is a feeling or a number, it is not yet an initiative.
- 02
Check it can be finished
Anything that would still be running in three years is operations, and belongs in a different list.
- 03
Size it against the quarter
Initiatives longer than two quarters should be split, or their milestones treated as the real unit.
- 04
Say what it depends on
The dependency is usually what determines when it can actually start.
One level in
The components of initiatives
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
An initiative list that only grows is a sign that nothing is being finished, or that operations have been mislabelled as initiatives.
The other modules in tactical goals
Cascade and catchball
Carrying a strategic goal down into commitments, and letting the answers come back up and change it. The upward half is the part most cascades leave out.
LearnOwnership
One named person accountable for each goal, distinct from the people doing the work and from those merely informed.
LearnResourcing
What the goal costs in money, people and attention, agreed before it is committed to. The test is whether the owner could describe the resource without checking.
Learn