The Year Chain
Stop running Vision straight to action. Walk the chain backward through the obstacles and transformations first, so this quarter's goals dismantle what's actually in your way.
The Promise
Stop running Vision straight to action. Walk the chain backward through the obstacles and transformations first, so this quarter's goals dismantle what's actually in your way instead of just aiming at the destination.
How It Works
- Name the Vision specifically enough to test. One sentence, one number, one deadline. If you can't write it in twenty honest minutes, it isn't ready.
- List the Obstacles, then ask what their dissolution looks like. Three to five structural gaps, not tactical complaints. The condition that makes each obstacle stop applying is the Transformation.
- Derive your OKRs from the Transformation, not the Vision. If a Key Result doesn't trace back to a Transformation, it's maintenance dressed up as a priority.
In Practice
Vision without Obstacles is a wish. Obstacles without Transformation is complaint. Transformation without Action is theory. Action without Vision is busywork. Run all four links in the same planning session, because skipping any one collapses the chain. Do this and you end the year with structural capabilities built and operating, not just four quarters of green output that left the same gaps waiting next January.