Imagine...Your Strategy Didn't Change Every Quarter

You know the feeling.

It's three months into the year, and someone walks into the leadership meeting with "a new direction." Maybe it came from a board meeting. Maybe it was triggered by a lost deal. Maybe last quarter's numbers didn't look the way you hoped.

Whatever the reason, here comes another strategic pivot.

Your team tries to hide the eye rolls. They've seen this before. They were just starting to gain traction on the last strategy when everything shifted. Now they're being asked to drop what they're doing and chase something new.

This isn't strategic leadership. It's strategic whiplash.

And it's quietly killing your company's momentum.

Why Strategies Keep Changing

Most CEOs don't want to change strategy every quarter. They're not trying to confuse their teams or waste time and money. But they find themselves trapped in a cycle that feels impossible to escape.

Here's what's really happening:

You're calling tactics "strategy." When your plan changes every few months, you're likely not looking at strategy at all. You're watching tactics shift. Real strategy doesn't change that often. But without a stable strategic core, your tactics have nothing to anchor them, so they drift wherever the latest urgency takes you.

You're reacting to what I call recency bias. That big deal you just lost? That competitor's new product? That piece of feedback from a frustrated customer? These things matter. But they can't dictate your entire direction. When you let the most recent event rewrite your strategy, you're being reactive, not strategic.

You haven't given anything time to work. Strategic shifts take months, sometimes years, to show results. If you pivot every quarter, you never know if the problem was the strategy itself or simply that you didn't execute long enough to see it through.

There's an elephant in the room. Sometimes the real issue isn't the strategy. It's something underneath you're not willing to address. Market size smaller than you hoped? Talent gaps you haven't filled? Product limitations you're avoiding? Instead of facing these hard truths head-on, it's easier to keep shuffling strategies and hoping the problem will disappear.

The cost? Your team stops taking strategy seriously. They wait for the next shift. They hedge their bets. They don't fully commit because they know things will probably change again soon.

The 3HAG: Your 3-Year Highly Achievable Goal

In Metronomics, we use something called a 3HAG – a 3-Year Highly Achievable Goal.

It's not a rigid plan you set once and never touch. That would be unrealistic.

It's a rolling strategic framework that extends three years out and continuously refines as you learn.

Here's how it works:

Right now, you're planning 2025, 2026, and 2027. Next year, 2025 rolls off, and you're planning 2026, 2027, and 2028. The plan is always looking three years ahead, adjusting as you go. But the foundation stays steady.

Think of it as "Gut it out. Validate it. Refine it."

You're not locked in. You're not ignoring market changes or new information. You're simply committing to strategic discipline instead of strategic panic.

Why Three Years?

One year is too short. You spend the entire year reacting to immediate pressures without building anything lasting.

Five or ten years is too far. It's your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), your aspirational North Star. But it's too distant to drive daily decisions.

Three years is the sweet spot. It's far enough out to require strategic thinking. Close enough in to feel urgent and achievable. And it's the bridge that connects your BHAG to your annual and quarterly execution.

The 3HAG takes your complex strategy and makes it clear and simple. Makes it memorable so everyone can remember it. Makes it actionable so everyone can execute against it.

What Holds a 3HAG Together

A 3HAG isn't just a number on a page. It's a complete strategic picture built on these components:

1. Where You'll Be in Three Years

Not vague aspirations. Specific, measurable outcomes. Revenue targets, market position, key capabilities in place, what you'll be known for.

2. The Market Map (External Market Analysis)

A clear picture of the market you play in. Who are your competitors? What's changing in your industry? Where's the white space you can own?

3. The Key Process Flow Map (Internal Operations)

How does value flow through your company? From lead generation all the way to cash in the bank. Where are the bottlenecks? What needs to be optimized?

4. Your Core Customer

Exactly who you serve. Not "everyone" or "small businesses." A clear, specific ideal customer profile you can describe in detail.

5. Your Differentiating Activities

The specific things you do differently that create competitive advantage. Not just what you offer, but how you deliver it in a way competitors can't easily copy.

6. Your 36-Month Rolling Forecast

Not a static budget. A living, breathing forecast that connects revenue projections to capacity, hiring, and cash flow. Updated monthly. Always looking three years ahead.

7. Your Swimlanes

Clear accountability for who owns what over the three-year horizon. Each function knows their role in achieving the 3HAG. No confusion. No overlaps. No gaps.

These components work together. They create a strategic framework your entire leadership team can understand, communicate, and execute against.

What Changes When You Commit to a 3HAG

When you adopt a 3HAG and stick with it, something shifts inside your organization.

Your team starts believing the plan. They stop hedging. They commit fully because they know this isn't just the "strategy of the quarter." They see the through-line. They understand where you're going and why.

You stop mistaking motion for progress. Constant strategic pivots feel productive. You're doing something. But a 3HAG forces you to measure actual progress over time. You see patterns. You learn what's working and what's not. You make adjustments based on data, not panic.

Execution improves dramatically. When your quarterly priorities connect to your annual goals, and your annual goals connect to your 3HAG, and your 3HAG connects to your BHAG, everyone knows what to prioritize. There's less confusion, less wasted effort, and more momentum building in the same direction.

You deal with the real issues. A stable strategic framework exposes the elephants in the room. When you can't just pivot to a new strategy every quarter, you're forced to address the actual problems. Talent gaps. Market positioning. Product limitations. Cash flow challenges. You stop avoiding them and start solving them.

Your confidence grows. There's something powerful about watching a three-year plan unfold. You see progress quarter after quarter. You validate your assumptions. You course-correct when needed. But you stay the course. And that builds confidence in your team, your investors, and yourself.

Make a Plan. Work the Plan. Refine the Plan.

That's the rhythm.

Not "make a plan, panic, scrap the plan, make a new plan."

Not "set it and forget it."

Make a plan. Work the plan. Refine the plan.

Your 3HAG becomes the foundation of your entire execution system. It drives your annual planning. Your quarterly priorities. Your monthly metrics. Your weekly team meetings.

Everything connects back to the same three-year picture.

And because it's rolling, you're constantly looking ahead. Always refining. Always adjusting. But never losing sight of where you're headed.

What if your strategy didn't change every quarter?

What if your team actually believed the plan and committed fully to executing it?

What if you measured progress over years, not just months, and built something that actually lasts?

That's what a 3HAG does. It takes your complex strategy and makes it clear, simple, and executable. It connects your big vision to your daily actions. And it gives you the strategic discipline to stop chasing the next shiny object and start building something real.

Your business deserves better than strategic whiplash.

It's time to gut it out, validate it, and commit.