The cascade in practice · From Zero to Goals, lesson 6 of 17
The cascade in practice
Break a company goal into area goals without producing tasks in disguise.
The cascade in practice
A company goal alone changes nothing. “From 3 to 8 retainers”, itself the year’s first slice of the 3 → 30 road from lesson 1.3, has to become somebody’s Monday morning. The cascade is how that happens: each area answers “what will WE change that causes the level above”.
It is also where good goals go to die. Two rots live in cascades: the echo goal (an area restating the company goal and calling it alignment) and the task in disguise, which you already know from lesson 1.1. Brightside is about to step into both.
One company goal, four candidates below it
Company goal for Q2: “Grow from 3 to 8 retainer clients by June.” Two areas sit under it: Delivery (Sam) and Growth (Priya).
For Priya’s Growth board, four candidate goals are on the table:
1 · “Qualified inbound leads from 4 to 10 per month”: the goal she built in module 1.
2 · “Launch the new website by May.”
3 · “Support the company goal of reaching 8 retainers.”
4 · “Proposal win rate from 20% to 30%.”
What should actually stand on Growth’s board?
Sam’s side of the ladder
Growth’s board is set. Now Delivery. Sam’s area doesn’t sell, so what does “cause the company goal” even mean for him? His four candidates:
1 · “Support the 8-retainer goal with great delivery.”
2 · “Cut delivery hours per retainer from 120 to 90 by June, without touching the QA checklist.”
3 · “Migrate all six current clients to the new reporting tool by May.”
4 · “Zero churn through Q2.”
What is Delivery’s real cascade goal?
A cascade you can do arithmetic on
Each level answers one question: what will WE change that causes the level above. The test is arithmetic, not vibes (leads × win rate ≈ new retainers). If every child can score 100% while the parent fails, the cascade is decoration.
And the two rots, named: an echo goal restates the parent (kill it), a task in disguise names work instead of change (demote it to a step under a real goal; it will be happier there).
Build Brightside’s ladder from the parts on the table
Empty. What will this area change that causes the goal above?
Empty. What will this area change that causes the goal above?
- Qualified inbound leads from 4 to 10 per month
- Proposal win rate from 20% to 30%
- Delivery hours per retainer from 120 to 90 by June, without touching the QA checklist
- Help the company reach eight retainers
- Ship the new website by May
- Grow the newsletter to 500 subscribers
- Delivery and Growth together improve client onboarding
- Send more proposals than last quarter
Three goals, and neither area can be left empty. 0 placed so far.
Qualified inbound leads from 4 to 10 per month: Growth's own change, and half of the arithmetic: ten leads a month at a better win rate is what MAKES eight retainers.
Proposal win rate from 20% to 30%: The other half. Leads times win rate lands the five new clients with room for slippage, which is why both sit on Growth's board rather than one.
Delivery hours per retainer from 120 to 90 by June, without touching the QA checklist: Delivery causing the company goal without selling anything: at 120 hours eight clients need two hires nobody can make by June, at 90 the current team can serve them. The guard-rail keeps it from becoming a corner-cutting goal.
Help the company reach eight retainers: The echo goal. It restates the parent, so it hands the area no decision it did not already have, and it can never be missed, which means it can never be checked.
Ship the new website by May: A task in disguise. It might serve the lead goal, so it belongs UNDER it as a step, where launching it gets a test: did the number move? On the board it gets achieved even if leads stay at four.
Grow the newsletter to 500 subscribers: A vanity metric here. It has a number and a direction, which is exactly why it fools people: nothing connects 500 subscribers to a retainer, so it can be hit in full while the company goal fails.
Delivery and Growth together improve client onboarding: Two owners, so no owner. On the week it gets hard, each area can truthfully say the other one was moving. Split it, or give it one name.
Send more proposals than last quarter: No baseline and no target, so it is already achieved by one extra proposal. This is the failure from lesson 1.1 wearing a cascade costume.
Draw your ladder and check its arithmetic
Write your company goal, then your area’s one causal goal under it. Now the test: if the child hits 100%, does the parent’s number actually move? Write the arithmetic in one line. If you can’t, one of the two goals is wrong.
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More on cascading goals
All optional, and none of it is needed for the certificate. Each opens in a new tab, so your place in the lesson is kept.
- How to align team goals with company goals ↗Alignment written out slowly, with the arithmetic in the middle rather than the slogan.6 min read
- How to write OKRs ↗Objectives and key results in practice, once the cascade has told you what needs writing.5 min read
- OKR examples ↗Finished examples, if you want to see the shape before producing your own.3 min read