Year and quarter: which is which · From Zero to Goals, lesson 9 of 17
Year and quarter: which is which
Sort what belongs to the year, what belongs to the quarter, and what is not a goal at all.
Year and quarter: which is which
Annual planning is not four quarterly plans stapled together, and a quarter is not a small year. Different altitudes carry different kinds of sentences, and putting one at the wrong height is how a company ends up “executing” its vision as a to-do and re-planning its values every January.
Brightside’s January list mixes four altitudes in five lines. Sorting it takes ten minutes and settles arguments for a year.
Five lines from Dana’s January notebook
1 · “Reach $1M annual revenue.”
2 · “Qualified leads from 4 to 10 per month.”
3 · “Become the go-to agency for B2B SaaS founders in the region.”
4 · “Hire a second delivery lead.”
5 · “Zero client churn.”
Dana wants to know: which of these is the YEAR goal?
Which line belongs at the year altitude?
One line left: zero churn
The notebook is nearly sorted: $1M is the year goal · leads 4→10 is the quarter’s slice · “go-to agency” goes back up to the vision floor · the hire gets filed under the goal that needs it.
One line is still homeless: “Zero client churn.” It is checkable, it clearly matters, Sam already watches it weekly, and it fits none of the boxes used so far. Dana taps the pen: “so… year goal? quarter goal?”
Where does zero churn live?
Four altitudes, four kinds of sentence
The annual session sets the year sentence and the standards; the quarterly session cuts the slice. Neither should redo the other’s work, and that separation is the only reason either meeting can be short.
Sort your own list into the four boxes
Take everything currently called a “goal” at your company and sort it: vision / year / quarter / standing standard. Anything that fits no box is probably a task: file it under a goal, not next to one.
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More on altitudes
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.
- Annual planning: setting company goals for next year ↗The year sentence, and why the annual session and the quarterly one must not redo each other.8 min read
- OKR vs KPI: goals against standing standards ↗The same distinction you just drew between goals and standards, under the names most companies use for it.6 min read