Business Blog: Annual Planning SUCKS! (do this instead)

Ryan here…

Tomorrow is December 1st, which means leadership teams everywhere are about to repeat the same mistake they made last year…

…building an annual plan they'll abandon by February.

So today, I'm breaking down the simple quarterly sprint planning system we use inside our $200M portfolio that creates clarity, forces focus, and works in the real world where things change fast.

Keep reading and you'll learn:

Why annual plans fall apart (and the planning rhythm that actually works)
The 3 metrics your team should obsess over next quarter
How to pick the 5 projects that will actually move the business
The "T-Shirt Test" that guarantees your goals are hit
How to build a full quarterly plan in under 90 minutes

Let's get into it…

P.S. I'm looking for 8 business owners who want to work 1-on-1 with my team and me to install a custom "operating system" before the end of 2025 so your business can scale and so you can exit the day-to-day. Click here for the details.

Quick Hits

Here's some other content from the Scalable network, plus some other cool stuff I liked and thought you might like, too:

🧰 Tool of the Week: This goal-setting template calculates the exact revenue and profit you need to hit your stated growth targets each quarter.
✅ This is the simple delegation system I use to "run" 17 companies…while only focusing on my "genius work" (YouTube)
🪦 125 years of marketing just died…here's what's replacing it. (Business Lunch Podcast)
🤝 Billionaires don't hang out with "brokies" (but this networking advice still works).
🙈 I'm blind-ranking my favorite leadership books…did your favorite make the list?

The 3-5-1 Quarterly Sprint Planning Method™

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Every December, CEOs and their teams disappear into marathon annual planning sessions armed with big goals, big spreadsheets, and even bigger "this-year-will-be-different" optimism.

But here's the truth…

Annual planning sucks.

Most annual plans are just entrepreneurial New Year's Resolutions…

…unclear, overly optimistic, and abandoned by February 15th.

That's why our companies don't do annual planning. Instead, we plan and execute in 90-day cycles using a system we call the 3–5-1 Sprint Method™.

Here's how it works…

Actual pic from one of our Quarterly Sprint Planning sessions.

Step 1: Select Three (3) North Star Metrics

Start your Quarterly Sprint Planning by reviewing your Company Scorecard, 12Q Planning Canvas, and financials from the last quarter and ask:

"If we could only improve three numbers in the next 90 days, which three would create the biggest win?"

Choose metrics that are:

Yellow or red (and need to turn green)
Leading indicators tied to revenue, profit, or customer success
New metrics that were added because of a major project/initiative such as an event or product launch

Three is ideal…five is the absolute max.

Any more than that and you're diluting focus.

Your North Star Metrics define what "winning the quarter" actually means.

Step 2: Greenlight Five (5) Key Initiatives

Now that you know which metrics matter most, it's time to brainstorm and approve the 5 – 7 Key Initiatives that, if completed, will transform those metrics from "red" to "green."

Each initiative should:

Be high impact and high confidence (meaning you know it will improve the metric, and you know you can pull it off)
Require extra effort beyond normal job duties (if this were already someone's job, it would be done by now)
Have a clear owner, clear timeline, and clear deliverables

Keep these in mind:

No individual or team should own more than 3 initiatives in any one quarter.
The company should rarely take on more than 7 initiatives in a quarter. (More than 10 means you're doing low-impact tasks…not true key initiatives.)
All parties must approve the timeline. (In other words, one team can't impose a timeline on another team.)

Remember, the goal isn't to list everything you could do…it's to prioritize the things you must do.

Step 3: Choose One (1) Rallying Cry

Once you've finalized the North Stars and Key Initiatives, wrap them into a single unifying phrase known as a Rallying Cry.

Your Rallying Cry encapsulates the quarter's primary goal or theme. It aligns the team, filters decisions, and keeps everyone focused when "shiny objects" inevitably appear.

Examples we've used:

"Stack the Cash" (when we were pushing for profitability)
"Expand the Brand" (when we were trying to expand the social following and email list for one of our brands), and…
"Bang the Gong" (when we were launching a new, high-end program and we wanted to drive as many sales units as possible for that offer)

The best rallying cries pass the T-Shirt Test, which asks, "Can this Rallying Cry fit on a shirt and still be understood from 20 feet away?"

(And for what it's worth, teams that print real t-shirts often get real results.)

⚡️ Action Step: Block a 90-minute 3–5–1 Sprint Meeting with your leadership team this week and determine your:

3 North Star Metrics
5 Key Initiatives
1 Rallying Cry

Then, repeat the same process next quarter.

Boom! No more annual plans needed, because you have the ability to reset every 90 days.

This one meeting will give your next 90 days more clarity, momentum, and accountability than any annual planning session ever could.

Give it a shot and let me know how it works.

Ryan Deiss
Co-Founder and CEO, The Scalable Company

P.S. I'm looking for 8 business owners who want to work 1-on-1 with my team and me to install a custom "operating system" (which includes the Quarterly Sprint Planning rhythm you just read about) so your business can scale and so you can exit the day-to-day. Click here to get the details.