My Experience Applying The 12 Week Year

Most strategic plans don’t work.  Why?  Because there is too much time to achieve your goals.

I am halfway through my 12-week year and starting to see important momentum shifts.  Six weeks ago I tried something different.  Using the methodology laid out in the book The 12 Week Year by Brian P Moran and Michael Lennington, I adjusted my goals to a shorter time frame.  As the authors explain, 12-week goals help us to avoid the procrastination we all face when looking at how to achieve the annual business goals.  Most annual goals are set with the right intention.  The problem is there is no urgency, we still have 12 months to achieve these and it’s easy to prioritise other work ahead of the annual goal.

The 12-week year overcomes this problem.  With only 12 weeks to achieve your goal, there isn’t any time to waste.  If you ignore even a few weeks, you will be in serious doubt of reaching your goal.  You really have to do something every week.

Back to my story.  Six weeks ago I decided to give it a try.  I choose three goals which I know will make a significant difference if accomplished.

I then set three tactics for each goal.  Tactics are specific actions that you need to take each day/week to achieve your goal.  To attract a new client a tactic might be to explore 1 opportunity within your existing network or write a blog (like this).  There will likely be more than three tactics you can think, but it is important to focus on only those critical few tactics that will have the biggest impact.  That’s why I chose only three tactics per goal.

Finally, I setup a 12-week scorecard to measure how well I am implementing my 12-week plan.  This is the most important step.  I setup a spreadsheet with 12 weeks across the top of the page and the 9 tactics down the side.  Each Monday morning I score myself – if a tactic was done (1) or not (0).  The goal is to achieve 85% or better each week – that means I have to hit 8 out of 9 tactics for the week to achieve 85%.

The first three weeks I scored 66%, 66% and 77% – painfully short of the magic 85% target.  With only nine weeks to go, I began Week four by planning time for doing the tactics for that week.  I reviewed my commitments and blocked out time on my calendar.  It worked.  For the last three weeks I have scored 100%, 100% and 89%.

What difference has it made?  I feel amazing.  I am focused on the right things, I have better clarity over what should go in my calendar and what should not.  My work days are more focused and I’m not worried about how to achieve my goals.  I know that by doing the tactics each week, in 12 weeks my business and my life will be much better.  No need to wait a whole year for that.