A 3HAG — 3-Year Highly Achievable Goal — is a clear, visual three-year strategy that your whole leadership team can see and execute. It's the bridge between your long-term BHAG and this year's plan, and the spine every Metronomics quarter builds toward.
A 10-year BHAG inspires; a 3HAG commits. It's built from evidence — your market, your differentiators, your numbers — so the team believes it on day one.
Revenue and profit, yes — but also what you sell, who buys it, and how you win. The whole team can describe the same company three years out.
The 3HAG breaks into yearly goals, then Quarterly Priorities — a month-by-month bridge, walked on the Metronomics rhythm until the goal stops being a someday thing.
Your BHAG is the 10–30 year audacious destination. The 3HAG is the achievable three-year bridge to it — and the quarters are how you walk across.
Big, Hairy, Audacious. It inspires and points the direction — but it's too far away to plan against, and no one is accountable to it this quarter.
Highly Achievable — built from evidence, not hope. Close enough that your team believes it, specific enough to break into yearly goals and Quarterly Priorities, and reviewed every quarter so it stays true.
A 3HAG isn't a binder — it's a visual, one-page strategy the whole team can draw from memory. It answers, with evidence:
The numbers — revenue, profit, and the key metrics three years out.
The market map — who you serve, where you play, and how the field is shifting.
3 differentiators — how you win, stated so clearly a customer could repeat them.
The swimlanes — the year-by-year milestones that bridge from today to year three.
The 3HAG sits in the middle of a cascade. Above it, your BHAG points the direction. Below it, the 3HAG breaks into this year's plan (1HAG), then this quarter's priorities (QHAG) with owners and metrics — pulsed on the daily, weekly, and monthly rhythm in the software.
Every quarter, the team checks the 3HAG against reality, adjusts, and recommits. That's the difference between a plan that decays and a goal that compounds.
See how the full system connects →3-Year Highly Achievable Goal — coined by Shannon Byrne Susko in her book 3HAG WAY.
A BHAG is the 10–30 year audacious goal; a 3HAG is the achievable three-year bridge toward it, built from evidence your team believes.
With your whole leadership team, typically in a facilitated Strategic Facilitator session — then refined every quarter on the Metronomics rhythm.
No — it anchors it. The annual plan (1HAG) and Quarterly Priorities are derived from the 3HAG, so every quarter builds toward the same picture instead of starting over.
Shannon Byrne Susko's 3HAG WAY lays out the complete step-by-step process — the same one every Metronomics coach is certified to run with your leadership team. Read how it works before you talk to anyone.
Get the book →A Strategic Facilitator session gets your leadership team to a 3HAG they believe — in one day.
