8 Questions: 3 Year Picture

Most leadership teams are too nearsighted.

They’re reacting to this week’s fire, this month’s number, or this quarter’s goals—when what they really need is to pause and ask:

What’s our biggest goal (our BHAG)?

That’s the Core Target (or 10 year target)

And then right after: Where do we want to be in three years to set us up for that?

What does that actually look like?

In EOS, we call this the 3-Year Picture.

It’s a high level visual snapshot of your business three years from now:

• Revenue

• Profit

• Measurables for your people

• Major milestones

• Assets and Locations

• What your culture feels like

• What your clients are saying

• What your systems are doing

• And what your life looks like, as a leader, inside all of that

This isn’t about being right. It’s about being clear and seeing it together.

Because once the whole team sees it in their mind’s eye, something powerful happens:

Alignment.

Suddenly the 1-Year Plan has a destination. Rocks become stepping stones. People begin to connect their daily work to something bigger.

In my own experience, the years I lacked a clear mid-range vision were the most chaotic. I could see today, and I could dream about someday, but I had no map in between. That was a recipe for burnout and drift. And I lived it.

But the 3-Year Picture can change that. I’ve seen it. It makes the long-term real. Tangible. Motivating. And it gives teams a common target to build toward. I never made it—too stuck in my own way. But that’s my journey.

If your leadership team can’t describe the future of the company in three years—and I mean really describe it—then you’re likely rowing in different directions.

So get in a room.

Turn off the noise.

And start painting the picture—together.

Because if you can all see it, you can build it.