The fall season brings some fresh new start energy. It’s the combination of cooler air coming in, the start of a new school term for both kids and adult learners alike, and the sudden awareness that the year is almost over and it’s time to start planning for winter holidays and next year’s aspirations.
It’s hard to believe that Strategy Stories launched 9 months ago with the first installment of a personal goal setting article, the first of a four-part series dedicated to Rethinking New Year Resolution’s with a strategic lens. As the third quarter of the year draws to a close and we look ahead to the fourth quarter – jam-packed with holidays and seasonal shifts – this is the season where time-bound resolutions and goals can start to feel extraneous.
My summer season felt extra busy this year with consulting and teaching travel, speaking events, and avid efforts to maintain a sense of normalcy with dedicated time for family, friends, and hobbies. As my season slowed down in early September, I took some time to reevaluate how the third quarter had actually gone and what’s possible for the fourth quarter. With competing priorities and shifting time zones, I got a little sloppier with tracking and managing my resolutions and had a brief moment of wondering…do I just discard them and restart in January?
Spoiler – I didn’t.
The Home Stretch
I like to think about this last quarter as the time to assess progress and learnings and then 1) evaluate what’s actually possible in the next 3 to 4 months of the year; and 2) identify what to pilot or test out now for 2027 insights.
What have you learned so far?
Taking a pulse check on what you’ve learned so far from 2026 goals is the best place to start planning for the last quarter of the year. This starts with both asking how things are going, as well as whether you are focusing in the right areas. Double loop learning, an educational approach developed by Chris Argyris in 1977, moves the question from “Are we doing things well?” to “Are we still doing the right things?”
Something that has been a key learning for me this year is how strategic foresight resonates differently across audiences. Strategic foresight content drives strong engagement in the Strategy Stories community and performs well as a content focus on both my Substack and LinkedIn. Concurrently, organizational leaders navigating an uncertain external environment are finding long-horizon thinking harder to prioritize given the urgency and volatility of the now. This has prompted me to reconsider how to position foresight within my broader strategic planning and strategy management consulting practice as a lens through which all strategy work is enhanced and strengthened, and made more resilient for a VUCA world.
What’s still possible?
Determining whether to reset or adjust a target for a goal is normal and healthy for realistic goal management, especially when basing the adjustment on learnings so far. Insights from the year can inform a realistic reset of the goal or target, and still drive forward progress and impact through the end of the year.
This is often the time of the year when I’m scrambling to reach my reading goal and trying to calculate how many books I can fit in without missing my total count goal. Sometimes I recalibrate the goal to better reflect the length of books I’m reading, instead of the sum total of individual books. While this isn’t the case this year, this scenario jumps to the forefront when I think about a meaningful goal adjustment based on actual data in play…and what meaningful goal achievement looks like, even if it’s not what was first envisioned. PS - Since I’m ahead of schedule, I recently shared a round-up of my favorite reads for 2026 so far, spanning leadership books, ancient epics, and speculative fiction.
What to pilot now for 2027 insights?
Some goals just don’t play out. Other times, areas of focus may arise during the year that aren’t currently captured in your current goals. Thinking about the last few months of the year as a play space to test, pilot, and try out a new area of focus to inform 2027 goal-setting gives a great head start on planning and launching a new goal with deep insight behind it.
When I started my new chapter last year, I had a creative book idea in mind — a project that sits outside of the strategy and foresight space. I talked about it, thought about it, and ultimately spent 0 hours actually working on it over the course of 2026. Needless to say, the book is not written. As I think about 2027, I’m eager to set a realistic creative writing goal and allocate a meaningful period of time to focus on this project. For the next quarter, I’m going to test out blocking off creative writing time on my calendar and see how this habit evolves before setting a firm goal for 2027. And, congratulations, you are reading this statement and are now my accountability partner for this short-term goal pilot. Thank you for your participation!
Be the First to Know: 2027 Goals
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on setting realistic and meaningful 2026 goals – from goal-setting to early check-ins and active goal management and adjustment. I’m testing out a different format for this series in 2027 to work with you to bring New Year’s Resolutions to life by identifying goals with intention and clarity, managing and tracking progress, and recalibrating where needed during the year through dedicated goal management templates and customized 1:1 coaching.
This new experience from Lavorgna Strategy Studio is designed for individuals who want a structured, personalized approach to their own strategic goal management. If you’re interested in learning more about this new experience, let me know and you’ll be among the first to hear more later this fall.
As always, thanks for being here and for reading Strategy Stories!
About Strategy Stories
Strategy Stories is built on a single belief: the most useful strategic insights don’t always come from inside your industry. Through this platform, Jackie Lavorgna, PhD, SMP shares case studies, analyses, and anecdotes for curious leaders, strategists, innovators, and futurists — spanning readers throughout the United States and across 16+ countries.
Strategy Stories is the insights vertical of Lavorgna Strategy Studio, a consultancy helping leaders, teams, and organizations prepare and plan for the future through strategic planning and strategic foresight.