The Three Questions
Ask one goal you hold — the goal, not a person: Is it true now? If not, why not? What happens next? Almost everyone fails the third.
- Length
- 3 questions · under 2 minutes
- Scored out of
- 15
- Benchmark
- 6
Whether the goals you hold can read their own state — or are sentences waiting to be read.
The Three Questions
Reach like a founder. Read like an auditor. Run like a machine.
Three questions, asked of one real goal you currently hold. Not a hypothetical one — pick the one on the slide. And do not ask a person; a person will get you an answer eventually. Ask the goal, wherever it actually lives.
Each answer is placed on the book's five speeds — Ritual, Dashboard, Read, Routed, Running. The third question is where systems fail. Very few goals can say what happens next without someone deciding to convene, which is why the answer is nearly always "a meeting, eleven days from now."
The benchmark, and how it was built.
A score is only as good as the thing it is compared against. So the benchmark carries a grade and a method, exactly like every other figure on this site.
6/15[C]Grade C · EstimateMedian across founders and chiefs of staff asked in workshop settings, on the earlier goal1 wording of these questions; to be re-based on the book’s wording. estimate, as at 26 August 2026.As at 26 August 2026
Verified
Traced to a primary source — a filing, an audited statement, a contract, a dataset held by us — and the source is named.
Claimed
Reported by a credible party, including by us, but not independently traceable to a primary document.
Estimate
Modelled, sampled or directionally derived. Method stated. Treat as a shape, not a number.
All 3, published in full.
Nothing is hidden behind the interaction. If you would rather read the instrument than run it — or run it on paper, in a room, with other people — here it is.
01 Is it true now? — Pick one goal you hold today. Ask the goal, not a person: is its number true now?
Go to wherever the goal lives — the planning tool, the spreadsheet, the slide. "Someone could pull it" is not an answer.
- 1Nobody knows until someone types it in at the end of the period
- 2It is assembled by hand each month — prettier, still assembled
- 3It is computed from a system of record, but nobody can say how fresh it is
- 4It is computed continuously and states when it last computed
- 5It is computed continuously, states its freshness, and says “I don’t know” when it cannot compute
02 If not, why not? — When the number moves the wrong way, can the goal itself say why?
Not an analyst explaining it next week. The goal, now.
- 1No. Someone builds an explanation for the next review
- 2An analyst can explain it, given a few days
- 3A dashboard shows the trend, but not the cause
- 4The movement decomposes by region, product or segment on demand
- 5It decomposes on demand, with its definition, exclusions and denominator written on its face
03 What happens next? — When it misses its bar, what happens — without anyone deciding to convene?
This is the question almost everyone fails.
- 1Nothing until the next meeting
- 2It is flagged in the next review
- 3The owner is notified
- 4A named person receives a specific proposal within hours
- 5A named person receives a proposal, agents act inside gates, and someone holds the stop
Scored out of 15. Published benchmark 6. Method and grade above.
What each range means.
Published before you take the test, so the reading cannot be tuned to flatter afterwards.
Ritual
The goal is a sentence. It was true on the day it was assembled and has been decaying since, and nothing happens when it slips until the next meeting. That is not a failure of discipline — for fifty years it was the only arrangement available. It no longer is.
Dashboard
The numbers are assembled — prettier, still assembled — which puts you ahead of most. The break is almost certainly the third question: a missed bar produces a conversation rather than a proposal, so the response time is set by the calendar.
Read
The goal computes its own state and can say why it moved. What is missing is Run — a missed bar reaching a named person with a specific proposal within hours. Writing the TRIGGER is the smallest change with the largest effect in this instrument.
Routed, or running
Read rather than typed, able to say “I don’t know”, with a named person receiving a proposal when the bar is missed. The quarterly ritual is now optional for this goal. The work is repeating it for the next Reach — and knowing what breaks at eight and again at forty.
Questions about The Three Questions
Answered plainly, with the real figures. If something here is wrong, tell us and it goes in the log.
Because a missed bar produces a conversation rather than a proposal. Some goals can say whether their number is true now; very few can say what happens next without someone deciding to convene, so the answer is nearly always ‘a meeting, eleven days from now’ — and the response time is set by the calendar. Automation fixes detection; it does not fix escalation.
Is it true now? If not, why not? What happens next? Ask them of one real goal you currently hold — the one on the slide — and ask the goal itself, wherever it lives, rather than a person who could eventually pull the answer. Each is scored on a five-level ladder, giving fifteen points against a published benchmark of 6.
Ritual: goals typed by hand and graded once a quarter. Dashboard: numbers assembled monthly, prettier but still assembled. Read: computed, continuous and able to say “I don’t know”. Routed: a missed bar reaches a named person with a proposal within hours. Running: agents act inside gates, humans hold the stop, and every action is recorded. Your speed is your slowest word.
Three questions and under two minutes — the shortest instrument on the site. It is free, needs no account and no email to start, and scores in the browser. The bands are 0–5 Ritual, 6–9 Dashboard, 10–12 Read, and 13–15 Routed or running. The benchmark of 6 was set on the earlier goal1 wording and is graded [C].
Reach, Read, Run Installation runs 365 days across four movements and ends with an honest year-one scorecard. It is limited to ten installations a year and priced at ₹20L – ₹90L, banded by the number of Reaches and systems of record, with the platform licence quoted separately. The book is forthcoming; the diagnostic is free today.
Five more, one per altitude.
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Whether the thing at the top of your ladder is an objective you could be held to, or a sentence that sounds good in a deck.