For founders, owners, and operators

How do I set direction for my team? (it is not a vision deck)

By Brendan Levin. 20+ years scaling businesses, from teams of 8 to 600 and budgets from startup to $100m.

Setting direction is not a vision statement, an offsite, or a cascade of OKRs. It is three concrete things: name the one outcome the team exists to deliver this year, make the tradeoffs explicit by saying what you are not doing, and connect it to decisions and delivery so it changes the week. A direction that changes no decision is decoration.

Key takeaways

  • Most direction exercises produce a deck nobody uses because they name many priorities and no single outcome.
  • Real direction names the one outcome everything else is measured against.
  • It makes the tradeoffs explicit, because a direction that forbids nothing directs nothing.
  • You know it is real when it changes a decision, not when it reads well.

What "setting direction" usually produces (and why it fails)

Asked to set direction, most leaders reach for the same artifacts: a vision statement, a strategy offsite, a cascade of OKRs. The output is almost always a deck with three to five priorities, each described in confident language, none of them ranked. It feels like direction because it is well written and the room nodded. Then the next week starts and nothing about it is load-bearing. The deck names everything the team should care about and says nothing about what wins when two of those things collide, so people quietly fall back on whatever is loudest that day. The exercise produced alignment in the room and changed nothing in the work.

What direction actually is

Direction is three concrete moves, not a document. First, name the one outcome the team exists to deliver this year, the thing everything else is measured against. Second, make the tradeoffs explicit, which means saying out loud what you are not doing, because a direction that forbids nothing directs nothing. Third, connect it to decisions and delivery, so the direction actually changes how the week runs instead of just how the team talks. These three together are the Direction pillar of the Momentum Engine (Direction, Decisions, Delivery), and direction is the first pillar because the other two have nothing to organise around until it exists.

Two ways to set direction for a team. The instinct is to produce a vision: a deck, an offsite, many priorities. The higher-return move is to name one outcome with explicit tradeoffs that changes the week. A vision deck names many priorities and ranks none of them. one outcome with explicit tradeoffs is what changes a decision. TWO WAYS TO SET DIRECTION The instinct Produce A vision deck · offsite · many priorities vs The move Name One outcome explicit tradeoffs · changes the week A vision deck names many priorities and ranks none of them. One outcome with explicit tradeoffs is what changes a decision.

Name the one outcome

The first move is the hardest because it is a real choice. Name the single outcome the team exists to deliver this year, and write it on a one-page Operating Compass that anyone can see. Not five priorities, one, with everything else measured against it. The test of whether you have done this is whether you can say which priority wins when two good ones compete for the same week. If you cannot answer that without flinching, you have a list, not a direction. The one-outcome rule feels reductive, and that is exactly the point, because the value of direction is in what it rules out, not in what it includes.

Make the tradeoffs explicit (what you are NOT doing)

A direction is only as real as the things it forbids. Once you have the one outcome, the next move is to name what you are not doing this year, out loud, in front of the team. This is where almost every direction exercise quietly fails, because saying no to attractive work is uncomfortable and a deck lets you avoid it. Write the not-doing list next to the outcome on the same page, so the tradeoff is visible every time someone proposes something attractive that does not serve the outcome. A team that can see what has been ruled out can make its own calls without routing every one of them back to you. A direction that forbids nothing directs nothing.

How to know your direction is real (it changed a decision)

There is one test, and it is behavioural, not editorial. Point to a single decision the direction changed, something the team stopped, slowed, or refused because of it. If you can name that, the direction is real and the work that flows from it has somewhere to point. If you cannot, the direction is still decoration, no matter how clean the Compass reads. This is the first domino, the first concrete decision that moves because the direction now exists, and it is what turns a statement into structure. Direction that does not change a single decision or a single piece of work is not direction, it is a description.

Not sure what your team's one outcome is, or what you should be ruling out? The free Operating Diagnostic maps where your week goes and names the direction to set first, no offsite required.

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Common questions

How do I set direction for my team as a new leader?

Start with one outcome, not a vision deck. Name the single thing your team exists to deliver this year and write it on a one-page Operating Compass that everyone can see. Then say out loud what you are not doing, because a direction that forbids nothing directs nothing. Finally, connect it to how the week runs, so the direction changes a real decision instead of just changing how the team talks.

Is setting direction the same as setting goals or OKRs?

No. Goals and OKRs are a measurement system, and they usually arrive as a list of three to five objectives that all feel equally important. Direction is the choice that comes before the list, the one outcome everything else is measured against. You can have a full OKR tree and still have no direction, because nobody can tell you which objective wins when two of them collide. Set the one outcome first, then let the goals hang off it.

How many priorities should a team have?

One that ranks above the rest. You can track several streams of work, but only one outcome can be the tie-breaker, the thing that wins when two good options compete for the same week. The moment everything is a priority, nothing is, and the team quietly reverts to whatever is loudest that day. Name the one outcome, then make every other priority subordinate to it on purpose.

What makes a direction actually stick?

It sticks when it changes a decision, not when it is well written. A direction that has never caused the team to say no to something attractive is decoration, and people can feel that. The test is simple: point to one thing you stopped, slowed, or refused because of the direction. If you cannot, the direction is not real yet, no matter how good the deck looks.

Do I need a strategy offsite to set direction?

No, and the offsite is often where direction goes to die. A two-day session tends to produce a wall of priorities and a feeling of alignment that fades by the next week, because nobody made the hard tradeoffs explicit. You can set real direction in an afternoon if you are willing to name one outcome and say what you are not doing. The Operating Audit installs exactly that, the Direction pillar, as a standalone piece of work.

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