Note: The S.T.A.R.S. Framework for moonshot goals and the E.T.H.O.S. Framework for Purpose statements are proprietary methodologies developed by Clare Treston through facilitating strategic planning for 200+ organizations. Both frameworks are featured in the book “The Where and The Why: Craft a Clear Moonshot and Purpose to Make Your Team Happy and Successful.”
It’s January 2026. Business leaders everywhere are preparing for the annual ritual: strategic planning sessions, SMART goal workshops, and KPI spreadsheets.
But here’s what most won’t admit: last year’s goals probably didn’t inspire anyone.
The uncomfortable truth is that most strategic plans fail not because they lack sophistication, but because they’re too complex for the people who need to execute them.
While 100-page strategic plans gather dust on executive shelves, frontline employees struggle to connect their daily work to organizational goals. When a janitor at NASA during the Apollo program was asked what he was doing, he didn’t say “mopping floors.” He said, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
That janitor understood the mission because NASA’s leadership had the courage to make it simple. He knew both where they were going (the moon, before the decade’s end) and why it mattered (“new hopes for knowledge and peace are there”).
The Problem with Traditional 2026 Planning
If you’re preparing to set goals for 2026 using the same frameworks you’ve used for years, it’s worth asking: how well did they actually work?
Research from Wharton Business School shows that over 90% of leaders communicate visions so abstract they confuse rather than inspire. Meanwhile, teams report feeling disconnected from their organization’s strategy, wondering how their daily work contributes to anything meaningful.
SMART goals sound sensible in theory—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. But here’s what they’re missing: inspiration. They speak to the head but ignore the heart. And humans don’t achieve extraordinary things through spreadsheets alone. We achieve them when we’re emotionally connected to something bigger than ourselves.
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The 8 Types of Moonshots (Choose Your Path):
- Quantity Moonshot – Dramatically scaling your core offering
- Customer Acquisition Moonshot – Targeted growth with ideal clients
- Geographic Moonshot – Conquering new territories
- Leadership Excellence Moonshot – Setting new standards in your field
- New Business Model Moonshot – Reinventing how you create value
- Innovation Moonshot – Pioneering genuine breakthroughs
- Social Impact Moonshot – Driving meaningful change
- Environmental Moonshot – Leading in sustainability
Each type has specific characteristics and works best in particular contexts. The key is choosing the Moonshot that aligns with your organization’s strengths and aspirations—not just copying what worked for someone else.
A Different Approach: The Where and The Why
After facilitating strategic planning for over 200 organizations across seven years through Australian government initiatives—from boilermakers to astrophysicists, from farmers to fashion designers—I discovered something counterintuitive: the best strategic plans fit on a poster.
Not because they lack sophistication, but because they’ve achieved ultimate clarity.
The framework that emerged from this extensive real-world testing is built on two essential elements:
The Where (Your Moonshot 🌕): Like the moon in the night sky, this is your clear, visible destination. It’s an ambitious goal that stretches your team beyond comfortable incrementalism—something that’s 80% impossible but 20% achievable. It provides measurable targets that engage the rational mind.
The Why (Your Purpose 🔥): This is your rocket fuel—the emotional power that actually propels you toward your destination. It taps into passion, meaning, and intrinsic motivation. Without it, even the clearest moonshot remains unreachable.
Traditional strategic planning fails because it speaks only to the rational mind while ignoring what actually drives human behavior: emotion. Research shows that decision-making requires both emotional and cognitive processes, yet organizations often focus exclusively on rational analysis.
What Makes a Moonshot Different from a SMART Goal?
Let’s be specific about what separates a Moonshot from traditional goal-setting:
SMART Goal: “Increase annual revenue by 15% by Q4 2026” Moonshot: “Deliver 1 million life-changing experiences by 2026”
The first speaks only to shareholders. The second gives every team member—from customer service to product development—a clear picture of what success looks like and why their work matters.
Through analyzing hundreds of organizations, I’ve identified eight distinct types of Moonshots that work across different industries and situations:
The 8 Types of Moonshots (Choose Your Path):
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- Quantity Moonshot – Dramatically scaling your core offering
- Customer Acquisition Moonshot – Targeted growth with ideal clients
- Geographic Moonshot – Conquering new territories
- Leadership Excellence Moonshot – Setting new standards in your field
- New Business Model Moonshot – Reinventing how you create value
- Innovation Moonshot – Pioneering genuine breakthroughs
- Social Impact Moonshot – Driving meaningful change
- Environmental Moonshot – Leading in sustainability
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Each type has specific characteristics and works best in particular contexts. The key is choosing the Moonshot that aligns with your organization’s strengths and aspirations—not just copying what worked for someone else.
The S.T.A.R.S. Framework: Crafting Your 2026 Moonshot
Creating an effective Moonshot isn’t guesswork. Through extensive field testing, I developed the S.T.A.R.S. framework—a step-by-step recipe for formulating goals that actually inspire:
S – Stretch: Your Moonshot should be ambitious enough to pass the “holy crap” test. If it feels comfortable, it’s not bold enough.
T – Tangible: It must be measurable, specific, and time-bound. Clear success criteria let you track progress.
A – Aspirational: It should be genuinely exciting for your team, tapping into their passions and motivating extraordinary effort.
R – Relevant: While ambitious, it must be credible and within the realm of possibility (that crucial 20% achievable component).
S – Singular: One unifying goal. Multiple competing priorities dilute focus and hinder progress.
Note: Moonshots should never be purely financial. Goals like “doubling revenue” don’t excite teams on a deeper level—they excite shareholders. Your Moonshot should be something that makes everyone, from the CEO to the newest employee, proud to say “This is what we’re building together.”
Why Purpose Matters More Than You Think
Your Moonshot provides direction, but your Purpose supplies the fuel to sustain the journey. And the business case for Purpose is compelling:
- McKinsey research shows Purpose-driven companies have 40% higher employee retention
- Organizations implementing The Where and The Why framework report an average 34% improvement in workplace culture
- Teams with clear Purpose show 17.82% revenue growth within 8 months on average
But Purpose isn’t just good for business—it’s what employees are craving. In today’s market, talented people want more than a paycheck. They want to know their work matters. They want to feel connected to something meaningful.
The E.T.H.O.S. Framework: Defining Your Purpose
Just as S.T.A.R.S. guides Moonshot creation, the E.T.H.O.S. framework helps teams articulate authentic Purpose:
E – Eternal: Your Purpose should stand the test of time, not change with market conditions.
T – True: Authenticity is everything. A false Purpose breeds cynicism and erodes trust.
H – Heartfelt: Purpose must stir something emotional. It should inspire connection beyond rational calculation.
O – Oneness: It should unify your organization, creating collective identity across all levels.
S – Simple: No more than three concepts, less than seven words. If people can’t remember it, it won’t guide decisions.
Through analyzing hundreds of Purpose statements, I’ve identified six types that consistently resonate:
- Passion-Based – Rooted in genuine enthusiasm for your field
- Quality and Excellence – Commitment to superior standards
- Customer-Oriented – Making a difference to people’s lives
- Legacy and Tradition – Honoring heritage
- Community Impact – Supporting local lives
- World Impact – Driving global change
From Theory to Practice: Real Results
This isn’t academic theory or consulting jargon. This methodology has been battle-tested with hundreds of businesses across every imaginable industry and location—from the outback to tropical regions, from AI pioneers to boat builders.
Organizations implementing The Where and The Why report:
- Revenue growth of 17.82% on average
- Overall business growth of 30.28%
- Team culture improvement of 34.47%
- Dramatically improved focus and team cohesion
One organization, OzTix, used this framework to navigate through the seemingly impossible challenge of running a ticketing business during COVID lockdowns. By refocusing on their Moonshot—”30 million experiences by 2022″—and their Purpose of making events accessible, they found innovative ways to adapt and ultimately achieved extraordinary results.
What Makes This Different from Other Planning Methods?
You might be thinking: “I’ve read business books before. What makes this one different?”
Fair question. Here’s what sets The Where and The Why apart:
Battle-Tested, Not Theoretical: This framework emerged from facilitating over 200 strategic planning workshops across diverse industries. Every exercise, every principle has been refined through real-world application with teams from blue-collar workers to astrophysicists.
Government-Validated: Originally developed through Australian government initiatives aimed at helping SMEs grow, this methodology had to prove it worked—and it did, consistently, across hundreds of businesses.
Accessible to Everyone: While it draws on academic theory and top-tier consulting knowledge, it’s designed to be implemented by any team, regardless of size or sophistication. If you can facilitate a team meeting, you can run this process.
Complete Step-by-Step Process: This isn’t inspirational fluff that leaves you wondering “but how?” The book provides specific activities, templates, and facilitation guides. As Professor Andrew Carton from Wharton noted, it’s “a powerful step-by-step recipe for success.”
Fits Your Reality: Whether you’re a 5-person startup or a 500-person enterprise, whether you’re for-profit or non-profit, whether you’re in tech or manufacturing—this framework adapts to your context.
Planning for 2026: Where to Start
If you’re facing 2026 planning and feeling uninspired by the prospect of another SMART goals session, here’s my challenge: what if you could create a strategy so clear that everyone in your organization could remember it? So inspiring that people actually want to work toward it?
The process starts with three questions:
- Where does your team ultimately want to go? Not “increase market share by 12%”—where do you want to go that would genuinely excite people?
- Why does that destination matter? Beyond profits, beyond growth metrics—why should anyone care?
- Can you explain both in terms so simple that the newest member of your team could understand and articulate them?
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If you can’t answer these clearly, your 2026 strategy—no matter how sophisticated—will struggle to gain traction.
The Power of Visual Strategy
One more crucial element: when you define your Where and Why, put it on a poster. Literally.
Not because it’s decorative, but because strategy should live on the wall, not on the shelf.
The Where and The Why Poster template provides a visual focal point for your team’s aspirations. It creates a striking reminder that everyone can see, understand, and rally behind. Organizations that embrace this visual approach consistently report that their strategy becomes more than words—it becomes an integral part of company culture.
When your strategy lives on the wall where people see it daily, it guides decisions in the moment: “Will this get us closer to our Moonshot?” It reminds people why their work matters. It creates a shared language that unifies your team.
Your 2026 Moonshot Awaits
As you prepare for 2026 planning, you have a choice:
You can create another complex strategic plan that will impress in the boardroom but confuse on the front lines. Another set of SMART goals that speak to shareholders but not to the hearts of your team.
Or you can take a different path.
You can create a strategy so clear that any team member—like that NASA janitor—can articulate where you’re going and why it matters. A strategy that fits on a poster but packs the power to transform your organization. A strategy that engages both the head and the heart.
The original Moonshot put humans on the moon not because they had the most complex project plan, but because Kennedy articulated a destination everyone could visualize and a purpose everyone could feel. The clarity of “before this decade is out” and the inspiration of “new hopes for knowledge and peace” unleashed extraordinary creativity and dedication.
What’s your 2026 Moonshot?
Where will your team be when you’re celebrating on December 31, 2026? And more importantly—why are you going there?
As you map out the year ahead, remember: a small step in planning can create a giant leap in results.
Your journey to extraordinary performance starts with two deceptively simple questions. But answering them with genuine clarity and inspiration? That’s where the magic happens.
Ready to transform your 2026 planning?
The Where and The Why provides the complete framework, step-by-step activities, and proven templates to help your team craft a Moonshot and Purpose that actually drive results.
Featuring insights from extensive real-world testing across 200+ organizations, endorsed by Seth Godin, Professor Dan Cable (London Business School), and Professor Andrew Carton (Wharton), this practical guide gives you everything you need to make 2026 your breakthrough year.