The So-That Ladder

When a goal names something to finish, buy, or achieve, its purpose can stay surprisingly unclear. Follow a short chain of 'so that' statements until you can name the difference you actually want.

Name the goal → so that → so that → recognizable value.

A goal often arrives packaged as a method: take the course, grow the audience, renovate the room. The ladder connects that package to the valued change underneath. Ask 'so that?' up to three times, stopping at something recognizable in life. The original method stays available as one possible route.

Try this when…

I know what I want to do, but not what it would change.

Everyone says this milestone matters.

We keep defending the plan instead of explaining its purpose.

My goal ends with a number that doesn't tell the whole story.

What you can use it for

Unpack a milestone

Discover what a qualification, launch, or purchase is meant to make possible.

Reopen a familiar plan

Separate a valued outcome from a method that has become habitual.

Compare possible routes

Give different methods a shared purpose against which they can later be compared.