A distant goal can inspire people and still leave them unsure what to do on Monday.
A next objective should be close enough to act on, yet important enough to change the situation. Before promising next-day delivery, find out whether one warehouse can reliably dispatch orders on the day they arrive. That is a reachable question with consequences for the larger promise.
This does not mean shrinking the ambition. It means taking a step that reduces uncertainty, builds a capability, or removes a meaningful obstacle. If the step is easy but changes nothing, it is busywork. If it depends on resources or knowledge the team does not have, it may be premature.
Try asking: what is the next objective we can accomplish that would make the larger challenge easier? A bounded warehouse test would show whether the delivery promise is operationally reachable—and what must change before making it broadly. Rumelt calls these proximate objectives: feasible steps that move a larger effort forward.
Source: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy