A 30% higher target, the same six people — and ten minutes in the hallway

The third slide clicks over and the room goes quiet. Just the hum of the projector fan and one bold number: target up 30%. He glances left and right — no new faces. Same people, same headcount.

Everyone looks down at their notebooks. Nobody writes anything; the pens are still capped. He knows the feeling because he has it too: you hear a number and something in you says "we can't," before anyone has done a single sum. When the meeting ends, he doesn't go back to his desk.

He takes a pocket calculator out to the hallway and stands by the window. Divide by three months. Divide by six people. Then by each week. What's left isn't easy, but it's no longer a wall. The work hasn't shrunk — his head is just less crowded. He puts the calculator away and calls the team in.

Standing at the whiteboard, he almost says "come on, guys, let's push." He doesn't. He thinks of the bowed heads that morning — they weren't short on effort, they just couldn't see where to start. So he hands each person a sheet ruled into weeks, the first box left empty for them to tick.

Any number looks impossible as a total. Still hard. But now you know what's first.

This quarter will still be hard. The number that's crowding you right now — have you tried breaking it down yet?