Creating a Culture of Accountability and Engagement
Clarity: The Foundation of Strategy
We began by discussing clarity, which Fredrik sees as the starting point for any successful strategic effort. The key question here is: Do we all see the same picture? If the organization’s mission and vision are unclear, aligning the team around long-term goals becomes almost impossible. Fredrik emphasized that leaders must take time to ensure everyone shares a common understanding of the vision. A vision is sufficiently understood when it provides leaders and team members with a clear, actionable understanding of the problems they need to solve in their areas to move closer to that vision. Without this, it’s difficult to have courage, commitment, or consensus in the strategy’s execution.
From our conversation, it became clear that the process of achieving clarity often requires significant time and effort. Fredrik regularly spends one to two days working with leadership teams to align on the mission, vision, and developing breakthrough objectives to support the long-term direction. "The more clarity we have, the easier it is for leadership teams to make good decisions," he noted. Once clarity is established, teams can align their priorities, and the strategy can move forward with confidence.
Courage: Leading Change with Confidence
We then went on to discuss courage, which Fredrik sees as essential for creating real breakthroughs. Hoshin Kanri isn’t about setting easily achievable goals—it’s about challenging the status quo and pushing for significant change in our end-to-end flows. This requires leaders to be brave enough to push themselves and their teams towards transformation.
Fredrik pointed out that true breakthroughs are only possible when we step into the unknown. "If you already know how you want to solve or accomplish a breakthrough, it’s probably not a breakthrough," he explained. It highlights how Hoshin Kanri isn’t about dictating solutions—it’s about fostering an environment where the entire organization works together to solve complex problems.
Commitment: Ensuring Execution
Even with clarity and courage, strategy is useless without commitment. This is where many organizations struggle: they plan, but they don’t follow through. Fredrik shared that, in his experience, many leaders focus so much on planning that they forget to check in on the execution. Research even shows that only a small percentage of leaders regularly monitor the progress of their plans.
Commitment means more than just sticking to a plan—it’s about constantly refining and adapting tactics to ensure the goals are achieved. As Fredrik pointed out, "the more we invest in a good strategic plan, the harder it can be to go against that plan," which underscores how easy it is to fall into the trap of complacency once a plan is set. Leaders must remain flexible and empower teams to make adjustments as needed to ensure continuous progress toward the breakthrough goals.
Consensus: Building Alignment Across Teams
Finally, we turned to consensus, which is crucial for ensuring that everyone is aligned and working toward the same goals. Fredrik stressed that achieving consensus isn’t about getting everyone to agree right away, but about fostering open and honest communication and collaboration throughout the process.
Fredrik explained how Hoshin Kanri uses the "catchball" process, which facilitates back-and-forth dialogue between leadership and teams. This ongoing exchange helps ensure that all perspectives are considered, and that everyone involved has a voice in shaping the strategy. The result is stronger buy-in and better alignment across the organization. "This is what we need to succeed, what do you think?" is a question Fredrik often asks to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working toward a shared vision.
Summary
Reflecting on our conversation, my key takeaway is the importance of leaders being more open to the idea that they don’t always have the answers. Hoshin Kanri encourages a collaborative approach, where leaders empower their teams to help drive the strategy forward. This sense of shared ownership leads to more engaged teams and better outcomes.
From this discussion, it’s clear that both organizations already practicing Hoshin Kanri and those new to the concept have much to gain from applying the 4Cs. It’s not just about setting goals—it’s about fostering a culture of alignment, commitment, and continuous improvement across the entire organization.
I really enjoyed the chance to sit down with Fredrik and learn more about Hoshin Kanri and the 4Cs, and I still feel like there's a lot more to explore. Now we've looked at the foundations of this approach to strategy in Performance Management, I'm keen to learn how to actually implement it.
If you're interested in learning more, stay tuned for our next post where we'll look at how we put these principles into action and examine the 'Catchball' process.
