Page 154 · Module 06, Build Your Team · this screen continues that page
All 108 frameworksHoshin Kanri
Connect your company vision to daily team action without losing
The prompt
Copy & paste readyLabelsReplace theseSwap the role below
Pro tip, from the book
The most common Hoshin failure is confusing activity alignment with outcome alignment. Every team can be busy doing things that connect to the objective on paper but don't move the metric. Build the cascade around outcomes at every level not initiatives. If you can't draw a straight line from a team member's daily work to a company metric, the cascade has a gap.
Who should run this prompt
Module role profileWho should advise on people and leadership decisions? Leadership decisions are the highest-leverage decisions in any organisation — and the hardest to get right because the stakes are human. The roles on this page bring the perspectives of people who have seen hundreds of teams succeed and fail. Use them before hiring, before giving difficult feedback, before restructuring, and before having the conversations you have been avoiding.
Choose any role to drop it into the prompt above. Only the highlighted opening clause changes — the rest of the prompt stays exactly as printed.
◆◆◆◆◆ → ◆ seniority, board level down to specialist◈ outside the organisation
How to make any role sharper
- Add years of experience: "...with 15 years in enterprise SaaS" produces different depth than just the title.
- Add what they care most about: "You care most about [X]" shapes every word of the output.
- Add their communication style: "Be direct. Flag risks first. No jargon." changes the tone entirely.
Use this when
The problem it solvesanything in translation Your company has a clear vision and your team works hard but there is a gap between the strategic direction and what people are actually working on day to day. The vision stays at the top and doesn't reach the ground.
How the framework works
From the printed pageHoshin Kanri (Japanese: direction management) is a strategic planning and execution framework developed in Japan in the 1950s, refined at Toyota and Bridgestone, and adopted by many Fortune 500 companies. It cascades organisational objectives through every level of the company using a 'catchball' process goals are thrown back and forth between leadership and teams until both sides agree on what is achievable and how it connects. The result is a company where every person's daily work is visibly connected to the company's annual and long-term goals.
The method, in four moves
Do these in orderStart with your True North, your 3–5 year vision before setting annual objectives.
Use the catchball process: share objectives with teams, ask them to set their own targets, adjust together.
Limit to 3–5 annual breakthrough objectives, Hoshin Kanri is about focus, not comprehensiveness.
Review monthly: are the team-level actions actually moving the company-level metrics? Catchball only works if leadership actually adjusts the target when a team pushes back, if it's just a one-way announcement dressed up as dialogue, the process is theater, and your team will spot it fast.
Where the framework comes from
Yoji Akao, Toyota / Bridgestone — Hoshin Kanri, Japan, 1950s–1960s
Pairs well with
As printed with this frameworkModule 06 — Build Your Team
Build people who build the company leadership is the product.
12 frameworks, printed on pages 135–158.
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