Building a Goal Tree with lower level employees take them on board, involve them and help embrace change.
If you are not familiar with Goal Trees you may read this introduction to the tool first
Quick reminder
A Goal Tree starts with Purpose or Goal of the organization in the top box of the tree. Three to five Critical Success Factors (CSF) are necessary to achieve the Goal and each CSF generally requires a cascade of Necessary Conditions (NCs) to be achieved.
Goal Tree
Getting staff on board
When breaking down the Necessary Conditions (NCs) with Goal and CSF in mind, instead of doing it single or with peers in cosy offices, managers should do it with the lower level staff, where the job is done, on the gemba. Instead of pushing pre-defined objectives top-down to staff, managers should work them out bottom-up.
Doing this, it uses the staff ability:
- to understand the logical links between each component of the tree, hence the strategy and the tactics of the organization
- to analyze what should be done to support and contribute to the Goal and define what NCs are necessary
- to assess the current situation, what NCs are currently under control (Green), which ones are only partially under control (Amber) and which ones are missing or not mastered (Red)
- to suggest and work out problem solving ideas and solutions
As the team completes the Goal Tree, the understanding of where to go, what to do and how to do it should be clear and based on logical relationship between actions and purpose. All required efforts are no management fantasy but a necessity brought up by the situation versus the challenge.
From then on, resistance to change should not occur, except for the systematic naysayers.
Staff should be willing to improve the situation as they share everything from the Goal down to the details of required actions and helped to list them.
The managers turned into lean leaders paying respect to their teams and not wasting their brainpower.
About the author, Chris HOHMANN
Chris HOHMANN 
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