Prozanta · template
The catchball agreement
One sheet per negotiation between two levels — what was asked for, what is promised, and what it takes
Goal being negotiated:
From level:
To level:
Date:
Before you start
Catchball is the negotiation where a goal from the level above becomes a commitment at the level below. It happens in one meeting of ninety minutes to two hours, with the level handing the goal down and the level receiving it in the same room. The sheet is filled in during the meeting, not afterwards, and both parties sign it. Running catchball through a whole organisation usually takes two to four weeks — and that is the price of goals being owned rather than received.
It is catchball when
The receiving level can answer back, and the answer can change the goal or the resources.
It is not catchball when
The goal is settled before the meeting, and the meeting is about how to reach it. That is a briefing.
Nor is it catchball when
Everything is agreed to. A meeting with not one reservation usually means somebody did not dare speak.
Watch out
- If the person handing down the goal talks most, it is not catchball. Expect to listen two thirds of the time.
- A commitment with no resource condition is a wish. If the »what it takes« column is empty, the sheet is not finished.
- The agreement must be breakable. If you do not write down when it is renegotiated, it will be quietly abandoned instead.
Example
Asked for: lead time in assembly from 14 to 9 days this year. Promised: 11 days by the end of Q3, and 9 days only if planning moves from weekly to daily. Requires: one planner freed up two days a week from October. Not promised: holding inventory flat at the same time — that needs a separate agreement with purchasing.
1 · What was asked for
Write the goal exactly as the level above phrased it. If you rewrite it here, you cannot see afterwards what was actually negotiated.
| The goal as it was put | Measure | Target | By when |
|---|---|---|---|
2 · What we promise
The commitment, as the receiving level phrases it. It is allowed to be less than what was asked for — that is the whole point of the meeting.
| What we commit to | Target | By when | Owner on our side |
|---|---|---|---|
3 · What it takes from you
The conditions. Each line is something the level above has to deliver for the commitment to hold. Without an owner and a date it is not a condition, it is a complaint.
| Condition | Who delivers it | No later than | What happens if it does not arrive |
|---|---|---|---|
4 · What we do not promise
The boundary. Write what is expressly outside the agreement, and why. This field is what makes the sheet an agreement rather than a statement of intent.
| Outside this agreement | Why | What it would take before we could promise it |
|---|---|---|
5 · What we will stop doing
Capacity is zero-sum. If something new is to happen, something else has to give way. If this field is empty, the agreement has been stacked on top of everything else, and it will not hold.
| What we stop or postpone | Who decides it | From when |
|---|---|---|
6 · Renegotiation and signature
An agreement that cannot be broken openly gets broken in silence. Set the date now.
The agreement is reviewed again on:
It is renegotiated early if:
For the level handing down the goal
Name and date
For the level receiving it
Name and date
Method: catchball in Hoshin Kanri; see Yoji Akao, »Hoshin Kanri: Policy Deployment for Successful TQM«, Productivity Press (1991). This sheet covers the link between prozanta.dk/en/templates/hoshin-kanri, which sets the goals, and prozanta.dk/en/templates/tier-meetings, which follows them. See the chain at prozanta.dk/en/strategi.
Prozanta Operations · prozanta.dk
The catchball agreement
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