Prozanta · template
The strategy review
The monthly follow-up on the breakthrough goals, with the same discipline as the tier meeting
Period:
Meeting date:
Chair:
Absent:
How the meeting is run
Ninety minutes, the same day every month, the whole executive team. The meeting covers only the breakthrough goals — everything else belongs in the operation’s own cadence. The rhythm is the one from the board: what was the plan, what happened, why the gap, who does what by when. No slides are made for this meeting. If the numbers are not ready, the meeting is held anyway, and that they were not ready is the first item.
Order
- Status on each breakthrough goal: plan against actual. Five minutes per goal, no more.
- Only the deviations are discussed. A goal on plan gets one minute and no debate.
- Initiatives that are late or stalled: what is blocking, and who removes it.
- Escalations from below: answered in this meeting, not the next one.
- What we said no to since last time.
- Actions: who does what by when. The meeting ends when they are written down.
Watch out
- Cancel the meeting twice and the organisation has learned that strategy is optional. Move it rather than cancel it.
- If the time goes on the goals that are going well, the meeting has turned into reporting. The deviation is the agenda.
- A goal that has been amber for three months is not amber. Either the plan is wrong, or nobody is working on it.
- An action closed without anyone seeing the effect is not closed. See the anchoring protocol at prozanta.dk/en/forankring.
The colours
- Green: on or ahead of plan. No action, no minute spent.
- Amber: behind, but there is a plan with an owner and a date that closes the gap.
- Red: behind with no plan that holds. Red is not an accusation, it is a request for help — and it is answered in the meeting.
1 · The breakthrough goals — plan against actual
One goal per line. If there are more than five lines, these are not breakthrough goals, they are a to-do list.
| Breakthrough goal | Plan today | Actual | G/A/R | Owner | If off plan: why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 · Initiatives with no movement
Only the ones that are late or standing still. An initiative on plan does not belong on this sheet.
| Initiative | Owner | Due | What is blocking | Who removes it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
3 · Escalations from below
What the boards have sent up that could not be solved one level down. Every line gets an answer in the meeting. An escalation taken home teaches the floor to stop escalating.
| From | The issue | Raised on | Answer today | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
4 · What we said no to since last time
Focus is a decision that has to be reconfirmed every month. If this field is empty, nothing was prioritised — things were only added.
| Idea or request | From whom | Why no, or not now | Revisited |
|---|---|---|---|
5 · Actions from the meeting
The meeting is not over until this field is filled in. Without an owner and a date it is not an action, it is a remark.
| # | Action | Owner | By | How we will see that it worked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 | ||||
| 6 |
6 · The health of the meeting itself
Four questions answered in thirty seconds at the end. They show whether the review is turning into reporting, long before anyone says so out loud.
| Question | Yes / no | If no: what we do |
|---|---|---|
| Was everyone there? | ||
| Were the numbers ready when the meeting started? | ||
| Was every escalation answered in the meeting? | ||
| Did we close the meeting with actions that have an owner and a date? |
Method: the follow-up cadence in Hoshin Kanri; see Yoji Akao, »Hoshin Kanri: Policy Deployment for Successful TQM«, Productivity Press (1991), and David Mann, »Creating a Lean Culture«, 2nd edition (2010), for the discipline of the meeting itself. This sheet follows up the goals set in prozanta.dk/en/templates/hoshin-kanri and negotiated in prozanta.dk/en/templates/catchball-aftale. See the chain at prozanta.dk/en/strategi.
Prozanta Operations · prozanta.dk
The strategy review
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