Business goals

Beneath the organization's goals sit the business goals. What each manager and department is responsible for in their own part of the organization. This is where strategy meets everyday work, and where much of the workshop's actual work happens.

Initiatives aren't coupled straight up to the overarching goals. They're coupled to the business goals, which in turn hang on the organization's goals. The contribution is counted in two hops. From initiative to business goal, and from there further up. It sounds technical, but it mirrors how an organization actually works. No single effort delivers a company goal on its own, it contributes to something nearer that in turn contributes upward.

It's also in this step that managers see each other's goals, often gathered for the first time. Two things tend to happen. Someone discovers that one of their goals actually pulls in the same direction as a colleague's, and that they can help each other. And someone realises that their own goal isn't clearly enough formulated to couple anything to.

The latter isn't a failure, it's one of the points. If a manager doesn't have their goals ready yet, they take the question away, reformulate, and come back to the workshop. Better it surfaces now than gets hidden in an initiative no one can place.