How to everyone pulling together to reach corporate objectives

In companies that still operate through a traditional hierarchal pyramid with employees at the bottom reporting to managers, who report to supervisors, who report to vice president-directors and so on, responsibility for accomplishing objectives set forth at the beginning of each year or quarter usually rests with those who report to the chief operating officer, or the CEO. These top reports have the job of lighting a fire under those who report to them, who in turn light a fire under those who report to them, and so on down the line. But what happens when the hierarchy has been eliminated and the company operates through interlocking, empowered teams? How can management create urgency and be sure progress is being made?

One tool many enterprises use is the "objectives worksheet," a simple tracking mechanism that allows each team to monitor and respond to key business metrics. Its purpose is to provide clear focus for a team and to establish accountability for the contributions a team is expected to make. It also can create a sense of urgency.

The primary team in an organization, which is chaired by the top executive, should design the objectives worksheet using a format so that will remain consistent throughout the organization. This will eliminate the possibility of confusion or misunderstanding.

This team also should create a worksheet containing global objectives to measure performance of the organization overall. Objectives on worksheets to be used by teams at other levels should combine to support these high-level objectives.

The primary team should review progress toward global objectives at regular intervals, and the rest of the organization should be be kept abreast of progress made or the lack of it. This will not only keep everyone in the company informed, it will serve to create urgency to make the numbers when things are falling behind, and it will create a sense of esprit d'corps when objectives are being met or exceeded.

Once the global worksheet is ready, teams throughout the business need to develop worksheets defining specifically how they will support the organization's goals. The metrics used should reflect the team's area of responsibility. Ideally, each team should have at least one objective for each key area that's been targeted for improvement.

Teams need to identify who owns responsibility for tracking the progress made toward a particular objective and for keeping others focused on it. An objective owner is not responsible for accomplishing the objective all by himself, but he or she is responsible for updating the worksheet prior to each meeting and for making sure it is accurate.

A team's objectives worksheet should be is reviewed at every meeting as a standing agenda item. The team should identify what's working, and develop corrective action plans when performance is below target.

Typically, each team will send its worksheet and corrective action plans to the primary team monthly for review. Many organizations go a step farther by replacing this with monthly or quarterly presentations by team leaders made face to face. Responsibility for these presentations is often rotated among team members, creating additional urgency to generate good results to report.

A worksheet or a presentation clearly demonstrating how a team is contributing to the business can make a very powerful statement and be highly motivating to the team that presents it. Such a report can also motivate other teams when they are challenged to do as well.

If this article was helpful, you'll want a copy of Lean Enterprise Leader: How to Get Things Done without Doing It All Yourself, because it was adapted from that book. Click the image to go to the book's page.