A Management Compass: Using the Hoshin Star to Rank Priorities

Abstract

Organizations always have a number of competing priorities, and determining which ones require our immediate attention can be a huge challenge. It’s impossible to tackle every available opportunity and problem in all areas at once, but if we rank our priorities and commit to maintaining that hierarchy, our operations become much more manageable and progressive. With a hardwired internal “code” to consistently guide us toward daily actions that will have beneficial effects on our top priorities, we won’t end up stabbing away at a lot of relatively unimportant tasks. Instead, we’ll be constantly filling in the big picture of our organization’s mission, vision and values. Our goal, then, is to parse out our priorities, rank them, and then align all team members so that everyone places the same degree of importance on each priority.

Keywords: Distinction, priorities