English to French Marketing Business/Commerce (general)

Catch-ball technique, a part of Hoshin Planning is a very effective method to encourage employees to take ownership and empower them.

As the name suggests, the ‘ball’ of responsibility is thrown between team members till consensus is arrived. In essence, it is a series of constructive and dialogue-based process where team members discuss and agree on ownership of targets.

Unlike the traditional top-down approach, manager doesn’t thrust targets on his team. In this technique, she proposes a target and allows the team to debate on the capabilities, constraints, resources, etc., before they agree on a goal. If they disagree, the manager has an opportunity to review the target, as she too hasn’t agreed the target with her manager.

Thus the mechanism involves several rounds of discussion between team members before goals are agreed. From an organizational perspective, the CEO/business leader gets to know by the end of ‘catch-balls’ if the target set by him is achievable or not; and the constraints associated with it.