Goal Cascading
Definition
Goal cascading is the practice of connecting goals across the levels of an organization so that team and individual goals visibly support the company's. Done well, it gives every team a clear line of sight from its own work to the company target; done mechanically, it produces the same sentence restated at four levels with nothing added.
Two directions exist. Strict cascading derives each level's goals from the level above, which is fast to construct and easy to audit. Aligned cascading sets company goals first, then asks teams to propose the contribution they will own, which is negotiated upward — Hoshin Kanri formalizes that exchange as catchball. Most companies run a blend, with the majority of a team's goals derived from above and the remainder owned locally.
Cascading is slow, and the delay compounds. When each level waits for the one above it to finish, a thirteen-week quarter can lose three or four weeks before frontline teams know what they are working toward. Strict top-down cascades also tend to convert outcomes into activity as they descend: the company wants retention, and four levels later a team has a goal to run twelve customer interviews.
Example
Company: lift net revenue retention from 98% to 108%. Support: cut first-response time from 3.4h to 1.5h. Product: raise reporting-module adoption from 22% to 45% of accounts. Customer success: complete business reviews on 80 of the 120 accounts above $25k.
See also: strategy execution software