The Headwater method has six steps. The leadership team sets the direction and plans initiatives once a year. Everyone sets climbs each quarter, and each team keeps them moving every week.
Write a vision and choose a few pillars. The leadership team does this in the annual planning session, before the financial year starts in April.
By 2029, Halden is the coffee people ask for by name across the North.
Turn each pillar into projects with an owner. Each initiative works towards one pillar, runs for a set part of the year, and has a line that says when it’s done.
Agree what has to be finished in the next 90 days. Climbs are set for the company, for each team, and for each person. Each climb has one owner and a list of dated milestones.
Check in on Monday, then huddle as a team. The check-in takes about five minutes. The huddle takes one hour and keeps to the same agenda every week.
Rank the problems, then solve them from the top. Each team ranks its top three issues in the huddle. Solving an issue means agreeing an outcome, and some outcomes become rules.
Close each climb, then plan the next quarter. Each climb is marked done, carried over, or dropped. Then the company, each team, and each person set new climbs, in that order.
After step six, the new quarter starts again at step three. Once a year, the round of planning starts with the annual session, and the new year starts at step one.
Steps one and two happen once a year, steps three and six once a quarter, and steps four and five every week. Quarters follow the financial year, which starts in April.
Drag across Halden’s year to see what happens in any week.
Headwater uses the same words in the app and in these guides. Choose a term to see what it means and where it sits in the plan.
The vision says where the company will be by a set year, in one sentence. It comes with a few targets and a list of things the company won’t do. The leadership team sets it in the annual planning session.
Most companies bring the method in one part at a time, starting with the part that needs the least setting up. This is the usual order, from the first huddle to the first annual planning session.
Meet for one hour at the same time each week and keep to the agenda. Put every problem on the issues list and spend the forty minutes solving them from the top.
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