--- name: true-north-statement description: "The ideal, not-fully-reachable direction behind a Hoshin plan, broken into its real component pillars and checked against whether current work actually traces back to each one — with any pillar nobody's moving toward flagged plainly, not smoothed over. Use when: A Hoshin X-Matrix already exists (or a stated mission/direction does) and you want to check honestly whether this year's real work actually traces back to it, pillar by pillar. You suspect the organization's stated direction has drifted from what people are actually working on, and you want that gap named plainly rather than assumed closed. Not for: You don't have any real direction stated yet — this statement checks work against a direction that already exists, it doesn't invent one. You're setting this year's specific targets and strategies — that's the Hoshin X-Matrix itself; this statement sits above it, checking the X-Matrix's own trueNorth field against reality." --- # True north statement The ideal, not-fully-reachable direction behind a Hoshin plan, broken into its real component pillars and checked against whether current work actually traces back to each one — with any pillar nobody's moving toward flagged plainly, not smoothed over. Family: Hoshin Kanri · Format: .xlsx · Domain: core ## What it is A true north statement is a real, checkable answer to 'is this direction actually connected to real work, or is it just a mission-statement sentence' — True North (Lean Enterprise Institute, Art of Lean) is the ideal, deliberately not-fully-reachable direction an organization points toward, genuinely distinct from a Hoshin annual objective's this-year reachable target. This statement breaks that single sentence into a fixed set of pillars, then checks a flat list of current initiatives against them: which pillars have real, committed work tracing to them, which have nothing at all, and which logged initiatives are only floated ideas nobody's actually committed resources to yet. ## When to use it Use it when: - A Hoshin X-Matrix already exists (or a stated mission/direction does) and you want to check honestly whether this year's real work actually traces back to it, pillar by pillar. - You suspect the organization's stated direction has drifted from what people are actually working on, and you want that gap named plainly rather than assumed closed. - You want to know which component of your direction has zero real initiatives behind it, not just which projects feel aligned in general. Not when: - You don't have any real direction stated yet — this statement checks work against a direction that already exists, it doesn't invent one. - You're setting this year's specific targets and strategies — that's the Hoshin X-Matrix itself; this statement sits above it, checking the X-Matrix's own trueNorth field against reality. ## How to fill it in - **trueNorthNotes** — In one or two sentences, what's the ideal, not-fully-reachable direction this points toward? - **pillars** — Break that direction into its real component pillars, even ones you expect have no work behind them yet. - **initiatives** — For each initiative: which pillar it's tagged to, an owner, and — if it's real committed work, not just a floated idea — which annual objective or strategy it actually traces back to. - **narrative** — Drafted from the statement's own computed coverage. ## What good looks like The example below expands Northwind Fabrication's already-published FY2027 Hoshin plan's own trueNorth field into four real pillars, checks each against that plan's already-committed annual objectives and strategies, and finds one pillar with nothing tracing to it at all — every current strategy serves customers already calling, none reach the ones who aren't yet. Full worked example, on-screen and as a downloadable .xlsx: https://www.katafacts.com/katas/true-north-statement ## Common mistakes - **Writing pillars that just restate this year's annual objectives with different words.** — A pillar is the ideal direction an objective should trace back to, not a rename of the objective itself — if a pillar and an annual objective say the same thing, the pillar isn't doing its own job. - **Counting a floated idea as covering a pillar because it's tagged to the right one.** — An initiative with no real linked objective is an aspiration, not committed work — this statement flags it as unlinked specifically so it can't be mistaken for a pillar that's actually being moved on. - **Leaving a pillar out because you already suspect nothing traces to it.** — An unlisted pillar can't be flagged as disconnected — naming it and letting it come up with zero initiatives is exactly how this tool surfaces the gap plainly instead of hiding it by omission. ## What it connects to Upstream: - **Hoshin Kanri — X-Matrix** (`hoshin-kanri`) — The X-Matrix's own trueNorth field is exactly the sentence this statement expands into pillars, and its annual objectives/strategies are the real, committed work each pillar is checked against. ## Where AI helps Judgement — stays with you: - Deciding whether an initiative genuinely traces back to a real commitment or is still just a floated idea - Deciding which disconnected pillar to raise at the next catchball round Analysis — AI helps: - Tightening an initiative's wording from rough notes into a specific, checkable statement - Drafting the narrative from the statement's own computed coverage Drudgery — automated: - Identifying which pillars have no initiatives logged - Identifying which logged initiatives are still unlinked - Exporting to xlsx in the house format --- True north statement is licensed [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com). ## Using this skill Apply this method as part of whatever broader task, instructions, or deliverable you're already working on -- it's a method to use, not a standalone conversation to start. There is no generation tool for this catalogue yet, so draft the artifact's actual content yourself, following the fields above, the same way a person filling this out by hand would. The canonical guide page and a downloadable worked example (.xlsx) are at https://www.katafacts.com/katas/true-north-statement.