Success factors for the collaboration
We have guided hundreds of teams in executing their OGSM. We have distilled three success factors from those experiences:
- Dialogue: The conversation about the progress of the plan. The dialogue revolves around two questions. Are we doing things right? And: Are we doing the right things?
- Discipline: Executing the plan requires a great deal of discipline to record progress, review your plan regularly, stick to the agenda and update your plan.
- Ownership: The owners of actions and strategies share information about the progress and ask the team to think along or help if necessary. By clearly investing ownership, you prevent ambiguity in the team.
Method: doing, learning and adjusting
Based on practice, we have developed a working method that is applicable for all types of OGSM plans: from project plan to annual plan, from personal plan to multi-year plan.
You cut the total duration of the plan into smaller pieces. This creates periods that are manageable. For example, in a project these are the project phases. In an organization, these can be quarters. During such a period you keep an eye on the progress and at the end you evaluate the results. So you have two types of team sessions:
- doing session. In this session you and your team answer the question: are we doing things right? It concerns a periodic session in which the focus is on the progress of the actions.
- Steering session. This session focuses on the progress of the strategies and thus answers the question: are we doing the right things?
Doing session: progress of the actions
The purpose of the doing sessions is to gain insight into the actions that are not going according to plan and to determine how the implementation of these actions can be improved. The owners of the actions prepare the session by updating the status of their action. The traffic light is the most important of these: is the action on green, orange or red?
In the session, the team discusses the actions that are not going according to plan and how they can improve their execution.
Adjustment session: progress of the strategies
The aim of the adjustment sessions is to learn from the results of the actions and to update the OGSM on the basis of new insights and developments. However, the focus of the adjustment session is on the strategies and indicators. The owners report on the status prior to the session.
In the session, the team discusses the strategies and discusses which changes they need to make in the OGSM. Will there be new promotions? Do priorities or deadlines need to change? Are any actions no longer relevant?
In the book 'OGSM in practice' we provide a complete overview of the preparation and the agenda of the action and adjustment sessions.
Annual plans in OGSM
In many organizations, teams work with annual plans. In the autumn they determine the plan for the coming year. During the year, they monitor the actions on a monthly basis and the strategies every quarter. However, by adjusting each quarter, your plan is always up to date.
We are therefore seeing more and more organizations that use a so-called rolling planning. They use the adjustment sessions to update the plan and look two to five quarters ahead.
OGSM in practice
This article is a summary of a chapter of the book 'OGSM in practice'. More information can be found at ogsmindepraktijk.nl
Or order the book directly from management book of bol.com.
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