Articles
Practical insights on OGSM and strategy execution
These articles come out of what we have seen work, and fail, across 700+ teams using OGSM.
Portfolio management with OGSM: what to start, what to improve, what to stop
Look closely at the action list of most OGSMs and you will find things that are not really actions.
Why OGSM plans fail: seven pitfalls and how to fix them
We have watched a lot of OGSM plans work and a fair number not work. The failures are remarkably consistent, and almost none of them are failures o...
Doing, learning and adjusting with OGSM at Toolsfactory
There is a particular kind of software company that does not use its own product. We have tried not to be one.
The hardest conversation in a strategy review: when to kill a strategy
Quarterly strategy review. One of your five strategies has been amber since the start. The KPIs have barely moved. The owner is doing everything ri...
When every light is green, your dashboard has stopped working
Open a team dashboard and you see a wall of green. Every strategy on track, every action progressing, every KPI where it should be.
Three things that make OGSM work in practice
OGSM is simple. One page, four building blocks, a steady rhythm. You can explain it in five minutes.
Guides
The method, written up in full
Longer pieces that stay put: how to write a plan, how to run the sessions, who owns what, and how OGSM compares with the frameworks it gets confused with. Free, and the same material as the book.
How to
How to write an OGSM in four steps
The four steps of building an OGSM, and the preparation that makes them go quickly: name the owner, agree your criteria, phrase your challenges as ...
Template
The OGSM template: what goes in each box
What belongs in every part of an OGSM template, why the one-page layout is the model rather than the packaging, and why we do not hand out a spread...
Execution
The OGSM rhythm: action review and strategy review
Writing the plan is twenty percent of the work. The rest is doing, learning and adjusting. How the monthly action review and quarterly strategy rev...
Annual planning
OGSM as your annual plan
How to use OGSM as the annual plan without losing the multi-year view: keep the Objective, Goals and Strategies long-term, let the Measures carry t...
Comparison
OGSM vs OKR: an honest comparison
OGSM and OKR are more alike than most comparisons admit, quarterly cadence included. What they share, the difference that matters, and how to run b...
Comparison
OGSM vs Balanced Scorecard
The Balanced Scorecard measures performance across four perspectives; OGSM captures a strategy and the work to deliver it. What each is for, and ho...
Comparison
OGSM vs Hoshin Kanri
Hoshin Kanri and OGSM are close relatives from the same lineage. What catchball and the X-matrix add, where OGSM is lighter, and which fits your or...
Comparison
OGSM vs SMART goals
SMART is a test for whether a goal is well written. OGSM is a plan. They are not alternatives: SMART is most useful inside an OGSM, and it has a bl...
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