We build software. That is what we are good at, and it is deliberately not the same thing as being good at standing in front of a management team that cannot agree on its ambition.
So for advice, facilitation, training and implementation we work with partners: consultancies and trainers who run these sessions every week.
When guidance helps
There is a persistent idea that writing a plan is mostly a matter of filling in the boxes. The method is not secret: the four steps are on this site, free, with the preparation that makes them go quickly. But getting to the point quickly turns out to be the hard part, and there are five situations where a facilitator earns their fee.
While the plan is being written. Teams find it hard to work out what actually has to happen. Someone who has seen a hundred of these makes suggestions, asks the question nobody is asking, gives feedback on a phrase that is still too vague, and keeps an eye on the clock. That last one sounds minor and is not: with nobody watching the time, the first session goes entirely on the first topic.
When the team cannot facilitate itself. Whoever runs the session cannot also push their own view on the content. They will either suppress it or dominate. Let someone external hold the process and the people in the team can concentrate on the substance, which is what they are in the room for.
When several teams are involved. One plan is a conversation. Fifteen connected plans is a change programme, and the hard part is not the software.
When the previous plan did not survive the year. If this is the third attempt, the problem is rarely the framework. Someone from outside is usually better placed to say what went wrong than the people who were there.
When the conversation is going to be difficult. Real strategic choices mean telling colleagues that their work is not the priority. An outsider can hold that conversation in a way an internal chair often cannot.
Want to see how far you get on your own first? Start a free trial and build a plan. If you get stuck on the content rather than on the tool, you will know exactly what to call a partner for.
Finding one
Tell us where you are and what you need, and we will tell you whether we know someone good in your market or whether you are better off running it yourself with the material on this site.
Email info@toolsfactory.nl with a line about your organization and what you are planning, and we will come back with a name or an honest “do it yourself”.
Working with us as a partner
If you are a consultant, trainer or advisor who works with OGSM and wants to use the platform with your clients, we would like to hear from you.
What that typically looks like: you run the sessions and the relationship, your clients get their own environment, and you have a view across the plans you support. We handle the software, the security and the support desk.
What we ask is straightforward: that you know the method well. A partner who cannot explain why a strategy has to exclude something is not going to leave a client better off, whatever the tool does.
Get in touch at info@toolsfactory.nl and we will talk it through.
Not sure whether you need guidance? Start with the trial and find out.
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