Is your calendar already full of ‘strategic planning sessions’, ‘dot on the horizon’ meetings, or just the reminder ‘write annual plan’?
Virtually every organization writes a plan for the upcoming year before the turn of the year, with the intention that these plans will guide the organization and to fulfil its strategic objectives. In many cases, however, the preparation of such a plan does not lead to the desired results, so the plan fades into the background during the year and gives way to the delusion of the day. Where did it go wrong?
Was the plan properly communicated to all levels and departments in the organization? Did the plan contain any pointers at all for all these layers and departments? Or did it remain too abstract and strategic? Was the plan too comprehensive, discouraging the reader? Did the plan make a clear connection from objective, to approach and ultimately to action?
We find that many directors, chief executives and managers need an annual plan that clearly shows what will happen in the coming year to achieve the strategic objectives. The following points of interest play a major role in this:
- Strategic objectives are made smart, are translated into objectives lower down in the organization and are clearly communicated.
- It is visible what concrete steps will be taken to achieve the organizational objectives.
- There should be a clear link to the budget.
- Stakeholder interests have an explicit place in the annual plan.
- The annual plan is flexible and can be adjusted during the year based on a dashboard (action KPIs and an action plan)
One way to meet all these conditions is using the OGSM method. We show in 5 steps how to create a clear annual plan on just one page.
Objective, Goals, Strategies and Measures (OGSM)
The Objective, Goals, Strategies and Measures (OGSM) method makes it possible to write an annual plan based on the multi-year strategy established by the organization. This annual plan can also be translated to all the underlying levels in the organization: we call this cascading. As a result, by achieving its goals, each department automatically contributes to the overarching organizational goals, and you, as an administrator or director, can see at a glance how underlying departments contribute to the total.
Although vision and strategy remain unchanged, OGSM offers the ability to easily adjust the prioritization of the annual plan. In this way, you can deal flexibly with the political-administrative influences that often need to be dealt with.
We offer you the right tools to use OGSM as a SMART, action-oriented and flexible method for drawing up and implementing your annual plan.
The OGSM method has been widely used in recent years in large organizations at home and abroad such as, P&G, NS, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), Endemol and KPN.
Supply Value has introduced this method at several organizations where this method was also called “Much management fun at 1A4″. We find that with this method, the majority of executives are provided with the requirements of making an annual plan.
Would you like to know more about how OGSM can help you further in creating your annual plan? Do you want to create an annual plan and execute it throughout the year with the entire organization? Would you like to be able to measure the progress of your annual plan and adjust it in structured governance? Download the step-by-step plan for your process leaders to get started tomorrow below.
