A management tool that helps companies formulate strategies and put them into practice, also known as a one-page project plan.
OGSM is an acronym for Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures,
Objectives are used to guide the overall direction. They are the pie the company holds out—sounds nice, but aren't very useful.
The goal is meant to clarify the desired outcome of each stage; completing the deliverable of each stage achieves the objective. It's somewhat useful, but not concrete.
Strategy is the method for achieving the goal — a relatively specific action plan. It's quite concrete, but not grounded in execution.
Measurement is a standard for assessing how well the strategy is being carried out, such as the specific degree of work, speed, progress, time, division of labor, and so on. It can be put into practice, but it can drift off course and become independent.
It seems each element has its own problems, but connecting them together solves this, forming OGSM — that is, objective, strategy, and measurement — moving from abstract to concrete, from vague to clear. Its structure is simple, yet it enables every department and every team member across the enterprise to coordinate with one another, turning big, empty strategies into fine, solid work that gets done. Objective and strategy are about managing the strategy, emphasizing how to do it; strategy and measurement are about executing the strategy, emphasizing what to do. Horizontally speaking, the process from objective to measurement is how a manager, within one management level, completes a decomposition from planning to execution. Furthermore, per the idea above, all departments at the same level can move from understanding what leadership intends to do to knowing what each of them should do themselves, so that all peer departments achieve coordinated division of labor horizontally.
When a one-page plan is passed down to a department or team, the simplest thing for the department below to do is copy the strategy from above and use it as the objectives for its own level of management, then break it down further into more detailed, actionable strategies. In this downward cascade, the level above takes on the role of manager, while the level below takes on the role of implementer. As this process continues level by level, the strategy is visibly carried through vertically. Horizontal collaboration and vertical alignment ensure that an organization’s strategic thinking and concrete actions move in sync. OGSM is like a net that firmly binds a company’s head and hands together. It allows everyone in a group, through their individual actions and mutual cooperation, to make a shared dream a reality for all.
The remarkable power of OGSM comes from the properties of its four elements.
An objective sets a direction and defines the strategy qualitatively, ensuring the strategy is effective.
A goal breaks an objective down into measurable terms, ensuring that the objective can be achieved.
A strategy consists of specific methods for reaching a goal, ensuring that the goal is pursued effectively.
A measure breaks a strategy down into measurable terms, ensuring that the strategy can be implemented.
OGSM can communicate horizontally, from management to execution, and carry through vertically, from strategy to the front lines, because its four components work together qualitatively and quantitatively. Everyone knows the rationale behind the decisions above and what needs to be done below, ensuring that teams at the same level can collaborate and that people at different levels work toward the same goal. Working backward, vertically, once the objectives below are achieved, the goals above are achieved too. Horizontally, once each department at a given level has completed its strategies and measures, the overall objectives are achieved. With everything connected, the strategy that might otherwise remain abstract can be realized through practical work on the ground. Most importantly, middle managers, who need to act both as managers and as executors, must play both roles well. If you are always up in the clouds with your superiors, waving flags and shouting slogans, or always bent over with your subordinates, blindly working away, you will break the chain linking objectives, goals, strategies, and measures. Organizations are formed to create a giant more powerful than any individual, undertake grander actions, and achieve greater results. So an organization, like a person, needs a brain to think, muscles to control, hands and feet to act, and nerves to communicate and provide feedback, ensuring unity of thought from top to bottom and coordinated action across teams. If the top level is the brain, the middle level the muscles, and the frontline the hands, then OGSM is this giant’s most powerful nervous system.