As a enterprise, focus and alignment are every little thing.
There are such a lot of issues you are able to do to maneuver the needle, however which of them must you act on? With so many individuals engaged on so many tasks, how do you retain everybody transferring in the identical route?
Unlocking these solutions is the distinction between disconnected work efforts and ahead progress to attain your mission.
As we proceed to scale, we have to encourage self-motivation and execute on extra cross-functional work to assist our clients drive progress.
However let’s face it — autonomy with out alignment results in chaos.
That is the place the OGP framework is available in. Your technique is barely pretty much as good as the way you execute towards it. And having a framework to allow aligned execution is crucial.
Ours permits us to proceed offering autonomy with clear alignment on priorities from the highest.
The OGP Framework
OGP stands for Goals, Targets, and Performs.
Earlier than you begin figuring out your OGPs, you must perceive your mission, your values, and align on the technique that guides you.
Consider it as your working system. These are the weather that may inform your Goals and enable you perceive what success seems like at every milestone.
And all of that is pushed by who you serve — your clients, your purchaser persona, the individuals you’re in the end fixing for.
Our government staff makes use of the next slide to drive our OGPs from the highest:
- Mission: What’s our big-picture imaginative and prescient?
- Values: What beliefs and rules drive the best way we work?
- Technique: How are we going to achieve our imaginative and prescient?
- Strategic Goals: What long-term, company-wide bets are we making over the subsequent ~3 years
- Targets: How will we accomplish our aims on the practical degree over the subsequent 12-18 months?
- Performs: How will we obtain our targets on the staff degree by means of particular deliverables over the subsequent 3-6 months?
Your Mission and Values don’t change fairly often (if in any respect). They keep fairly constant 12 months to 12 months.
Your Technique and Strategic Goals change roughly each three years. Every year at HubSpot, we evaluation our Goals from the earlier 12 months and determine whether or not we’re going to maintain them constant for the upcoming 12 months.
Then again, your Targets and Performs get up to date extra often. We replace our Targets yearly and revisit our Performs on a half-yearly or quarterly foundation.
Extra on OGPs
Alignment begins with an understanding of our long-term technique, and our Strategic Goals are decided on the government degree.
We select to stack rank our Goals to offer clear prioritization for the entire enterprise. For instance, now we have seven Strategic Goals for 2025, and now we have them organized by order of significance.
Why? To ensure our groups have a transparent sense of priorities and steerage on easy methods to make essential trade-offs.
Every Goal has a specific amount of Targets related to it. We prefer to categorize our Targets based mostly on precedence:
- Precedence 0 (P0): Important to attaining Strategic Goal (possible fails with out). There are fewer of those (~5 per Goal). They’re usually extremely cross-functional, and these targets are reviewed by our C-suite on a month-to-month foundation to make sure progress and take away any blockers.
- Precedence 1 (P1): Vital to driving progress towards Strategic Goal. There are extra of those (~20 per Goal). They’re usually particular to 1 perform, and these targets are reviewed by our practical leaders on a month-to-month foundation to make sure progress and take away any blockers.
Then, there are Performs that roll up into every Aim. These are related to the “how” — the specifics round what you’re going to do to perform your Targets.
Seems like lots of work, proper? It’s, however belief me — it’s value it.
An necessary method to preserve issues working easily is thru accountability. One crucial method we’re holding individuals accountable is thru our refreshed DRI mannequin.
The DRI Mannequin
Within the OGP framework, the DRI (or Immediately Accountable Particular person) is the one individual answerable for transferring a Strategic Goal ahead. They set the imaginative and prescient for the target, outline the success metrics and work to be executed, align cross-functional groups, and navigate any blockers that come up.
Accountability and transparency are the keys to understanding whether or not we’re truly executing our technique all year long.
We use mechanisms — like Quarterly Enterprise Critiques (QBRs) and month-to-month stories — to create house for standing updates, tackle blockers proactively, and guarantee we’re hitting our milestones.
So, there you could have it. Simply pop some concepts onto just a few slides, and you may examine strategic planning off your listing!
…not so quick.
OGPs are a way to an finish. They can assist create focus, however true alignment comes from doing the arduous work of pondering, planning, and speaking.
For us, the strategic route is about by the chief staff, however the execution of that technique could be very bottoms-up. Each VP is working with their administrators, managers, and particular person contributors to resolve the “how” of every aim.
That is the place the alignment from the highest meets the autonomy of practical specialists — and that is the place the facility of OGPs comes from.
How We Make OGPs Work For Us
On the core of strategic planning at HubSpot, we got down to determine crucial issues to resolve for our clients. This permits us to focus our vitality on the work that issues and align our groups on the work to be executed.
The HEART of Success
What actually works for us all through this complete course of is that this: Path and readability about our priorities comes from the chief degree, however the entire firm is concerned within the “how.”
Everybody at HubSpot is a vital a part of strategic planning.
Our Aim Drivers are collaborating with their groups to put in writing memos that define why their targets are necessary, how we’re going to attain them, and what sources are wanted to achieve success.
And our government leaders are setting route on the highest view.
That’s how we create focus and alignment at each degree of group.
How We Proceed to Evolve
Our method to strategic planning evolves yearly. It’s necessary that we tweak our framework based mostly on new learnings and suggestions from our workers.
We’re consistently utilizing information to carry ourselves accountable to the technique we laid out as an organization. For instance, we conduct eNPS surveys and interviews with individuals across the enterprise to grasp the place we’re excelling and the place we’re developing quick.
It’s comforting to slap an “accredited” framework onto your corporation. It offers you lots of confidence, however you possibly can’t simply cease there. It is advisable work out what works for you because the trade grows and your buyer wants evolve.
Focus doesn’t simply occur. It’s a byproduct of shared imaginative and prescient. And imaginative and prescient comes from speaking, sharing, taking a look at information, and updating assumptions.
When you’re not doing that work upfront, don’t trouble with OGPs or another goal-setting framework. None of them will work.
Give It a Strive
In our tradition code, we speak about hiring individuals with HEART (Humble, Efficient, Adaptable, Exceptional, Clear). We outline efficient as individuals who get sh*t executed and take possession for his or her success. You may also name this autonomy.
And in an autonomous tradition, individuals can solely thrive after they have a transparent route on the place the corporate goes. That is the place so many corporations find yourself losing high expertise.
Focus and alignment are every little thing — and our framework is an extremely worthwhile instrument to maintain workers centered on the trail ahead.
This submit was tailored from MSPOTs: the Secret to Focus and Alignment, and has been up to date for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
