Ask yourself, is it more important to have a winning talent development strategy or to communicate that strategy well? I can say without a doubt communication is vastly more important than the merit of the strategy. Developing a talent development strategy can be overwhelming. Where do you start? I have the simple answer, you can start by developing an OGSM strategy document.
An effective way to communicate your talent development strategy is with an OGSM Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures document. An OGSM is a simple one page clear way to communicate the talent development strategy of your learning and development department.
OGSMs originated in Japan in the 1950s and have been used by many fortune 500 companies to communicate their strategies. Fundamentally, strategy is about making choices and that is what an OGSM is all about. An OGSM is typically a one page simple document that displays the choices you are making. The OGSM does this by linking the specific actions against the overall goals and metrics of your organization.
You may be starting a talent development department or taking an existing department to the next level of accomplishment but what specific steps do you need to get towards your company mission? If you are stuck an OGSM can provide a blueprint on what you need to do to get there. An OGSM can also serve as a guide on what projects you are working on and what you are not working on. If you need to communicate with leadership the strategy of the talent developent function OGSMs can be a great tool. Let’s walk through the steps of an OGSM and how you can develop one yourself and use the OGSM to communicate your talent development strategy effectively.
Define Your Objectives
What are the high level concepts we must do to move toward achieving the company mission? Objectives should not be specific but very broad levels of what you need to do to make progress toward the mission.
For a talent development organization the objectives should tie into the overall company objectives For example, if your company is working to start a new office location in Colorado your objective could be to build your learning program at the new office location in Colorado. Another example, if your group has historically struggled with eLearning but there is a need for it at your company an objective could be to create an elearning platform and curriculum and also build the capability of your L&D team to deliver eLearning.
Your objectives should be key strategic decisions you are making. If my group is going to need eLearning long term a choice I could make is to bring that eLearning capability in house. Especially, if I don’t have anyone on the internal team that is able to do elearning, maybe another choice or strategy I could make is to outsource the eLearning development.
Here are some examples of objectives
- Deliver engaging learning that enables employees realize their potential.
- Increase the quality of our products through learning experiences.
- Deliver training at the right place, in the right way, and at the right time.
- Deliver training that supports the overall company strategy of increasing topline sales.
You should be able to come up with more objectives than you are able to accomplish. Therefore, you should limit your objectives to 3-4 most important. The key to developing a good strategy is to focus and choose what are the objectives that are going to have the biggest effect on you succeeding.
The difference between objectives and goals is that the objectives are less specific. The goals should be more specific and they are developed toward meeting the objectives.
Develop Your Talent Development Goals
The goals should put some detail and make what you are trying to accomplish quantifiable. An effective goal is where you can clearly identify if you met that goal or not. Goals should not be vague. You should have 2-4 goals linked to each objective you have defined. So how do you write a successful goal?
A successful goal should be written in the SMART Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound format.
Here are some examples of goals
- Develop a comprehensive learning curriculum for top 3 roles at the company by Q4.
- Implement an executive coaching program for top 50 executives by Q3.
- Execute manager development learning that reduces employee relations issues by 10% by Dec.
When writing goals they should be specific of what needs to be achieved but they should not be so specific that they don’t leave a little bit of creative room on how you can get to the goals. Once you have your goals you can create specific strategies on how to achieve those goals.
Choose Your Talent Development Strategies
How are you going to achieve your goals? The strategies should paint the picture of how you are going to get there.
It is important to be choiceful with your talent development strategies. The strategies should articulate how you are going to use your limited resources such as people, money, and time and connect to what you are going to choose to do. One way to think about it, analogous to sports, your goals may be to win the game and the strategies are the plays your team is running to score.
Here are some examples of strategies
- Outsource development of elearning content.
- Implement a more robust learning management system.
- Develop and expand the learning team to meet needs.
- Partner with an external executive coach
But wait isn’t this overall process called strategic development then how is the S in OGSM called strategies? This is confusing but yes this overall process is your strategic plan development but the OGSM call this section your strategies toward achieving your goals.
The way I see it, strategies are about making choices. In the talent development world It is easy to think you can accomplish everything quickly in 1 year. You have to be choiceful. You should be able to come up with more strategies than you are able to execute against. Therefore, the pivotal task you must do is prune your strategies down to the top 1-2 that are going to make the most difference against your goals. Don’t fall into the vortex most do of biting off more than they can chew and not focusing on the talent development strategies that matter most.
So you have your objectives, goals, and strategies set. How will you measure if you are making progress as you go? That is where the measures come in.
Articulate Your Measures
How will you know that you are achieving your goals? Your measures should be specific and hold you accountable to the goals you set. You can think about the measures as the scoreboard in the game. Effective measures will give you feedback on how you are doing and allow you to adjust your strategies if needed.
Examples of measures
- Number of courses delivered
- Participant satisfaction with courses
- ROI of the learning curriculum
- Employee engagement scores
I would use the measures as a way to decide your strategies and goals. If you can’t measure it I would not choose to do it. Every talent and learning department I have been in there is more work to do than time or resources. You have to be choiceful and focus on the more measurable tasks
How Do You Roll Out an OGSM?
After you have developed an OGSM it is important to do a communication tour. You want to get all the key stakeholders brought into your plan as the OGSM is a plan that will be setting your talent development strategy for probably 1-2years. An OGSM can change but it should be pretty solid for at least a year.
After you have developed the OGSM you can use it as a way to create work plans for all your talent development team members. Every project you are working on should link back up to the OGSM and if the project is not linked we should be asking ourselves why are we doing this?
OGSMs are a fantastic communication tool and will provide you a solid blueprint of how to communicate and accomplish your talent development strategy.