What are Game Plans

This article introduces the idea of Game Plans and how they help drive focus and clarity for teams.

A Game Plan will outline to the whole organisation what needs to be done to execute against the strategy at a function or team level

• provide the context for teams and departments to share how they will contribute to the organization strategy.
• are transparent - they show everyone the methods used to move towards the shared goals.
• manage obstacles and dependencies across teams and departments as well as strategic questions
• can be formulated as part of your function or team’s OKR discussion and vice versa.
• are living documents for each area of the business and it reflects their current focus.
• combine the vision, business targets, culture and change targets into one holistic view

How do Game Plans differ from pure OKRs?

• clarity around the context for the team to set better targets.
• an explicit way of dealing with questions and obstacles that need to be resolved in order to reach the outcomes.
• the ability to manage the dependencies between different teams
• the wider context and thinking of the team for others to see.
• information to see if the strategy and changes have been internalized in a deeper fashion.
• both culture and business outcomes into a concrete coherent document.

Core Components of a Game Plan

• Vision & Purpose - what is our why?
• Values, Drivers & Principles - how do we want to be seen across the organisation?
• Obstacles & Dependencies - obstacles and interlocks which may prevent us achieving our goals, optionally business risks as well.
• OKRs - our short and medium term execution focus.
• Methods & Plans - how we will execute against our plans
• What we choose to not focus on - what will we deprioritise?

Game Plans are designed to work for your organisation - so you can add in additional components to help drive your strategy execution.