Rapid Mindset: Beneficial Use Cases of the GOST Framework

Years ago, a friend, mentor, and CEO of a major corporate F&B franchise pulled me aside and said, “Joey, you know that most things really happen in about 3-4 major steps, right?”

Amidst the launch of a new organization, I was tackling a complex organizational design, but didn’t have a proven pathway for it. After gathering input from more than 1,000 creatives through a user-centered design thinking process that spanned many months, a task force was selected to represent the stakeholder groups. Together, we were organizing the bottom-up input. My task? Aligning a massive amount of community feedback with the programs that would set up the organization to operate while benefitting stakeholders.

The momentum felt like a “bench press.” At times, a massive amount of organic drive can inspire “eureka moments” that lead to fast, upward launch among pools of creators. This momentum is often well-intentioned, but without organized planning it can lead to a lot of “empty growth.” Even the greatest amount of short-term passion doesn’t ensure long-term results. Nobody wants to waste their time contributing energy to a mere “rep” of a concept. How do you build muscle into the core operations an organization that lasts?

”It’s called GOST,” he said. He took out a piece of paper and, from the top to the bottom of the page, wrote G-O-S-T. “This stands for 'Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics.”

Since being introduced to this framework, I’ve used it with every new launch, project, and client — externally communicated on our project plan or internally held in my mind like the short-form of a product roadmap. After working with it, I’ve even added my own nomenclature and best practices. The beauty of a well-design GOST framework is that when you execute the ‘tactics’ area, you’ll also complete the strategies, which are designed to be aligned to your objectives. You can merely monitor your objectives (or KPIs), tweak your strategies and add more tactics as needed, until you achieve your goal.

Best Practices for GOST Design:

1. The Goal should only be one 1 thing. It’s often a measurably achievable outcome. It could be a financial goal like, “Make $50,000 of new sales in 3 months.” It could also be a personal goal, “Lose 30 pounds by the end of the year.”

2. Objectives are best when they are 2-3 measurable, “bite-sized” aspects of the goal. When added together, Objectives achieve The Goal. In our weight loss example, 1) Lose 10 pounds January-April, 2) Lose 15 pounds April-August, and 3) Lose 5 pounds August-December.

3. Strategies are best when they involve 4-7 strategic areas, channels, or processes. These areas will be used over and over to achieve the objectives. Following the weight loss example, Objectives break down into strategic areas like A) Indoor Cardio, B) Outdoor Cardio, C) Weight Training, D) Diet Improvement, E) Stress Reduction.

4. Tactics are best as 7-14 activities that you could start doing tomorrow. They always align to at least one of your strategic areas. For our example, 1A) 30 min of elliptical Mon, Wed, Fri. 2A) 15 min treadmill at 140BPM, Mon, Wed, Fri. 3B) 20 min run at 7am on Tues, Thurs. 4B) Lawn mowing 1x per month, April-August. 5B) Gallery Hop walking first Saturdays of the year, 7-9pm. 6C) 30 min static training Tues, Thurs. 7D) 30 Day Paleo Diet in January, April, August. 8D) Switch Soda/Juice for Water. 9D) Gluten-Free in April-August. 10E) Monthly Yoga.

Note the nomenclature: I usually use numbers for Objectives, letters for Strategies, and then align the Tactics to Strategies using a combination of numbers and letters so we can make sure each tactic aligns to the strategic area.

When you execute the tactics, you’re also completing the strategies, which are aligned to your objectives, so you achieve your goal!

GOST in Project Management:

While GOST functions best with a waterfall approach, I’ve used it as a “quick map” for organizing complex projects and product launches in Agile too.. It’s been a mental aid for organizing information on the fly and demonstrating complex understanding with new clients.

If you use GOST best practices above, the most critical aspect is understanding the strategic areas (tools, processes, etc.) deep enough to be able to design the tactics. If you have the knowledge, monitoring project execution with GOST can support agile delivery.

For example, using GOST in agile may serve as an internal, high-level monitoring of a technical work stream that is aligned to the project objectives (project budget, timeline, stakeholder expectations). Using Scrum, you may find that GOST in technical development work streams may have similar strategic categories (sprint planning, and development, security, team role assignment) or tactical areas (sprint review and daily scrum, RBAC activities, backlog refinement activities, weekly client updates, meeting scheduling, presentation completion) on software development projects. Usually, I don’t communicate GOST to clients on technical projects, but instead use it as an internal framework for high-level review and project alignment. The GOST framework sits nicely on top of mind.

For entrepreneurs or product owners with a rapid mindset, my queen’s gambit is always: “What is the goal?” From there, my opener is GOST. The most successful projects and organizations are aligned to their goals that serve their stakeholders, despite wherever the tactical and strategic work paces to. Always being ready to communicate project goals at critical meetings, or remind the team, board, or volunteers what we’re working towards can be motivating and crucial during complexity.

Launching a project? Submit your GOST to me for design review and feedback.