January and Blue Monday are behind us. Now the real work begins.

Blue Monday is over: Supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. But where are you now? Ultimately, that has little to do with a concept like Blue Monday. As if motivation disappears collectively and plans spontaneously fail.
But plans and good intentions seldom fail due to a lack of willpower.

They're stranded because they:

• be too big,
• stay too vague,
• or organized too freely.

This applies to personal goals, but just as strongly to strategies within organizations.

The rest of the year will decide.

The year often starts well. There is energy, ambition and the feeling of a fresh start. Strategies are drawn up, often neatly developed in OGSM. Goals, KPIs, initiatives: everything is right.

Until everyday reality returns. The pressure is increasing. Shift priorities. The issues of the day are gaining ground. And unnoticed, the plan fades into the background.

Not because the plan wasn't good. But because no one kept it alive properly.

Motivation is overrated

Motivation feels good, but it is not a reliable basis for results. She is erratic and dependent on circumstances. If you let your strategy rely on motivation, you build on quicksand.

Successful organizations do something different. They organize:

• clarity about what is really important,
• focus on what is now a priority,
• and discipline in what not to do.

Jim Rohn said so beautifully: “Motivation alone is not enough. If you have an idiot and you motivate him, now you have a motivated idiot.”

Motivation must be the result of a consistent approach. And a consistent approach only follows action linked to a clear ambition.

Ambition without rhythm is a recipe for delay

Ambition is therefore also an important ingredient. But without fixed moments of reflection and adjustment, it remains an intention. Chasing big goals without a clear rhythm means that they automatically disappear into the background.

What works is a fixed cadence:

• short progress discussions,
• monthly check-ins,
• quarterly moments where you don't rethink everything, but look closely:
  are we on track?
  do our assumptions still work?
  which dependencies require attention now?
  
  

Rhythm makes plans robust. Especially when energy decreases or pressure increases.

The conversation is more important than the plan

OGSM helps to focus. It enforces choices and makes strategy concrete. But OGSM is only the means and therefore never an end in itself. It's a strong one, though. conversation framework.

The value lies in the questions you ask with it:

• Do we understand why we are or are not making progress?
• Are inter-team dependencies explicit?
• Do we dare to make adjustments when reality turns out differently?

Without that conversation, OGSM becomes a document. Correct, but powerless.

Focus requires explicit choices

Many plans fail not because people don't work hard, but because everything remains important. Too many goals, too many initiatives, too little focus.

Focus only occurs when you choose sharply:

• What is the real goal?
• Which actions contribute directly to this?
• And what are we consciously leaving behind?

Without those choices, any plan is vulnerable to outside urgency.

Choose a “blue person” who secures this process

All of this requires someone to monitor the process.
Someone who is not primarily responsible for content, but rather for discipline.

Someone who:

• monitors the rhythm,
• keeps the conversation sharp,
• makes dependencies explicit,
• and prevents control from getting bogged down in status updates without choices or consequences.

Without this role, the strategy quickly falls into good intentions and before you know it, you're back to ad-hoc meetings and bombarding each other with new action lists that are regardless of what you want to achieve.

Create a working principle

So the real risk is the lack of focus, structure and rhythm to to have the conversation structurally.

• about progress,
• about choices,
• about dependencies,
• and about adjusting.
  
  

Not once a year. Not on motivation. But as an integral part of how you steer together.

Strategy rarely fails because of a bad plan. Strategy fails when the conversation about it stops.