Closest Fit
Goals that most closely address what the situation requires, including the needs of the people and organizations the response must serve.
The need for GDM software
Why software is essential for groups to co-design the best possible goals and actions.
Even with great people and great information, talking alone cannot reliably produce the best possible goals and actions.
GDM software and mathematics provide the capabilities to guide the group to the strongest attainable combination of Fit, Feasibility and Alignment — oFFA.
The cost of inaction
Without those capabilities, groups keep producing false positives.
SchellingPoint’s research concludes that most goals and actions produced through traditional group decision-making are false positives to some degree: logical, rational and compelling, yet materially inaccurate or incomplete.
An important assumption remains untested. A necessary goal is missing. A constraint has no corresponding action. People leave with different interpretations of what they have agreed to do.
Those weaknesses enter implementation with the plan. The organization pays through delays, resistance, rework, missed opportunities and disappointing results.
Every new strategy, policy, transformation or project creates another opportunity to repeat these losses.
The need for software begins with this recurring cost — and the opportunity to build optimal quality into the design from the start.
Explore the research →The indicators of success
The required outcome: oFFA.
A successful group design produces goals and actions that address the situation, can be carried out, and have the support needed to succeed.
We call their strongest attainable combination oFFA: optimal Fit, Feasibility and Alignment.
Maximum Feasibility
A practical, coherent set of actions that accounts for resources, dependencies, constraints and foreseeable negative consequences.
Sufficient Alignment
Enough shared understanding and support for the necessary people to coordinate their actions and carry the response forward.
These characteristics must be designed together. A more ambitious goal may exceed available resources. An easier plan may achieve too little. A technically sound solution may lack the support needed for implementation.
The objective is the strongest attainable combination of all three within the situation’s constraints and available knowledge.
The capabilities that make the difference
What GDM software and mathematics contribute to oFFA.
Your people contribute knowledge, experience, reasoning and judgment. SchellingPoint’s software organizes and processes those contributions, performs the necessary calculations, and guides the group through designing its response.
01 · What the software brings
Define the situation the group must address.
Structured methods establish what the design must cover, who should contribute, and which information is needed.
Contribution to oFFA
Closest Fit
The group designs goals around the actual situation, with relevant needs, constraints and dependencies included from the start.
02 · What the software brings
Bring the group’s knowledge into the design.
Independent contributions and explicit reasoning surface knowledge, assumptions and concerns that ordinary discussion can leave unspoken. Peer review helps identify inaccurate inputs.
Contribution to oFFA
Fit and Feasibility
Missing information, incorrect assumptions and foreseeable obstacles are addressed while the response is being designed.
03 · What the software brings
Measure the differences that matter.
The software compares individual views and makes the extent of agreement and disagreement visible. The group examines the reasoning behind consequential differences.
Contribution to oFFA
Sufficient Alignment
The process identifies what needs to be reconciled so people can support and coordinate the resulting actions.
04 · What the software brings
Calculate what to discuss, and in what order.
Optimization mathematics recommends which issues to address and their sequence, accounting for dependencies, the available time and their contribution to design quality.
Contribution to oFFA
The optimal FFA combination
The group follows a calculated path toward the strongest attainable balance of fit, feasibility and alignment.
05 · What the software brings
Guide the conversations that build the response.
Research-based dialogue methods and workflow safeguards guide the group through each issue. Agreements build on one another as the goals and actions take shape.
Contribution to oFFA
oFFA throughout the design
Quality is built into the work as it happens, reducing omissions, premature conclusions and unresolved differences.
06 · What the software brings
Keep the goals and actions connected.
The software retains the assumptions, reasoning and agreements as goals are connected to enabling and safeguarding actions.
Contribution to oFFA
Fit, Feasibility and Alignment
The response remains coherent: what must be achieved, what must be done, and what must be prevented stay connected.
How optimal quality is produced
Right first time.
Quality by design.
SchellingPoint embeds research-based methods, safeguards and optimization mathematics into the group decision-making process.
The necessary inputs are gathered and examined. Consequential differences are reconciled. The discussion follows a calculated path. Goals and actions develop together, with fit, feasibility and alignment built into the work throughout.
Training develops the group’s capability. The software carries the procedural and computational workload, guiding the group toward the optimal design.
The resulting design can optionally be audited and verified for additional assurance. Its quality comes from the process that produces it.
From design into implementation
Give implementation a stronger starting point.
An optimal design gives people appropriate goals, practical actions and sufficient alignment to carry them out. It reduces the need to discover and repair avoidable design weaknesses during implementation.
As circumstances and participants change, the software supports corrections that maintain the response’s fit, feasibility and alignment.
Great people and great information deserve a process that can turn their contributions into the strongest attainable response.
Your next consequential group decision
Goals and actions that are right for the situation.
SchellingPoint provides the training, software and mathematics that enable groups to co-design the best possible goals and actions: the Closest Fit, with Maximum Feasibility and Sufficient Alignment.
Give your group the capability to build that quality into its next strategy, policy, transformation or project.
