What's your plan to GROW?

Frameworks work. Here's a good one.

A friend of mine needed some help last week.

He was leading a workshop for a client and was looking for a way to organize the brainstorm to lead to a tangible outcome.

We batted around a number of ideas when it hit me: how about using GROW?

GROW is an acronym that stands for Goal, Realities, Opportunities and Will.

It was created by the father of executive coaching, Sir John Whitmore. Whitmore, mind you, was a former race car driver. He was looking for an edge. And he started to fiddle around with the mental game of sport. As he started to work with more colleagues, executives and companies, GROW grew out of his sessions.

I think GROW is one of the most intuitive and effective frameworks.

It can work for an individual, a team and even a brand.

Here are the basics:

What’s your Goal?

What are the Realities of your situation? (Are there forces holding you back?)

What are the Opportunities? (Write down the phrase “What if…” and start making a list!)

What Will you commit to? By when?

Goals, Realities, Opportunities, Will — sounds like a plan.