About
What is the GTM Bot?
It’s a structured online chatbot style assistant, designed to help pluralistic counsellors work more intentionally by linking their clients’ goals to appropriate tasks and evidence-backed methods.
Up for a Road-trip?
Goal = Where we’re going
Task = The route we’ll take
Method = The vehicle (or tool) we’ll use
“I found goals came naturally—but tasks and methods were fuzzier. I wanted a way to access potentially helpful methods in a way I could understand - whilst keeping the client’s goal front and centre”
A note on three-level hierarchies
In many fields I’ve come across hierarchies like this. They are often used in business and technology for various reasons. I’m not sure why three levels is common. It must make sense to our brains.
OST
The most common one I’ve used in business is OST (or other similar acronyms). The OST model is often attributed to Alistair Campbell as he is a big advocate but I’ve seen the same model with different names many times.
O: Objective
What do you want to achieve? What is the target outcome?
S: Strategy
How will you achieve that outcome?
T: Tactics / Tasks
The specific tasks, actions, events that will get you to your goal.
It is generally best if your Objective is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
The relevance of this (aside from it’s something I understand) is that it maps neatly onto goals, tasks and methods… EXCEPT…
The reason I think I find Goals, Tasks and Methods so confusing is that Task is usually the lowest level, and usually refers to a specific action. But in pluralistic therapy it is more like the ‘how’ (Strategy above), and Method is more like the Task in OST model.
GOALS, TASKS & METHODS in Pluralistic Practice
So in my head Task and Method are the wrong way around! But I don’t think Mick Cooper will change it just for me, even though I think I’m right.
So what does GTM mean to me now?
Goals - This is really a ‘Why?’ question. Why is the client wanting therapy?
Although it is more often phrased as ‘What’ it terms of ‘what outcome / change does the client want from therapy?’
Tasks - What does the client need to do to achieve their goal?
Methods - How will therapy be used to help the client achieve the task, that will be extension help them achieve their goal?
From the ‘menu’ or ‘toolbox’ of methods out there, which are going to help the client? And because we want it to be grounded in some evidence based approach we must also note which modality the method comes from (is drawn from).
So to recap: