Within a few weeks into your fiscal year, your company offsite fades to a distant memory as the daily grind truly begins. Beneath your shiny new strategy and lofty quarterly objectives lie your team’s Tactics, the daily action items, tasks, or to-dos that power the broader objectives of the team. When to-do lists are overwhelming, it’s all too easy to forget how smaller projects or daily tasks contribute to the greater goals of the team.

Enter: Tactics with Elate.

Elate’s Tactics help you track the tactical work, tasks, projects, or to-dos that powers each objective in your strategic plan, helping you connect the tactical work to your company’s overall strategy.

Every Elate customer has a version of Tactics. Elate also offers the Actions package - a more advanced way to track and report on Tactics within Elate. This article will cover how to best implement Tactics both without and with Actions.

To add a tactic to an objective, navigate to any objective. Beneath the Outcomes section, you will see a Tactics section. Select the blue +Add Tactic button.

You will then be prompted to name your tactic. Once you have entered a name, hit the blue Submit button in the bottom right corner.

You will now see your tactic in the Tactic section on the objective details page!

All tactics are measured by a progress bar, from 0-100% completed. Once you’ve created your tactic, you can update it to show your progress! If you hover your mouse over the 0 under the Current tab, you'll see a pencil icon.

Click the pencil icon and type your 0-100 number for how complete this tactic is. You can hit Enter or click anywhere on the screen when you are done. Your tactic will now reflect the number you entered.

When you create a tactic, you are automatically made the owner. You are able to easily change ownership of the tactic if needed from the objective details page.

Under the Owners section of the tactics, select the circle with your initials or picture to change ownership. From here, use the dropdown to unassign and/or assign owners/co owners.

To see more information about a tactic, click into it from the objective details page. When you click into it, you'll be taken to the tactic details modal. On this page, you'll be able to see the owner(s) of the tactic, the duration, the team responsible, and tags. You're able to update any of these fields by clicking into the respective boxes.

On the right hand side you will see a Tags box. You are able to click into this box and select the appropriate tag for your tactic the same way you do for objectives! For more information on tags in Elate, check out our Guide to Tags!

Similar to how you are able to update the tactic on the objective details page, you are able to update it here on the tactic details modal.

You're able to update the goal with a 0-100 number by clicking into the current number or the progress bar.

You will then get a pop up allowing you to update the current progress and goal, if needed. Once you enter a number in the Current box, select the blue Update button.

Your tactic will then reflect the update.

The Activity section allows you to leave relevant commentary or context for your team about the tactic, similar to how you would for objectives. Feel free to @ mention any relevant team members here if needed as well!

The History tab allows you to see the history for the tactic, such as updates.

The Tactic Library will house all tactics in the account that are available to a given user allowing you to see how all tactics are doing in one location.

To find the Tactic Library, navigate to the Plan Execution tab and select Tactics at the top.

You are now able to see all of your tactics! Please note that if you have Actions you will see a column for Blockers. If you do not have Actions, you will not see this column in the table.

If you would like to filter your tactics, click on the blue filter icon in the top right.

From here, you are able to select your filter criteria to see exactly what is important to you!

Actions is an additional package offering that unlocks more features for your tactics such as next steps and blockers. If you're unsure whether or not you have Actions, an easy way to check is if you have an Actions tab on your objective details page, shown in the screenshot below Next Steps and Blockers.

If you have Actions, this section will outline additional features specific to you!

If you have the Actions package, you will notice your tactic details modal will look different than shown above. With the Actions package, the tactic details modal will show a section for next steps and blockers for the tactic in addition to the tactic information on the right hand side and the activity log and history.

Next Steps for tactics are steps that you will be taking to complete this tactic.

To add any next steps for your tactic, click the gray +Add Next Step button next to Next Steps.

You will then be prompted to enter the next step and select a due date.

When you create a Next Step you will automatically be assigned to it. There will be a circle with your initials or picture next to the due date, as shown in the above screenshot. To change the owner, simply click that circle and select the appropriate owner using the dropdown.

Once you have completed your next step, navigate back to this modal and check the circle next to your next step. The next step will be grayed out and the circle will be green with a check mark.

Blockers are anything that is stopping you from accomplishing this tactic.

To add a blocker, select the blue +Add Blocker button.

You will then be prompted to enter the blocker and set a resolve by date.

When you create a Blocker, you will automatically be assigned to it. There will be a circle with your initials or picture next to the resolve by date, as shown in the above screenshot. To change the owner, simply click that circle and select the appropriate owner using the dropdown.

Once you have resolved your blocker, navigate back to this modal and check the circle next to your blocker. The blocker will be grayed out and the circle will be green with a check mark.

If you have the Actions package, you will notice that you have an Actions tab on the objective details page.

This tab will show you all upcoming next steps, blockers, and due dates for each tactic in one view.

From here, you can click into the tactic or any blockers or next steps displayed and it will open the tactic modal allowing you to make updates or leave any commentary.

Q: Is there a way for me to see all tactics, next steps, and blockers assigned to me?

A: Yes! If you navigate to your home page using the panel on the left hand side, you will be able to see all objectives, tactics, outcomes, next steps, and blockers! If you don't have Actions, you will still see all objectives, tactics, and outcomes assigned to you!