TL;DR: Strategy is a buzzword we often use, but at its core, it is taking finite resources and deciding on where to apply them to induce the greatest effect.
There is a cavernous gap between strategy and planning. Often when I hear people use the word “strategy” what they mean is they planned something. Planning just means you decided on an objective and projected the steps you hope will get you to the future state.You can have a plan without a good strategy.
Strategy requires evaluating all of your resources, human, financial, technological, tangible and intangible, and deciding where they should be concentrated and when in order to advance towards your goals.Good strategy also fundamentally relies on identifying the right problems to solve.
In every organization I have ever seen, copious amounts of energy and resources are expended every year, moving metrics that have no effect on the stated goals of the organization.
So what actions can you take this week to begin thinking more strategically?
- Be crystal clear about the big goal you are pursuing.
- Identify all of the problems you can currently forecast in achieving those goals.
- Triage those problems to figure out the highest value problems to solve. (Which ones make the maximum number of other problems disappear and allow you to advance?).
- Take a detailed inventory of all of the resources you have available to you. Everything from money to skills and influence.
- Allocate those resources to the apex problems you’ve identified.
While this is not a difficult concept to grasp, it is remarkably difficult to consistently execute this in a disciplined way.
