There’s a costly myth out there: That the best strategies are intellectually dense and complex.
But here’s the truth about strategy:
→ It’s not a measure of intelligence.
→ It’s a measure of action.
You don’t judge a strategy on how brilliant it looks on paper. You judge it on how well it guides people’s actions.
Which is why communication plays such a crucial role.
But one that’s often treated as an afterthought.
(If at all.)
As Alex M H Smith writes in the foreword to my book:
‘A well-communicated bad strategy is a hell of a lot better than a poorly communicated good one.’
He’s absolutely right.
Forgive me for being direct here, but great strategies don’t make an impact through what they were supposed to do when they were presented in glossy PowerPoints. They live through the actions people actually take.
The problem is often not the strategy itself.
They are indeed brilliant, smart, intelligently created.
It’s that they’re not communicated clearly enough.
Which means that all the hard work that went into creating the strategy is wasted.
Because – let’s face it – a strategy that isn’t understood, embraced, and acted upon, might just as well not exist.
The best strategies are the ones that light the PATH for everyone involved to take action.
PS: In my new book “The PATH to Strategic Impact”, you’ll learn how some of the world’s most successful businesses communicated their strategies for maximum impact – and how you can do the same.
