In a recent conversation with Alex Smith about strategy, we briefly touched on this never-ending confusion between strategy, tactics, and planning:
Almost always, when people develop any form of short term strategy, and one year is short term, what they’re actually developing are a series of tactical moves. Now, that series of tactical moves might be amazing and brilliant, and they might have gigantic positive effects for the business, so it’s not like it’s a bad thing to do. But they are not the strategy. The strategy is the organizing principle, which is dictating what those ideas are.
To which I said:
When you’re not able to capture that value that you were speaking of in a way that the team knows how to translate it into actions, then all these retreats and the projects, they will lead nowhere because, well, the choices don’t align towards delivering that value.
Listening to Alex’s words here …
When was the last time you really tried to articulate your long term strategy? And in a way, that you – and the whole team – know how to pick the tactics that align to a powerful leap?
PS: The full conversation will be published next week on my LinkedIn page. You’ll learn why good strategy is fun, what some of the famous strategists did differently, and why it might be a good idea to more openly disagree with your competition.