Of the most used and least understood terms in business (and life) today, “strategy” sits atop the heap. I’m a self-confessed news junkie, hitting up numerous sites throughout the day for my latest fix. Today I have already read about BuzzFeed’s business strategy, Wal-Mart’s growth strategy, and an interesting point of view on theUnited States’ Middle East strategy.
All of that may make sense, but the “strategy” overload doesn’t stop there. I am scheduled to participate in no less than two “strategic planning” meetings in the next week or so, have been asked to help build a “strategic plan” to deal with a business-related issue, and I need to find some time for some “strategic thinking” about a company’s specific business challenge.
It would seem that you’re not a cool, sophisticated professional until you have a “strategy” or a “strategic” approach for everything. But are they all really “strategic?” Does everything need a “strategy?”
Recently Roger Martin wrote a piece on the Harvard Business Review blog titled “Why Smart People Struggle with Strategy.” He made a number of really good points, including the fact that, “Great strategy is aided by diversity of thought and attitude.“ A point that we’ve also explored in depth in a previous Forbes blog.
But I think there is another reason why most people (not just the cool, sophisticated professionals) struggle with strategy. And it’s pretty simple. It comes down to clarity.There just isn’t a clear understanding of what it (strategy) is.
Take the infamous “strategic plan”: I contend that most of the time this phrase is used, we aren’t clear on whether we want a plan with tactics and outcomes versus an actual strategy which might consider where we want to play, the markets we want to be in, our approach, our limited resources, and a raft of other factors. Put simply, is the word “strategy” misleading, simply slapped on to make “plan” sound more sophisticated?
That’s right. I’m saying that right now in your company, in your building, there are meetings, conversations, offsite workshops, and teams that are working on developing plans, all of which are being termed strategy and strategic to dress them up. Stop it! Next we’ll have to have the “overall strategic plan” just to differentiate it from the rather common strategic plan. Oh that’s right – we already have that.
Here’s something even more troubling that I see. Not only are the people in these meetings who are developing these “strategies” not clear on what they are doing, the rest of the organization (typically the hundreds or thousands of people who will have to carry out these “strategies”) definitely isn’t clear on what it will mean to them. Consequently, pretty much everyone has a hard time helping the company accomplish and reach their “strategy.”
Consider the waste of time and effort, leading to organizations full of misguided but nodding heads. the only result is flurry of busy action – in different directions and with no progress.
We’re all too busy to be creating confusion for each other. We should stop this by starting to do these three things:
1. Have a shared definition of “strategy.” Be specific. Use the words “strategy” and “strategic” only very deliberately – when it fits the meaning you and others agree upon. Be conscious whether you are asking a group of sales people to create an account plan or an account strategy? Are you creating an innovation plan or an innovation strategy? Are you developing your talent acquisition plan or a talent acquisition strategy? Don’t dress it up – this only confuses people. When you call a plan a strategy, most people churn around just trying to understand what you mean.
2. Call a “plan” a “plan.” When you have a strategy, make clear how it is different from a plan! You see, people can get behind a plan – they can understand the clearly defined actions and outcomes. The plan tells them what you’re hoping to do, and they can measure what they’re doing to help you get there. Accordingly, people can buy into a strategy: the strategy to be the best at X in the industry or the fastest at Y. When they’re clear on the strategy (not ten “strategic imperatives”) then they can get behind that too. Go on a walkabout and ask people how clear they are about your company strategy. Let me know what you find out.
3. Red flag: Is it really strategic? Sometimes (always) a bit of clarity helps. If you’re invited to a meeting that is “strategic” you should raise your internal red flag, empowering yourself to ask how is this strategic. How are the expectations different? How will the planning meeting be different now that we are calling it a “strategic” planning meeting? Same for a “strategic business review” vs a “business review.” Or a conversation vs a “strategic conversation.” The list goes on…
So let’s be more strategic (ha!) about our use of “strategy.” Overusing and abusing the term only ends up creating massive confusion – confusion that no one will mention because that wouldn’t be a “strategic” career move.
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