Despite the possibility that the word “strategy” might just be the most used word in business (save for whatever is the latest buzzword), it’s actually misused in many instances. And not only is it often used incorrectly, the action it implies is, at times, nowhere to be found.
Why do so many of us use the word strategy so regularly and yet neglect to put a strong strategy in place?
Frankly, hearing the word at every turn makes strategy a little like white noise – always in the background, but difficult to identify. Even the most savvy among us can easily misuse the word and under-use the principle.
So, what is strategy really? How do you know if you’ve got it right?
Here’s a 101 on the nuances of strategy that will help all of us become more accurate, as well as take meaningful, inspired action that gets results.
Strategy vs. Strategic Direction (and a little bit about tactics)
There’s a subtle difference between strategic direction and strategy.
Strategic direction is the high-level organizational direction critical for facilitating clarity and understanding, as well as for building momentum throughout an organization.
Setting strategic direction let’s everyone know where the organization is heading, and builds trust as leadership navigates towards the destination, performing course adjustments along the way.
Strong strategy, on the other hand, let’s everyone know how the organization is going to move toward its destination.
Airplanes provide an apt metaphor:
When you board a plane and the pilot says, “This flight is going to San Diego,” she’s just given you the strategic direction. You want to go to San Diego, so you board. Everyone else on the plane wants to go to San Diego, too, and that’s why they boarded. So, strategic direction is not only an organization’s destination, but also a means for building consensus among leadership, staff, strategic partners and other stakeholders.
The fact that a six-hour flight plan is set; that the pilot will be working with air traffic control along the way; that the plane needs to be full of people for the airline to make a profit – all these make up the strategies for getting the plane to San Diego. It’s the how.
To illustrate further: Once the plane is in the air, the pilot makes course adjustments based on a variety of factors: turbulence, wind speed, currents, other air traffic. As the pilot takes in new information, that data informs the strategies for getting to San Diego, and the clarity gained along the way allows the pilot to take the best course. The overall direction stays constant (we’re going to San Diego, nowhere else) and also provides a framework that aligns everyone involved. But the strategies (how we’re going to get to San Diego) may change throughout the journey, ensuring the plane gets to its destination in the most efficient way and providing measures of progress.
Now, tactics are the how of the strategy – the how of the how. Going back to our metaphor:
How much fuel will the plane need for a six-hour flight? How much will we charge for a ticket? What kind of crew is best? What safety precautions will we take? All of these are the tactics used to execute the strategies that will get the plane to San Diego – its destination or strategic direction.
The Confusing World of Strategies and Tactics
Strategy is often distilled to tactics, but they are two different animals. Strategies are the overarching ways an organization plans to achieve its strategic direction, and tactics are the specific actions required to execute those strategies. Tactics are important, but if tactics are selected without connection to the strategies they are supposed to achieve, the result is discrete, unconnected actions that don’t serve to keep the organization moving in the right direction.
Here are two examples demonstrating why understanding the differences between strategic direction, strategies and tactics is so important, why alignment (at all levels) is everything, and why without communication an organization is unlikely to reach its ultimate destination:
Case Study #1: “O0ps! We forgot where we’re going.”
The leadership and staff of a non-profit were so focused on constructing a building for their organization (strategy) and their capital campaign (tactic), that they lost sight of the organization’s ultimate purpose and mission (strategic direction). They desperately needed to focus on strategies like programming and education if the organization was to have any shot of achieving its social mission – the reason the non-profit existed in the first place.
The strategic planning session Quinn Strategy Group facilitated served to re-invigorate the board and the staff, helping them to remember their direction and why they had worked so hard to establish the organization.
The capital campaign was still an important tactic, but everyone (donors, board, staff, corporate partners) was better able to see how other strategies were needed to realize the overall strategic direction. This understanding engaged and motivated a much broader stakeholder group, making the achievement of the organization’s strategy much easier – and faster – and, of course, helped catapult the organization closer to fulfilling it’s mission.
Case Study #2: “O0ps! We forgot to share the plan.”
A company set its strategic direction for the year. It had a:
-Revenue target (strategy)
-Plan to complete two acquisitions – primarily to drive additional revenue to meet the revenue target (tactic)
-Sales goal for a specific offering (strategy)
-Plan to learn how to better sell that specific offering (tactic)
The company hit its revenue target, and had great financial success, but in the process it had drifted strategically.
The employees were what made the company successful and leadership neglected to include employee goals and training within the plan for carrying out the strategic direction. Staff members ended up feeling out of alignment with where the company was going, because they couldn’t see how they fit in, or how what they were being asked to do meshed with the big picture. As a result, strategies fell apart because the tactics employees adopted were chosen basically in the dark.
Learning a big lesson, leadership spent much time the following year discussing employee strategy with Quinn Strategy Group – how to recruit, retain, train and manage stellar talent. We involved employees in developing employee recognition, recruitment and training programs and goals, and also involved teams in creating processes and systems that would make the company more efficient and effective.
That may not sound very strategic, but it aligned the whole company around the strategic direction, informed everyone of selected strategies and clued employees in about why specific tactics had been selected. The process also sent an important message to employees: You have value; you are the key to making this work; you are, in fact, the only way we’re going to get where we want to go.
Beyond the Fact that it’s All Just Very Confusing, Why Do We Avoid Strategy (even though we use the word every other minute)?
“I’m too busy to think strategy through, much less put one in place.”
“I don’t need to put my strategy on paper, it’s clear in my head.”
“I’m successful. That’s my strategy.”
“I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t where to start.”
SDSAS (Strategic Direction & Strategy Confusion-Avoidance Syndrome) is rampant in business and the reasons for “catching” it run the gamut.
I’m trying to be funny here (and hopefully succeeding), because no matter why we find ourselves avoiding taking charge, it typically stems from something not so humorous: uncertainty.
Being uncertain is no fun. And if real fear is underlying that uncertainty, it’s even worse. Especially, when all we really want is to be successful – to make a living, to take care of the people we love, to have an impact in the world.
The reality is that we all feel uncertain and lose our way at times in business. Which means, there’s absolutely no need to be embarrassed should you neglect to set your strategic direction, have your strategies confused with tactics, or haven’t connected those strategies and tactics to your final destination. Sorting it all out is why outside consultants (and Chief Action Officers like us) exist. And, hey, we want to be successful, too.
Sometimes all any of us needs is that outside perspective to help us see the big picture, set a course and select the most valuable activities for putting it all in motion – and who wouldn’t benefit from support that ensures we’re not wasting our time?
