I recently discovered a love for the concept known as strategy. I’ve become quite interested in looking at the future and asking myself, “what challenges and opportunities exist out there, and what is needed to capitalize on those?” I’m an optimist by nature, and I think that helps. I get excited when new things appear over the horizon, and I imagine what kind of problems might be solved by leveraging emerging technologies. However, optimism by itself falls short when it comes to execution - it can’t accomplish much aside from motivation to move against inertia. But even if you have determination and strength that help build a path towards solving problems, you still need a strategy if you want to accomplish anything.
In the corporate world, most people have these annual meetings where a boss will tell them what they are expected to accomplish in a given year. A boss might explain what the department wants to improve on and talk about how excited they are for workers to address these new challenges. Sometimes they call these meetings strategy discussions. But usually this is just goal setting, and in reality while goal setting is necessary, it rarely has anything to do with strategy.
So where does strategy come in? You may not be surprised to hear that strategy is an expansive concept and difficult to simplify. And consider that your company may have multiple strategies – product growth strategies, marketing strategies, operations strategies – each with their own tactics and tools for measuring success.
See, no matter where you work in an organization, you have to consider not only what you want to accomplish, but what is in the way of that goal? What are the obstacles? What plays are at your disposal to address these challenges?
I played a ton of soccer in high school. And prior to each match, coach would lead a team meeting in which he would describe the team we were playing against, identifying who the key players were, their strengths, and what we should do with our own key players to try and come out on top.
Question for you: how often do you set a goal, then work with your team to identify the obstacles to those goals and how to overcome them? If you can get everyone on the same page regarding these (goals, obstacles, solutions), you might actually have a strategy. And if you have a legitimate strategy, you may even have a shot at achieving your goals.
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