What’s the use
I recently got message from a student from a college class I gave a talk to earlier this fall, with the kind of simple question that breaks your brain: what makes a good strategy?
As Kundera says, “The only truly serious questions are the ones even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious.” This is a serious question.
My response was:
In a word, usability. Strategy is a way to solve problems, so defining a problem is important. And it has to have rigorous thinking behind it so the solution has the best odds of working. But the critical thing people miss is that for a strategy to work involves people doing things — coming up with ideas, executing a plan. So the easier it is to use, the more likely it is to be effective. Hope that helps, Ben
There are plenty of definitions of strategy that surround what it takes to create it: words like choice (Porter) and design (Rummelt). We might say it has to have elements like tension, a problem, a proposition or a belief. I’ve heard it described in agencies as the first idea, which gets closer to what we do with it.
We’re steeped in the sauce of our craft and we should be. I write a biweekly blog that’s almost entirely about creating strategy, for chrissakes. But I think we can get so obsessed with form that we lose function. So concerned about the beauty of our ingredients that we forget they’re meant to get chopped, smashed, mixed, and roasted.
As Rummelt (again) writes, “A good strategy does more than urge us forward toward a goal or vision. A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to overcoming them. And the greater the challenge, the more a good strategy focuses and coordinates efforts to achieve a powerful competitive punch or problem-solving effect.”
The key word there is “efforts.” There’s a “ok, let’s do this” moment that turns a smart assessment into a plan of action. And like how writing strategy often requires deep consumer insight, usefulness requires knowledge of who is meant to use it and how they’re used to working.
From: good for solving something → To: good for someone to do something
So is your strategy the kind that’s like war, good for absolutely nothing, or the kind that’s useful?
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I write these posts, 3-MINUTE MONDAYS, every other week. My goal with them is to share a snippet of insight into how to do strategy, build teams, and grow. Comment here or message me on LinkedIn if you want to chat. — Ben
