Richard Rumelt writes a piercing work on the essential need for good strategy and the overwhelming failure by many leaders and organizations to do the hard work of not only developing goals, but a strategy to reach them. One of his main premises which I found helpful, is his argument that most organizations develop strategic goals but not actual tangible plans to reach them. When this happens we identify the end-zone, but we don’t identify the playbook we are running to get there. We identify the destination, but we do not map out the route that will help us arrive there. Here are some of the key thoughts from his book on what makes good strategy.
- Good strategy doesn’t ignore challenges the team/organization is facing
- Good strategy sees the core influencing factors on a situation
- Good strategy is cohesive in response
- Good strategy focuses energy and resources
- Good strategy involves diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action
- Good strategy creates strength through coherence of design
- Good strategy builds a bridge between a problem and action
- Good strategy can create shifts in viewpoints to better understand and respond to a situation
Here is a link to Richard’s book, Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
Questions for reflection|
- Does your team or organization have direction/goals?
- Does your team/organization have a strategy?
- Does your strategy acknowledge a challenge?
- Is your strategy including all the influencing factors?
- Why is it hard for you to do the work to develop a strategy and not just goals?
MultiplyLEADERS.org 