Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. - Sun Tzu (Chinese General, circa 500 BC)
Sun Tzu is exactly right. When it comes to competitive differentiation, it takes the right blend of strategy and tactics for success. I say the right blend, because many organizations spend too much time on strategy and tend to fizzle out when it comes to tactics. Why? Because we all know what we need to do, but we’re not always willing to do what it takes to get there.
Author David Maister refers to this as Strategy and the Fat Smoker. A fat smoker knows he or she should quit smoking, exercise, diet and lose weight. The resolve to do that, however, is not always there. Think about it. If it was that easy, there would be no drug addicts, alcoholics or bad marriages in the world.
Now let’s apply that theory to business. Strategy isn’t really rocket science. Every company competes on price, products and/or service. We all want to be the market leaders in our respective industries. We know what we need to do, but like the fat smoker, we don’t always have the resolve to do it. We’re not as willing as we think we are to step outside our comfort zones.
The real strategy lies in closing the gap between knowing and doing. It means spending less time conceptualizing and more time putting measurable actions into play. It means putting mechanisms in place that will ensure we are following up on our action plans. Much of what we do in the name of strategic planning is a about as effective as making New Year’s resolutions (in other words nice ideals for a few months but then little change by year-end).
The necessary outcome of strategic planning is not analytical insight. It’s resolve.
Here are a few quick tips about resolve when it comes to strategy and tactics:
· Make tough decisions. Don’t be afraid to offend someone, fire a low performer, go in a completely different direction or ruffle feathers. Is there a decision you know is best for your organization but you are afraid to pull the trigger?
· Set a deadline for every tactic. Be as specific and realistic as possible. And if a deadline is missed, there better be a darned good reason why.
· Assign responsibility for the plan’s overall execution. Someone needs to be the ultimate driver of your organization’s plan. Putting a name with the responsibility avoids ambiguity. And if multiple folks are involved it’s best to have one person as the primary so that people don’t look at each other when it comes to the deadline.
· Review the plan’s status on a regular basis. You need at least monthly updates on what is going on. Are we on track? Did some unforeseen circumstance cause a delay? If you are not going to monitor the plan then don’t expect it to work.
Effective planning is much more than just developing good ideas or a list of things to do in the upcoming year. Effective planning also means effective resolve.
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