Imagine that you’ve just landed in an unfamiliar foreign city. You hire a car at the airport to drive to your hotel. But you have no map, no GPS, and no idea where your hotel is. So you decide to drive really fast, assuming speed will somehow make up for a lack of direction.
Of course, no-one would do this in real life. So why do we do it in business? Facing an uncertain future, many organisations adopt new technologies with only the vaguest sense of what they’re trying to achieve with them.
You can’t make progress if you don’t know the direction you’re meant to be heading in.
Heroic leaders try to solve this problem by becoming the organisation’s compass — providing day-to-day direction. This can even work for a while, if they’re experienced leaders. But their success becomes a trap — talent starts to default to the leader, who becomes a bottleneck, and decision quality declines.
What then must we do?
Why This, Not That
In this series of short articles so far we’ve established the foundations for real strategic thinking:
Now we have to pressure-test those moves to decide why these move over those moves:
Is this move desirable? — Do our target users actually want this? Will they buy this from us? Are there enough potential users to justify the effort?
Is this move feasible? — Can we execute this with the capabilities we have, or can acquire? Can we allocate the resources needed without breaking the business?
Is this move viable? — Will this create enduring value we can capture, even if rivals respond? Or will it be copied, neutralised, or competed away before it compounds?
We turn these objections into questions we can research and test. And this is what strategy sessions should be for: exposing assumptions about potential moves that have been identified, surfacing hidden risks, and comparing choices before making commitments — so we can say, with a higher level of confidence:
We’ve chosen these moves over those, for these reasons.
Now we have a real strategy for getting where we want to go.
Quick Test
Think of a major strategic focus in your organisation. Can you explain why you’re doing this -- and why you chose this over any alternatives?
If not, you may be hoping brilliant execution (driving fast) makes up for a lack of strategy (a shared map of the landscape and an agreed direction).
Next Up
How to turn our choices into effective action.
To follow this series subscribe to the blog (https://powermaps.net/blog).
If you found this post useful share it with others.
Of course, no-one would do this in real life. So why do we do it in business? Facing an uncertain future, many organisations adopt new technologies with only the vaguest sense of what they’re trying to achieve with them.
You can’t make progress if you don’t know the direction you’re meant to be heading in.
Heroic leaders try to solve this problem by becoming the organisation’s compass — providing day-to-day direction. This can even work for a while, if they’re experienced leaders. But their success becomes a trap — talent starts to default to the leader, who becomes a bottleneck, and decision quality declines.
What then must we do?
Why This, Not That
In this series of short articles so far we’ve established the foundations for real strategic thinking:
- Owners set the direction — the Grand Strategy the business exists to pursue
- Leaders translate the Grand Strategy into missions — aims to achieve and problems to solve
- Talent develops situational awareness — seeing the landscape clearly, and how it’s changing
- And identify potential moves — actions that realise our missions and move us towards our vision.
Now we have to pressure-test those moves to decide why these move over those moves:
Is this move desirable? — Do our target users actually want this? Will they buy this from us? Are there enough potential users to justify the effort?
Is this move feasible? — Can we execute this with the capabilities we have, or can acquire? Can we allocate the resources needed without breaking the business?
Is this move viable? — Will this create enduring value we can capture, even if rivals respond? Or will it be copied, neutralised, or competed away before it compounds?
We turn these objections into questions we can research and test. And this is what strategy sessions should be for: exposing assumptions about potential moves that have been identified, surfacing hidden risks, and comparing choices before making commitments — so we can say, with a higher level of confidence:
We’ve chosen these moves over those, for these reasons.
Now we have a real strategy for getting where we want to go.
Quick Test
Think of a major strategic focus in your organisation. Can you explain why you’re doing this -- and why you chose this over any alternatives?
If not, you may be hoping brilliant execution (driving fast) makes up for a lack of strategy (a shared map of the landscape and an agreed direction).
Next Up
How to turn our choices into effective action.
To follow this series subscribe to the blog (https://powermaps.net/blog).
If you found this post useful share it with others.
