Leaders like to get things done and a bias for action often distinguishes great leaders from the merely good. But action has to age well. Wasting resources tomorrow untangling the negative consequences of action we take today negates any advantage we might have gained from acting quickly.
This is why strategy is the art of leadership.
Strategy requires talent to make good choices at all levels of the organisation: owners choosing the right grand strategy; leaders converting this into missions; talent identifying ways to meet those missions; and together deciding how to make the right next moves.
Across the organisation we need to rise to the level of strategic thinking to make better operational choices.
Once choices have been made, the leader coordinates the various lines of action. This isn’t simple — if done right. Talent demands the freedom to discover better ways, while leaders must continually cultivate awareness of what’s coming over the horizon next. But done right, this is the shortest path to success.
Communication
The art of strategy rests on communication. Not making motivating talks about inspiring visions (though there is a time and place, and sometimes a need, for those too) but about connecting the three directions of strategic thinking that a leader sits at the intersection of:
Upwards towards the owner — whose vision the business strategy must satisfy
Sideways towards our environment — to the users we must delight and rivals we must outplay
Downwards towards talent — equipping them to make better daily choices that bring success.
Leaders are the key conduit in every organisation. But they must not become a single point of failure. Leaders must ensure information flows through the levels — both ways — because the quality of thinking and action in an organisation depends on how well information flows through it.
Continual loops
We must also recognise the role chance plays in events — a force more powerful than any plan we can create. Strategy provides guidance on our next moves, but it must also be flexible enough to allow talent to take advantage of unexpected opportunities — without which we rarely achieve anything extraordinary.
Action generates new information, which should be converted into better choices that drive more effective action. New insights into better ways of doing things — or better things to do — must feed back into the Hierarchy of Strategic Thinking, enabling us to refine our missions or create new, more impactful ones.
This is how leaders achieve that most difficult of tasks — providing a clear sense of direction for the entire organisation to follow, whilst adapting as you go in response to unexpected changes.
Conclusion
The Hierarchy of Strategy Thinking is not a call to centralise power in the hands of a few. Nor its opposite — opening up decision-making to a vote. Both of these have been widely tried and, arguably, widely failed.
The aim is to help leaders recognise that choices need to be made at multiple levels and they can’t make all of these themselves. Involving talent at the right levels trains them to think and act strategically — resulting in action that captures opportunities and shapes the landscape to our advantage.
My modest hope is the Hierarchy of Strategy Thinking provides you some guidance for doing this.
If you’d like to think and act strategically in your organisation explore more here: https://powermaps.net