A hallmark of true expertise and insight is making a complex subject understandable. A hallmark of mediocrity and bad strategy is unnecessary complexityâa flurry of fluff masking an absence of substance.
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A good strategy includes a set of coherent actions. They are not âimplementationâ details; they are the punch in the strategy. A strategy that fails to define a variety of plausible and feasible immediate actions is missing a critical component.
How someone can see what others have not, or what they have ignored, and thereby discover a pivotal objective and create an advantage, lies at the very edge of our understanding, something glimpsed only out of the corner of our minds. Not every good strategy draws on this kind of insight, but those that do generate the extra kick that separates âordinary excellenceâ from the extraordinary.
Bad strategy is not simply the absence of good strategy. It grows out of specific misconceptions and leadership dysfunctions. Once you develop the ability to detect bad strategy, you will dramatically improve your effectiveness at judging, influencing, and creating strategy. To detect a bad strategy, look for one or more of its four major hallmarks:
⢠Fluff. Fluff is a form of gibberish masquerading as strategic concepts or arguments. It uses âSundayâ words (words that are inflated and unnecessarily abstruse) and apparently esoteric concepts to create the illusion of high-level thinking.
⢠Failure to face the challenge. Bad strategy fails to recognize or define the challenge. When you cannot define the challenge, you cannot evaluate a strategy or improve it.
⢠Mistaking goals for strategy. Many bad strategies are just statements of desire rather than plans for overcoming obstacles.
⢠Bad strategic objectives. A strategic objective is set by a leader as a means to an end. Strategic objectives are âbadâ when they fail to address critical issues or when they are impracticable.
... bad strategy is vacuous and superficial, has internal contradictions, and doesnât define or address the problem. Bad strategy generates a feeling of dull annoyance when you have to listen to it or read it.
A great deal of strategy work is trying to figure out what is going on. Not just deciding what to do, but the more fundamental problem of comprehending the situation.