If you squint...

...there is an "i" in strategy

It’s silent. Almost impossible to hear. Nearly imperceptible. Hard to notice.

But there is an “i” in strategy.

There will be more than a few who object to my grammar and maybe my logic here, but I’ll risk that downside to make a point. (*The “y” in strategy is a long “y”…but if we were to swap it to a short “y,” it’d come out sounding like an “i,” just as the “y” in “system” or “symbol”…just saying.)

First, let’s set some ground rules. Strategy is a team sport. I've written that before and wholeheartedly agree with the premise. Anything worth doing with an eye to strategy will be done as a team effort.

But strategy formulation's first step is—and always will be—the individual idea. There is no instance in all of recorded history for the exact same idea to occur in every mind on the staff in the exact same moment. It’s just not possible. (History, of course, does feature some pretty interesting moments where certain inventions were invented on separate continents at roughly the same time…but that’s not what we’re talking about here.)

Strategy starts with the recognition that something needs to change and—bang!—here's an idea for change.

That requires an individual to step forward with with an idea. To formulate it, even at a crude level, even at a level others would disagree with, at a level that even doesn't make sense at first whack (or at least an idea that others certainly need to cut against to improve).

Readers may have heard of the “toothbrush” problem, the idea that all academics have their own frameworks, but would never, ever consider using another academic’s framework (just as most of us wouldn’t dare use another person’t toothbrush).

The same idea is alive and well amongst strategists. Strategists prefer their own ideas to others, naturally, because they want to create, to build something they consider their very own. A bit like Ikea—people tend to appreciate something more when they’ve had a stake in it’s creation.

That’s how we get to the “i” in strategy. Strategy starts with an individual’s idea. Every scenario, every single scenario the strategist gets into demands a new approach. Imagine a sports team that plays the same opponent on consecutive nights. While the coach’s strategy may be similar both nights…it simply won’t be the exact same as the second match will be influenced—and changed—by the mere fact of the first match.

Remember the “i” in strategy and use it for motivation to come up with new ideas!