Dan, I'm literally in the thick of too many things to count at work but I'm literally dropping them all to respond - mostly because it's so good to get a note from you! (I hope you & yours are doing well...we're hanging in there.) There's a bit of a duck in my response in that I think your strategy has to be as precise as it can be yet still understood by the entire organization. I think there's two common faults in that space. One, folks make it so narrow as to render the document unusable when something unanticipated comes along (which happens often). Or, second, folks write it so abstract and disconnected from reality that it doesn't really apply to much of anything. I think the balance between God's-eye and worm's-eye matters a lot. As to your comment about "marketability" - I think of it this way. Yes, the thing needs to be read and understood by all (which is a heavy lift if you think about it) - but it's also got to be grounded in facts and fundamentals - in short, it can't just be fluff and shine (because fluff and shine get tossed aside pretty easily).
I really liked this one! Good reminders. It can be tricky to balance the "sales/marketability" of strategy when one is also racking their brain to come to a workable approach to solve a complicated problem. But as the article says, you need both - what good is a winning approach if no one can understand it? @Matt, how do you balance these differing needs as you go through your planning & strategzing?
Dan, I'm literally in the thick of too many things to count at work but I'm literally dropping them all to respond - mostly because it's so good to get a note from you! (I hope you & yours are doing well...we're hanging in there.) There's a bit of a duck in my response in that I think your strategy has to be as precise as it can be yet still understood by the entire organization. I think there's two common faults in that space. One, folks make it so narrow as to render the document unusable when something unanticipated comes along (which happens often). Or, second, folks write it so abstract and disconnected from reality that it doesn't really apply to much of anything. I think the balance between God's-eye and worm's-eye matters a lot. As to your comment about "marketability" - I think of it this way. Yes, the thing needs to be read and understood by all (which is a heavy lift if you think about it) - but it's also got to be grounded in facts and fundamentals - in short, it can't just be fluff and shine (because fluff and shine get tossed aside pretty easily).
I really liked this one! Good reminders. It can be tricky to balance the "sales/marketability" of strategy when one is also racking their brain to come to a workable approach to solve a complicated problem. But as the article says, you need both - what good is a winning approach if no one can understand it? @Matt, how do you balance these differing needs as you go through your planning & strategzing?