“strategy” is a sexy distraction.
(part 1 of several)
Strategy is sexy, expensive, elite. It’s for smart people; influential people; sweatless, well-manicured, well-paid people.
Alas, “strategy” as it is often described and desired doesn’t really exist.
In the life of a team with a mission, there is doing and deciding.
That’s it! That’s the list.
All action on the team, even the CEO’s, should be doing or deciding.
(You can think of deciding as a form of doing and fuel for doing. If you don’t believe me, think on time you’ve spent on a team with low “decision throughput” - not a lot of doing on those teams.)
Often I encounter a line of thinking (and fall prey to it myself) that conjures “strategy” as a potent and ethereal third sphere, floating somewhere above doing and deciding. It is the realm of spellcasters. Genius resides there. Paydays are higher; work is easier; the things you’re rewarded for in most college and graduate school programs (nuance, jargon, arguments) carry weight.
So when someone on my team says they want to talk strategy or they want a more strategic role, I get the willies. Are they trying to whisk me away to this fantasy land, where neither of us will be doing or deciding?
Often, they are not talking about deciding or doing or strategy. They are talking in good faith about something else. A few things folks have been trying to say they want when they say “strategy”:
talking about what we will do (usually to leaders)
talking about complexities of the work we do or the context in which we do that work (usually to leaders)
spending time with leaders
research
You’ll notice the common element in most of this list is time with you, the leader. One thing people want when they want to “do strategy” is time with the leader. Strategy is just a means to that end. Strategy, status, proximity to leaders - to many, these all appear to go hand in hand or even appear to be the very same thing.
If you are a leader or the leader and folks are coming to you to talk about strategy or get a more strategic role, consider one of the following:
Request a proposal. Push your person to write up decisions they think should be made and things that should be done. It is useful to have them do this as if they were you. “Imagine you are CEO / Executive Director / 11th grade dean of discipline for a day. What would you do that is different from what we are doing now and why?” Hard cap the number of pages, words, slides. This saves you time and forces your person to simplify, which forces them to do the critical, difficult cognitive work.
Offer more “belonging cues” to your people. One of my favorite of these cues is asking, simply, “what’s your take?”
Have a direct conversation with your person about what they want from this season of their career. Then help them get that. The season that includes the current job they do with you and the next job (whether it’s with you or somewhere else). In many cases, someone seeking a more strategic role has ambition. It’s possible, ironically, that they lack a strategy to realize their ambition. They don’t have the permission, information, or clear goal they need to decide what to do next. You can help with that. Sometimes this conversation leads to a new role, sometimes it means they start to transition out, sometimes it means continuing the status quo. In all scenarios, you having this conversation makes you an ally - good for you, good for them, and good, big picture for the organization.
Overcommunicate your current strategy in all channels available to you. What is the team doing right now; what is the near of medium-term goal of that doing; how is it going; how does achieving this goal secure progress to the mission. You want everyone on the team to be able to say all this accurately - that takes a lot of repeating from you and other leaders.
If you find yourself hungry to “do strategy” or secure a more strategic role, consider one of the following:
Write a compact memo to your leader with clear recommendations and rationale. Illustrate concisely how your recommendations achieve existing goals or reflect existing values. Tell your reader what parts of The Doing that your recommendations require you personally will take on or own.
Analyze the work you’re already doing - then make new decisions. Look at your calendar. What do you spend time on? If you manage people, what are they spending their time on? What could be done to make better use of your time and theirs? Decide on changes or experiments. Hey, you just did strategy.
Build relationships with those more senior than you at the organization. You don’t have to be coy about this. You don’t have to cloak your desire for this in the gossamer raiment of “strategy.” Make a request; offer a contribution. This can sound like:
“I’m interested in learning more from you. I think this will make me stronger for our mission and advance my career here and beyond. Can we get coffee / can i shadow you at x event / would you be up for a monthly mentoring conversation?”
“I’ve been thinking about a way we might achieve more, faster. Here’s a memo I wrote with recommendations for this.” (see memo step above)
-Eric
