What Makes Strategy Hard (and you may be surprised)
What makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process notoriously challenging can be distilled into the following 6 reasons, spread across 3 domains of the external, organisational, and personal.
In the external domain, what makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process hard is not per se VUCA (as many so readily opine). And neither is it the speed at which VUCA unfolds, as that's merely describing the context in which the strategy process is embedded in. It would be more precise to say that as a result of the VUCA context, what most strategists struggle with are:
❶ Information Buffet - akin to being faced with a buffet of food, one has a choice of how much to eat. Many would, unfortunately, feel "compelled" to eat as much as possible, and often without regard to health considerations. Few would eat only what they need, and prioritise healthy choices. Likewise when faced with the perception of information abundance, many lack the discipline and/or experience in knowing when to say "enough" and/or to distinguish signal from noise.
❷ Spiderweb - Just by looking at a spiderweb, it's almost impossible to tell which other parts of a spiderweb, beyond the immediate adjoining areas, would be affected if (x) point of the spiderweb was touched. That can be how it feels when contemplating which road to (not) take when standing at the fork of a road. And because strategy is not forecasting, but part science and part art, discussions often get derailed absent a consensus on how to make these kind of decisions.
In the organisational domain, assuming that those involved have strategic thinking capabilities - this is not always the case - what makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process hard is some form of the following phenomenon.
❶ Success Worship - This is the not uncommon mentality of "why change the approach that has brought us success?" - not to be confused with the related "not rocking the boat" mindset - and is, in part, rooted in the assumption that what got us here will continue to work to get us "there", regardless of where that "there" is. And it is not uncommon that some of the approaches and assumptions that generated past success ossified into sacred cows.
❷ "I know what strategy is, and it looks nothing like what you are doing" - Chances are that if you ask your leadership team what strategy is, you'll get a wide variety of responses. This is because everyone has their (implicit and unchallenged) pet understanding and approaches to strategy - backed by "proven track record" of course - and there is no alignment on how "to do" strategy. This is especially the case when there is no (skillful) external facilitation.
In the personal domain, what makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process hard is essentially either:
❶ Cognitive Biases - the most common ones being confirmation bias, availability bias, peak-end rule, halo-devil effect, and sunk cost fallacy. Cumulatively, these biases lead to the omission and/or discounting of critical information, while over-inflating the significance of others.
❷ Low Emotional Intelligence - most easily understood through the fight-flight-freeze-fawn reflex when faced with emotionally charged events. Fight is expressed primarily as some form of anger response, i.e., aggressive, defensive, passive-aggressive. Flight is expressed primarily as some form of avoidance response, i.e., deflection, procrastination, rumination. Freeze is expressed primarily as some form of acquiescing response, i.e., "silent nodder". Fawn is expressed primarily as some form of pleasing response, i.e., yes-person.
What to read next? Try How Companies Grow: 5 Strategic Levers.
To find out how I can help you and your organisation co-create a Me-Only corporate strategy, click on the button below to connect with me.
In the external domain, what makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process hard is not per se VUCA (as many so readily opine). And neither is it the speed at which VUCA unfolds, as that's merely describing the context in which the strategy process is embedded in. It would be more precise to say that as a result of the VUCA context, what most strategists struggle with are:
❶ Information Buffet - akin to being faced with a buffet of food, one has a choice of how much to eat. Many would, unfortunately, feel "compelled" to eat as much as possible, and often without regard to health considerations. Few would eat only what they need, and prioritise healthy choices. Likewise when faced with the perception of information abundance, many lack the discipline and/or experience in knowing when to say "enough" and/or to distinguish signal from noise.
❷ Spiderweb - Just by looking at a spiderweb, it's almost impossible to tell which other parts of a spiderweb, beyond the immediate adjoining areas, would be affected if (x) point of the spiderweb was touched. That can be how it feels when contemplating which road to (not) take when standing at the fork of a road. And because strategy is not forecasting, but part science and part art, discussions often get derailed absent a consensus on how to make these kind of decisions.
In the organisational domain, assuming that those involved have strategic thinking capabilities - this is not always the case - what makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process hard is some form of the following phenomenon.
❶ Success Worship - This is the not uncommon mentality of "why change the approach that has brought us success?" - not to be confused with the related "not rocking the boat" mindset - and is, in part, rooted in the assumption that what got us here will continue to work to get us "there", regardless of where that "there" is. And it is not uncommon that some of the approaches and assumptions that generated past success ossified into sacred cows.
❷ "I know what strategy is, and it looks nothing like what you are doing" - Chances are that if you ask your leadership team what strategy is, you'll get a wide variety of responses. This is because everyone has their (implicit and unchallenged) pet understanding and approaches to strategy - backed by "proven track record" of course - and there is no alignment on how "to do" strategy. This is especially the case when there is no (skillful) external facilitation.
In the personal domain, what makes the strategic thinking (not planning) process hard is essentially either:
❶ Cognitive Biases - the most common ones being confirmation bias, availability bias, peak-end rule, halo-devil effect, and sunk cost fallacy. Cumulatively, these biases lead to the omission and/or discounting of critical information, while over-inflating the significance of others.
❷ Low Emotional Intelligence - most easily understood through the fight-flight-freeze-fawn reflex when faced with emotionally charged events. Fight is expressed primarily as some form of anger response, i.e., aggressive, defensive, passive-aggressive. Flight is expressed primarily as some form of avoidance response, i.e., deflection, procrastination, rumination. Freeze is expressed primarily as some form of acquiescing response, i.e., "silent nodder". Fawn is expressed primarily as some form of pleasing response, i.e., yes-person.
What to read next? Try How Companies Grow: 5 Strategic Levers.
To find out how I can help you and your organisation co-create a Me-Only corporate strategy, click on the button below to connect with me.