I recently posted about times NOT to do strategy. TL;DR: When you’re not actually ready to change anything, you shouldn’t be doing strategy.
A lot of folks found that helpful. Some others, though, asked me: “If these aren’t the right moments, what are the right moments?”
Well, you can probably take a guess. If strategy isn’t a fit when you’re not ready to change, it follows that…
Strategy is for when you need a change.
You need to do strategy when your current path is leading you toward outcomes that are no longer acceptable.
Why? Because change is hard. If we’re going to put ourselves through the difficulty of changing what we do, it needs to be preferable to the pain of not changing.
Moving the goalposts
A few weeks ago, I was catching up with a good friend and collaborator. Our conversation went something like this:
Good Friend and Collaborator (GFC): “So how’s business at Converge, Brooke? Have you felt a downturn in business due to overall market conditions?”
Brooke: “No, people have lots of decisions to make about where to trim back when the market goes south.”
GFC: “Oh, yeah, I see that. Does that mean that strategy is counter-cyclical—and the strategy business sags when markets are surging?”
B: “No, not that either. People have lots of investment decisions to make when cash is flowing.”
GFC: “Oh… so does that mean that it’s always a good time for strategy? Brooke, you’re constantly railing against people who push the same solution regardless of the problem—but isn’t that what you’re doing?”
That threw me for a second. Such hypocrisy and inconsistency are worse than death for a philosopher. My bowtie felt tight.
And then it hit me: it’s not about whether the market is up or down. Strategy work sags when the world is boring. (Sweet relief. Saved from getting snared in one of my own favourite traps.)
When things aren’t changing very much, people are comfortable just staying the course. Sure, there are still some people who decide during “peace times” that they won’t tolerate the status quo anymore, but by far the most important time for strategy is when the world is changing (which, by the way, it seems to be doing more and more, faster and faster).
That part of the conversation unlocked another really interesting insight—for understanding dynamics in my own market, but more importantly for anybody running a business:
"The world can’t unsettle you—if you unsettle yourself first."
There are two components that determine whether currently expected outcomes are acceptable:
- What those outcomes are
- What you’ll tolerate
There’s a reassuring insight here. The world can’t unilaterally determine that your outcomes aren’t acceptable. Ultimately, you always retain control over how you define success, and that’s a reassuring realization.
The world may throw you all kinds of curve balls. You may have only limited control over the outcomes that come to pass. But you have an incredible amount of control over placing the goalposts for keeping score.
In terms of strategy, one path is to wait until the world pushes you so far that you feel cornered, so that you must act. Another path is to take initiative yourself and decide that you want to adjust your expectations—and therefore to enter the strategy arena on your own terms.
In my experience, the feeling in the room AND the kinds of strategies we build are materially different when leaders are proactive in making their own choice that the status quo isn’t acceptable.
Different how? There’s more willingness to be bold. That leads to strategies with clearer differentiation, which ultimately create more value—for customers and for the companies themselves.
To sum up—
- The right time to do strategy is when you won’t accept the outcomes down your current path anymore.
- The outcomes down that path are determined mostly by the world around you (and partially by your actions).
- But the acceptability of those outcomes is your choice.
- Taking ownership over your “acceptability criteria” positions you to make better strategy, and to give yourself the best chance of meeting your goals (regardless of what those are).
I recently posted about times NOT to do strategy. TL;DR: When you’re not actually ready to change anything, you shouldn’t be doing strategy.
A lot of folks found that helpful. Some others, though, asked me: “If these aren’t the right moments, what are the right moments?”
Well, you can probably take a guess. If strategy isn’t a fit when you’re not ready to change, it follows that…
Strategy is for when you need a change.
You need to do strategy when your current path is leading you toward outcomes that are no longer acceptable.
Why? Because change is hard. If we’re going to put ourselves through the difficulty of changing what we do, it needs to be preferable to the pain of not changing.
Moving the goalposts
A few weeks ago, I was catching up with a good friend and collaborator. Our conversation went something like this:
Good Friend and Collaborator (GFC): “So how’s business at Converge, Brooke? Have you felt a downturn in business due to overall market conditions?”
Brooke: “No, people have lots of decisions to make about where to trim back when the market goes south.”
GFC: “Oh, yeah, I see that. Does that mean that strategy is counter-cyclical—and the strategy business sags when markets are surging?”
B: “No, not that either. People have lots of investment decisions to make when cash is flowing.”
GFC: “Oh… so does that mean that it’s always a good time for strategy? Brooke, you’re constantly railing against people who push the same solution regardless of the problem—but isn’t that what you’re doing?”
That threw me for a second. Such hypocrisy and inconsistency are worse than death for a philosopher. My bowtie felt tight.
And then it hit me: it’s not about whether the market is up or down. Strategy work sags when the world is boring. (Sweet relief. Saved from getting snared in one of my own favourite traps.)
When things aren’t changing very much, people are comfortable just staying the course. Sure, there are still some people who decide during “peace times” that they won’t tolerate the status quo anymore, but by far the most important time for strategy is when the world is changing (which, by the way, it seems to be doing more and more, faster and faster).
That part of the conversation unlocked another really interesting insight—for understanding dynamics in my own market, but more importantly for anybody running a business:
"The world can’t unsettle you—if you unsettle yourself first."
There are two components that determine whether currently expected outcomes are acceptable:
- What those outcomes are
- What you’ll tolerate
There’s a reassuring insight here. The world can’t unilaterally determine that your outcomes aren’t acceptable. Ultimately, you always retain control over how you define success, and that’s a reassuring realization.
The world may throw you all kinds of curve balls. You may have only limited control over the outcomes that come to pass. But you have an incredible amount of control over placing the goalposts for keeping score.
In terms of strategy, one path is to wait until the world pushes you so far that you feel cornered, so that you must act. Another path is to take initiative yourself and decide that you want to adjust your expectations—and therefore to enter the strategy arena on your own terms.
In my experience, the feeling in the room AND the kinds of strategies we build are materially different when leaders are proactive in making their own choice that the status quo isn’t acceptable.
Different how? There’s more willingness to be bold. That leads to strategies with clearer differentiation, which ultimately create more value—for customers and for the companies themselves.
To sum up—
- The right time to do strategy is when you won’t accept the outcomes down your current path anymore.
- The outcomes down that path are determined mostly by the world around you (and partially by your actions).
- But the acceptability of those outcomes is your choice.
- Taking ownership over your “acceptability criteria” positions you to make better strategy, and to give yourself the best chance of meeting your goals (regardless of what those are).
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