Strategy
Seth’ Blog » Why even bother to think about strategy?
There's confusion between tactics and strategy. It's easy to get tied up in semantic knots as you work to figure out the distinction. It's worth it, though, because strategy can save you when tactics fail.
If a tactic fails, you should consider abandoning it.
But that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with your strategy. Your strategy is what you keep doing even after you walk away from a tactic.
A real estate broker could decide that her goal is to get more listings.
And her strategy is to achieve that by becoming the most trusted person in town.
There are then 100 tactics she can use to earn that trust. She can coordinate events, sponsor teams, host community meetings in her office, sponsor the local baseball team, be transparent about her earnings, hire countless summer interns at a fair wage, run seminars at the local library, etc. ...
It doesn't matter if one or two or five of the tactics aren't home runs. They add up.
But if once, just once, she violates someone's trust and expectations, the entire strategy goes out the window.
Tactics are disposable.
Strategy is for the long haul.
Sources
- Perdoo » Henrik-Jan van der Pol » Looking to get aligned? Put strategy first, OKR second
- Seth’s Blog » Seth Godin » Why even bother to think about strategy?
- HBR » John P. Kotter » Forget the Strategy PowerPoint
- HBR » Alessandro Di Fiore » How to Execute a 15-Word Strategy Statement
- https://hbr.org/2014/11/a-list-of-goals-is-not-a-strategy