The Strategy BS

I became acquainted with the term “strategy” early in my career. It was daunting, made me feel inadequate and somewhat admiring of those who wielded the word easily and often. I didn’t engage too much with it because I felt I hadn’t earned the strategy (whatever it was) credentials yet.

In my next job, I rose up the ranks and had no choice but to engage with “strategy”. Because I hadn’t fully understood it yet, I adopted the accompanying mannerisms instead. The thoughtful expression, the occasional nod of agreement and sometimes made furtive comments that something wasn’t “strategic” enough.

Clearly, enough people were fooled and soon I was leading “strategy”. Now that the buck stopped with me, I had no escape but to face this damn thing. I spent hours trying to overcomplicate plans so they sounded “strategic” enough. I figured if I didn’t understand a plan, then no one else would understand it and voila, I would have nailed the strategy. It worked somewhat.

Till strategy met the voice of reason and its biggest critic-execution. My beautifully complicated strategic plans fell apart at the altar of execution. I simply didn’t understand why - I had impressed so many with something no one understood. Shouldn’t execution have only consolidated my strategic brilliance?

Despite valiant attempts, execution refused to budge. Ugh! I hadn’t come this far to give into this inferior beast. Instead, I tweaked “strategy” and added just a little more complication. Things got worse and I was sure my low “strategic IQ” would soon be found out.

Desperate, I decided to address execution and figure out its problem with strategy. Execution asked me some fundamental questions -

• Why are you doing this? 
• What do you know? What don’t you know? 
• Who else needs to know? 
• How many hands on deck do you have? 
• What happens at the end? 
• And how does what happens matter?

Such basic questions but let me indulge this simple unsophisticated beast, I thought. I very patronisingly (and somewhat resentful) started answering all of execution’s questions. It took a little time because unlike strategy, I had to be simple with dumb execution.

I finally had a set of responses, boringly straightforward without a hint of anything excitingly complicated. I disdainfully handed it over to execution in a hurry to get back to the more complex (and important) world of strategy. I expected some push back, some more questions and further stalling.

In an astonishing turn around, execution said “let’s roll”. But what, how, when I stammered... And what happened to all your resentment and stonewalling of my “strategy”? Execution stepped closer to me and whispered gently in my ear -

I was just waiting for you to understand that strategy is nothing more than common sense.

#CallingItOut