Friday 21 January 2011

Strategy: two alternative definitions

How about these two definitions:

A 'Strutegy' is a large glossy document where most of the effort has gone into talking with the printers and marketing people. Action is negligible and lasting outcomes even more elusive. Typically written by a small cabal in a darkened room with only a modicum of consultation & research into good practice and wider challenges. The idea of engagement does not feature. Implementing a strutegy is usually done via road shows and key note speeches from senior managers, who will have something more important to do before any questions are posed.

Whereas...

A 'Stractegy' hardly exists as a document and indeed exists more as the collective and focused actions of a wide diversity of people. Any documentation which does exist is recognised as the thinking on a particular day that is probably out of date as soon as the ink has dried. Stractegies are created in dynamic crucibles of insight, learning and practice exchange. In the way that strutegies typically fragment and simplify, stractegies on the other hand are based on processes which connect people together and enable them to wrestle with complexity. Often stractegies emerge when people get together in large groups to discuss the future and the challenges being faced. Outcomes are always the focus with stractegies.

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