We know that brevity in strategy is not performative minimalism. So why the industrial scale slide-count?
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Patience and timing, curiosity and exploration, improvisation and adaptability in new environments, economy of effort, presence and focus, independence, not conformity, play as necessary preparation, sensing beyond the obvious, rest as renewal… I was going to close by suggesting that cats can teach us so much about the straegic mindset. But as I type this I find myself reflecting that cats can teach us so much about the art of living.
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All of which is to say that I’ve chosen to work differently and focus my efforts not on inputs, hours, costs, and activities but on what client organisations really want and buy, which is solutions to business problems. Exciting conversations about value as opposed to dreary conversations about time are where real relationships and partnerships - and transformations - are forged. I mean, there really didn’t see much point advising client organisations to adapt, evolve, think different, innovate, create meaningful and lasting value in the world, lean into the future, or grab a seat at the front of the bus while there still is one if I wasn’t going to do the same.
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We say that it’s all about “the work” as if clients are merely shopping for outputs and assets. And then complain about squeezed revenue and margins.
But it becomes ever more clear to me. Point to what you are proudest of, and you’ll find the scope of your value.
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Strategy begins with a leap - not inching forward methodically, but jumping into an imagined future that's better, more valuable, more desirable. But this imaginative leap is only the beginning. The real work lies in determining how to make that future real: What conditions must we create? What must we start or stop doing? What resources must we gather? What politics must we navigate? What collaborators do we need? How will we finance it all? Strategy is ultimately a practical, pragmatic undertaking concerned with change in the real world. While imagination is essential, it's only the first step. After that comes the hard yards of implementation - or as Kornfield might say, after imagination comes the laundry.
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When we are able to truly and accurately name things we are able exercise some form of control and dominion over them. And when we are able to name things we have the ability to share and embed that ordering and meaning of things in the minds of others. And thus we govern, predict causes and effect, make things happen. Thus we do strategy.
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Look now how small, how timid, how pusillanimous, how domesticated and de-clawed, how full of narcissistic hot air, how demoted to nothing more than a cabaret warmup act so much of what passes for ‘strategy’ appears to be, when set against its true nature, its true possibilities, and - irrespective of the size and nature of the canvas - the true, the urgent, and the thrilling need for it.
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At the end of the day, strategy is the art of getting other people to do something.
In the pursuit of that, narrative (call it ‘storytelling’ if you really must) is the strategist’s tool.
Strategy is narrative.
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