A Wren Says

You’re there again. Yet another strategic planning meeting. More goals. More big audacious goals to be exact. More metrics to hit. More numbers. More feeling like you did something with your time. But did you?

The more I dive into the world of strategy, the more I come to believe that many of us are doing it wrong. We spend our precious, limited time coming up with a strategic plan that will be on our websites for up to 3 years. Meanwhile the world has undergone a cataclysmic shift making everything in that document obsolete. There has to be a better way.

What if we moved away from the idea of three-year goals, with numbers on a page, and towards a vision. Who do we want to be? How do we want our customers to see us? What kind of employer do we want to be? What products do we want to make? Where do we want to do business?

And while, we still want to become the market leader and make more money, we need to take the time to figure out which market and whose money. To put it into metaphorical terms a la Seth Godin, before we try figure out how to chop down the tree faster, we need figure out which tree and whether it’s a tree we need at all.

It’s time to ask yourself and your team, do you really have a strategy? And are you so sure?