In my work consulting and coaching C-suite executives on business strategy and efficiency optimization, I often get asked about how to determine the right scale for a given strategy. Many of my clients have experienced circumstances where strategy was presented, but turned out to be more of a pile of little itty bitty tactics. So a big part of my work is helping leadership get clear on where to start and how to build consistently from there. This matters because there’s really two ways to go wrong on this: You can say, here’s a list of tactics. That’s one strategy. Or you could say here’s a grand strategy for creating a four century-long empire, which is the other extreme. In my experience, I’ve found it’s best to find somewhere in the middle of these 2 approaches.
So in this article, I’m going to share insights on how to size for that middle ground in your mind, and inspire leaders across the business to start making that process happen today.
Start from where you’re trying to go. And then work backwards. Get really clear on what the vision is:
How do we define success?
How quickly do we want to get there?
What do we have existing today that we can leverage to start that journey?
What do we have to go out and build net new or buy?
How ready or resistant are we to this proposed change?
Now that you have clearly defined your strategic goal and why it matters, it’s important to look at all the other options on the table, the alternatives, and assess the opportunity cost, which is a very specific concept.
If you’re not familiar with opportunity cost, here’s my take on it. My introduction to it was back when I was 18 years old, in New York City, studying economics at Columbia University. I remember sitting wide-eyed and thinking, Oh, my goodness, okay!
So when you say ‘Yes!’ to option A, you’re simultaneously saying ‘No” to option B, if you have to do both at the same time, and draw from the same pool of resources.
The thing is, we tend to think we’re making one decision, and we’re going to revisit whether to do the second thing. But in actuality, we’re simultaneously making two different decisions.
And where this becomes really important is to think of your personal life. FOMO or Fear of Missing Out is something many of us struggle with. I still suffer from this ailment, I’m still working on it! But if you don’t get clear on what your priorities are, and why they are priorities, and how quickly they have to get done, you can fill your calendar with stuff, right?
And that’s in your personal life. Imagine a business where there are so many folks involved and there’s so much at risk. It’s even more critical to get that right.
So that’s my recommendation. Start from the end. Work backwards. Get clear on why this matters, and how quickly you want to get there. And then have an objective structured way of assessing the other options on the table.
What about you? How do you assess the alternatives on the table so that you can move forward with your decision with clarity, confidence and conviction?
