Strategy is about telling stories. Good strategy is about telling the ongoing saga of your brand.

This is part four. In part one we introduced the premise and a framework to hang our strategic direction on. Then we got into Mission & Goals (What). In part two we discussed the Value Network (Who), and in part three we started our talk on Strategy (How). In this part we finish the strategy section.

we introduced the premise and a framework to hang our strategic direction on. Then we got into Mission & Goals (What). In part two we discussed the Value Network (Who), and in part three we started our talk on Strategy (How). In this part we finish the strategy section.

Recap

Last time we took our goal, “Get medical supplies from point A to point B,” and identified the main challenges to success. We took one of the challenges (traversing the mountain) and explored where we are in relation to the challenge, identified what’s important and determined what we need to achieve success. We also drafted our first strategy to address that challenge.

Let’s jump back in with our final two steps of developing the strategy, “determine who’s accountable,” and “setup a means for review and adjustment.”

Plot (Continued)

Determine who’s accountable:

In a previous part of the framework we identified our value network. Here’s the time to start using it. We want to make sure that we have clear accountabilities for our strategies. This is where we identify roles from our Value network as being accountable for different parts of our strategy.

For our Mountaineering Expertise strategy we’ve determined that our expert guide will be accountable. In this case we need to go back to our value network and add this new role. This is a good example of how parts of the framework interact and enhance each other. All of this leads to a stronger strategic direction and improved chances of success.

Note: I’ve simplified our example greatly. We could have taken each sub-point from the mountaineering strategy and treated them as discrete strategies. I’ll try to address traversing the strategy fountain in a future post.

Setup a means for review and adjustment:

An important aspect of strategies is that they need to be reviewed constantly. The world is constantly evolving. Our strategies need to be flexible enough to allow for change, and resilient enough to keep us on track. There will be times when you need to abandon a strategy in favor of another. What you don’t want to do is throw out a valid strategy due to unfounded fear. The more necessary a strategy, the more change it brings. Change brings unknowns and people fear what they don’t know.

Enter measurable outcomes and strategic factors. Data and metrics are how we tell the difference between when a strategy isn’t working and when we’re dealing with unfounded fear. There are several methods for measuring success. In the next section regarding the Outline we’ll begin defining objectives. The SMART Goals method is a good way to introduce metrics to the execution of the strategy.

The other review tool is Strategic Factors. I’ll get more into strategic factors in a future post. For now think of them as sliders you can use to adjust your strategy over time. Using climbing as a strategic factor for our example, lets say we’re measuring how many feet we climb in an hour. We see that metric value is dropping due to the angle of the climb getting steeper. We turn the slider up on climbing and add more effort. Now lets say that the metric is dropping due to bad weather. It’s now becoming dangerous to keep climbing the same route. We turn down climbing, and turn up navigation. A new route is determined and we can now begin to turn climbing back up, as we turn down navigation. This is an example of using strategic factors to make adjustments over time. Notice we didn’t have to through out our strategy when we encountered a problem. We had a mechanism in place to deal with changes and keep moving forward. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Next let’s look at SMART goals. SMART goals are a popular method of tracking. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Each of these are simple and self-explanatory. Instead let’s take a look at one of the tasks we need to perform and apply the SMART Framework

Plan the optimal route through the mountain

Specific? No not really.
Measurable? How would we know our route is the most optimal? We’re only planning on doing this once. We won’t have anything to compare our route to.
Achievable? Yes it is achievable.
Relevant? Getting over the mountain in the shortest amount of time is very relevant. Then again. We said “optimal” not the shortest time. “optimal” could be taken to mean, “least amount of effort.” That could actually add time to the trip. So… maybe not.
Time-bound? This is an interesting one. There’s nothing here about making this a time-bound exercise, and there doesn’t need to be. We can set time limits and outside of the definition of the task. The important thing is that there’s nothing about the task that prohibits it from being time-bound.

Let’s try again.

Plan a route through the mountain that leaves no later than and gets Joe to the river safely by .

Specific? Yes.
Measurable? Absolutely. We have a target we are working towards, “…gets Joe to the river safely by .” We can even create checkpoints along the way to make sure we’re tracking to our target.
Achievable? We can assume yes.
Relevant? 100%.
Time-bound? Yes. As stated before we could have time-bound this outside of the task description. With the addition of key dates and deadlines there’s no question. One further caution on this one. It can be easy to try and apply start and end dates to everything. This isn’t about creating a gantt chart. We could have just as easily said, “don’t spend more than x amount of time on it.” In this case we have some external dependencies at play. That makes it more appropriate.

Recap

Let’s recap. We’ve taken our goal, “Get from point A to point B,” and identified the main challenges to success. We’ve dived into each challenge and identified a series of strategies needed to overcome those challenges. Finally we’ve put together the major steps needed to execute our strategies. We also related all of this to the elements of story craft. Conflict, plot, and outline. Next time we’ll dive into putting all of our elements together into crafting our vision and telling our story.

Strategy is about telling stories. Good strategy is about telling the ongoing saga of your brand.

This is part three. In part one we introduced the premise and a framework to hang our strategic direction on. Then we got into Mission & Goals (What). In part two we discussed the Value Network (Who). This time we’ll be examining Strategy (How)

What is Strategy?

A worthy question, with an elusive answer. Why and elusive answer? I hate to go to dictionary definitions, but in this case it helps prove my point. Websters: “A careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time.” I’m going to digress for a moment and talk about what a strategy is not.

People often take a sequenced list of objectives, tasks, or agile stories. Then call them a strategy because they span a long period of time. They confuse the work items (tactics) with “plan or method” (strategy). If you draw the shadow of a chair have you drawn the chair itself? Strategic outcomes can look like a task list out of context. In other words, you can look at the work of others, and paint the shadow of a chair without knowledge of the chair. If you try to make adjustments without understanding the whys and what’s of a chair, you risk creating a blobby mess. To recap; a string of objectives over time is not a strategy. It may, or may not, be the tactical result of a strategy.

<Step off soapbox. End rant.>

Back on topic, how does strategy relate to story. Let’s talk a bit about conflict, plot, and outline.

Conflict

I mentioned conflict last time when talking about the Value Network. There must be some challenge we’re looking to overcome. Identifying that challenge is critical. Part of your strategy is about how you overcome those challenges. If Joe needs to take medical supplies from point A to point B, you don’t need a strategy for Joe to do that. Yet, if there is a mountain and a river between points A and B, then we need strategies for dealing with both.

Plot

This is the heart of our strategy. There are five main steps to developing a strategy. Let’s use our example of Joe’s journey to go over them. When exploring conflict we identified two obstacles to deal with. The mountain and the river. Let’s explore the problem of the mountain as our lens on the five steps of strategy.

Note: I’m walking through these steps in order. The reality is that you’ll work on one part, and that will better inform another. You’ll go back and forth like this as needed.

Determine where we are:

First we need to look at the what we know and where we’re at. How big is the mountain? What is our ability to scale it? What is our realistic chance of success given where we are now. For our example let’s say the mountain is high and steep. Joe’s mountain climbing skills are good, but his repelling skills need work. This could introduce a risk. Joe is also unfamiliar with the area and terrain. Joe has the needed expertise in how to safely transport and administer the medical supplies. Alternatively, Joe could go around the mountain adding two months to his journey. It’s a big mountain.

Identify what’s important:

What’s the most critical aspect of our goal? Is it mitigating risk? Expense? Pushing the boundaries of exploration? Knowing what’s important let’s us focus out strategies. In our example let’s say that time is our most important factor. Joe needs to get to the destination as fast as he can. It’s also important that he makes it in one piece. No second chance at success. Safety is our second criteria. With these criteria we can remove circumnavigating the mountain as an option.

Determine what must be achieved:

Now we can look at the minimum steps we need to achieve to be successful. Note that this isn’t a rehashing of the goal. It’s about what we need to do to achieve the goal. What needs to happen to ensure the medical supplies make it to the destination.

Based on what we know of our example, we’d need to achieve the following:

• Navigate the mountain
• Climb the mountain
• Descend the mountain

It’s tempting to get into execution of each item. Capture the thought, and then set it aside. This isn’t about how we execute the strategy. It’s about gathering the information so we can develop the strategy.

At this point let’s create our strategy for the mountain:

Mountaineering Expertise:
1) Team Strategy: Augment the team, but keep it as light as possible. Add an experienced mountaineer with knowledge of the area to aid Joe. This will significantly increase the chance of getting the supplies over the mountain.
2) Equipment Strategy: The team needs to be properly equipped to deal with the terrain. They also need to be prepared for issues that may arise. Keep equipment to a minimum.
3) Route Strategy. There are many routes over the mountain. Select the route that offers the best chance of success given known factors.

We’ve determined that Joe is needed for the mission. We know that time and safety are of primary importance. Also, two of the three things that we need to achieve are at risk by sending Joe alone. The time factor eliminates strategies that involve avoiding the mountain. We also don’t have time to send Joe to training. We decide the best strategy is to get Joe help for the trip.

This is a simplified example. There could be a dozen more strategies developed below these three. For example under Route Strategy there may be climbing, descending and hiking strategies. Is there a packing strategy under equipment? What about food? You get the point. This is what I call the strategy fountain strategy fountain which I’ve written about before.

Checkpoint

This is a good time to stop and see where we’re at with strategy development. We’ve taken our goal, “Get medical supplies from point A to point B,” and identified the main challenges to success. We’ve taken one of those challenges and explored where we are in relation to it. Identified what’s important. And determined what we need to achieve. We’ve also drafted our first strategy to address that challenge.

Next time we’ll finish the plot by completing the last two steps in developing our strategy. “Determine who’s accountable,” and “setup a means for review and adjustment.” Then we’ll create our outline and close out this part of the framework.