Strategy changes the game.

Strategy vs. Facilitation

Facilitators develop the ideas in the room. Strategic thinkers change the room.

Every year I get calls from leaders looking for a “facilitator” for their strategic planning meeting. Strategic thinking skills are radically different from facilitation skills.

Strategic thinkers change the way the team thinks and challenge them to think in ways they have never considered. They change the LEVEL of ideas in the room by bringing insights from a career of strategic thinking in the most innovative rooms in the world. They change the TYPES of ideas in the room. They don’t just massage ideas, they transform them, and the company transforms right along with them.

So when you choose your next “facilitator,” ask yourself what outcomes your company really needs.

Strategy vs. Tactics

Tactics don’t change the game.

Too many companies spend days in strategy meetings, only to come out with a bunch of tactics. Better tactics can make you more efficient at the game you are already playing. Only strategy changes the game itself, or the way it is played.

Are you ready to change the game? I promise you it’s a lot more fun.

Strategy vs. Operations Planning

Most strategic plans are glorified operations plans.

What most companies call strategic planning is really an operations plan for the following year. Not much really changes. We get more efficient, move the people and processes around a bit, and upgrade a few things.

Then we go back to work and pretend that the new plan will make a massive difference in growth, margins, or profitability. It rarely does.

Strategic Thinkers vs. Senior Leaders

Who does the strategic thinking in your company?

For most companies the answer is obvious: the senior leadership team. That is a fatal mistake. Who has the least direct customer contact? Who has the most invested in keeping the status quo? Choosing your team is critical to your outcomes.

The moral: get the right people in the room.

Strategic Growth vs. Incremental Growth

Growth is not a given.

Too many companies believe growth happens on its own. Sort of like if we put the pie in the oven and bake it for another year, the pie will puff up all on its own.

Growth means REVENUE GROWTH, and that means intentional investments in sales and marketing.

Take the seven-question Revenue on Demand diagnostic →

Strategic Investments vs. Peanut Butter Planning

Stop spreading next year’s money evenly.

Every fall, most companies engage in what I call Peanut Butter Planning. They call it strategic planning, or the annual forecast. What really happens is a political process where each department gets a more or less equal share of this year’s profit growth to spend next year on people and projects they believe will improve the company.

That is a colossal mistake. There is likely ONE project that could catapult your company to radically higher growth and profit, and no other department should get any more money until that project is fully funded and staffed.

The million dollar question is: what is that project? That’s what real strategic planning is for.