Thanks to Francis Wade for emailing me this review of THIS IS STRATEGY. Francis works in strategy, and I’m so delighted the book resonated the way it did.
Case: You are a corporate strategic planner – someone immersed in defining a future for your organization. But lately, you haven’t been challenged to think differently. Keep reading to see why This is Strategy offers you a unique opportunity.
If you have glanced at the reviews, you probably noticed a spike of one-star ratings.
Given my 5-star rating among others, how can you reconcile the wide gap? You’d probably like to do so before committing precious time and energy.
Here are three reasons to acquire this book and use it as a catalyst for your professional growth.
1) The content is deep. As a long-term strategic planning facilitator, my work confronts issues that most executive teams skim over in their customary short-term, emergency-driven thinking. Getting them to think about abstract questions for long hours at a time, while sitting face to face with their peers isn’t easy.
Yet, strategic thinking is essential to the future of the company. And the reasons it should be done is where this book starts.
Godin describes this as a philosophy book. In fact, the first “riff” (i.e. chapter) is titled “Strategy is a Philosophy of Becoming.”
“Who we will become,
who will we be of service to,
and who will they help others to become”
This is strategy.
For some, this will be a reason to drop the book and stop reading. But as you may know, there are significant obstacles to the aspiration stated above.
Some are practical, and there are lots of books which focus on taking the right steps, in the proper sequence, using the best frameworks to produce a strategic plan. If that’s what you want, look elsewhere. There’s lots of stuff out there on the Balanced Scorecard, PESTER, SWOT, 5-Forces, etc.
Instead, there are deeper reasons why Kodak, Blockbuster and Nokia lost their way. And why Intel seems to be doing the same in 2024, in slow motion. Seth is trying to get at the heart of the matter and he does so by going deeper than almost any book I have read on the topic.
So, if you are someone interested in the craft of strategic planning…the philosophic intent, you are in the right place.
2) The book’s structure is strikingly different from any other book on the topic. There are 297 chapters.
And each one is set up as a discrete “thought provoker”.
As such, this is no linear how-to.
Instead, it’s more like a book of daily meditations that builds on itself in a way that I must believe is unique for each reader. Depending on your current way of thinking, some parts will seem trite, others vaguely familiar and a few heretical.
But that’s OK. The point is not indoctrination.
Instead, he implies that if you buy into the notion of strategy as “Becoming” then this translates into certain aspirations, limits and obligations. Furthermore, these are inescapable.
As strategists we probably know what this means, for there was a time when we had a novice’s understanding of strategy. Now, we look back at who we were and smile. We had no idea of the world that we take for granted today, as we work with organizations (or government, countries etc.) in their quest to Become.
Seth gets it – and he’s the first to offer questions that take us into a range of topics that we can recognize. Even if we never find anyone else who gets it as well, we can still use these for self-study and reflection.
3) But this is no pie in the sky, abstract reasoning. There are four threads the book is built around: systems, empathy, games and time. Mastery of strategic planning requires a comprehension of how they work apart, and together.
They show up in practical ways. I am using snippets from one chapter in a meeting next week to help my audience of CEOs appreciate some ideas which I have found hard to language.
This language is a precursor to the words I’ll develop on my own eventually, but This is Strategy has given me a starting point to put some vaguely held ideas into words.
As strategic planners, this is what we do every day. Arguably, someone did this job effectively with Fujifilm in 2001. Someone else failed to do this with Kodak.
If you have read this far, you are probably a person who spends a great deal of time trying to produce Fujifilms, and prevent Kodaks. You may lead up a company, or consult. But as you go about your work, you may be nagged by the thought that, given the high stakes, “I need to get this right.”
The point of the book is that to super-charge your commitment you need language and a philosophy, and just a little bit of help, a nudge, to spur your thinking.
In summary – This is Strategy consists of 297 nudges which add up to a fresh, new possibility for you, in your way of engaging in strategic thinking.
November 12, 2024
In hospitality and customer service, perfect is elusive. Someone is going to miss a shift, have a bad day, or fail to understand a situation.
But there’s a second kind of error, the one that’s far more common. When management makes bad choices, or underinvests in systems, training and people, it’s not really an error. It’s a choice that costs everyone involved.
These are choices with consequences. Don’t blame the actors if you have a lousy script.
When you built that automated phone tree to save a few dollars on customer service, you were choosing to lose some of your best customers. When you planned a lazy and boring menu for the group meeting at your hotel, you chose to send a message of carelessness. And when you ask under-appreciated and poorly-trained staff to step up and be the face of your organization, you’re risking your future.
Customer service is a chance to create delight and impact. It can amplify or undermine the marketing investments that you say are important–and yet, management often fails to see the systems they are building and maintaining. Begin with, “we’re doing these things on purpose, with intent.”
As in all things, getting the systems right is the foundation for everything else that follows.
Your hospitality strategy is the problem, not bad luck or uncaring staff.
We’ve forgotten how often society had an answer for that question.
Perhaps our shift away from a dictated answer not only gives us freedom, it also creates ennui and fear.
The culture of a generation or two ago told you where to study, what to study, how to cut your hair, what to wear, where to work, how to present within your class or identity, what to listen to, what to eat, what to drive, where to live and more.
Things have changed, slowly and then all at once.
You’re way less likely to get picked.
The gatekeepers have left the gates unlocked.
And yet, the indoctrination of ‘supposed to’ continues.
The disconnect is real. Like all change, it’s not easy. One of the early subtitles of my new book was, “figuring out what to do next.”
Owning our choices is a privilege that we can learn to dance with.
November 11, 2024
There are very few activities that are fully reversible.
Ice sculpture might be one of them. Once the ice melts, all the effort and information is lost, and refreezing lets you begin again with a new, fresh block of ice.
Of course, it’s not completely gone. The thing you made remains in your memory, and in the consciousness of anyone your artistry touched.
Yes, we leave a trail. Always.
Tread lightly, but make a difference.
November 10, 2024
There’s a lot of pressure to make things dumber. Better to make it dumb than to have someone simply walk away, apparently.
With so much to consume, and an unlimited amount to learn, there’s a race to make knowledge into a checklist item. Freon gas! Large language model! Coefficients! Many people just want to say a magic word and move on.
Of course, if we dumb things down, they become dumb.
This is not the same as simplifying concepts before adding nuance.
Four year olds easily learn to speak, and many kids in second grade can read. Not because they have a dumb version, but because someone cared enough to make the method simple.
There are simple explanations for quantum mechanics and for auto mechanics as well. They simply take a while to understand well enough to teach them to other people.
Start with basic principles, go slow and build. No need to dumb it down. Simple it up instead.
We have enough dumb. We need more simple.
November 9, 2024
I love Zamboni machines.
They’re ungainly, they’re slow but they’re also majestic. Like an elephant for ice hockey.
After each period, when the ice is chopped up by play, the Zamboni rolls out and leaves behind a sheet of perfect ice. Cold, smooth and untouched.
It’s useful to acknowledge that the same service is offered to each of us, every night. We wake up in the morning with a freshly smoothed-over day in front of us.
Our intentions determine our first few moves, the way we’ll engage with today’s ice. And those moves often lead to the next ones, and on and on, until the day is over.
Add up enough clear ice days and the pattern becomes set.
November 8, 2024
There are lights, camera and action, but mostly there’s the unreality of making it fit.
Happily ever after, a climax at just the right moment, perfect heroes, tension, resolution and a swelling soundtrack. Every element is amplified and things happen right on schedule.
Consume enough media and we may come to believe that our life is carefully scripted, and that we’re stars of a movie someone else is directing.
This distracts us from the truth that real life is more muddled and less scripted. There is no soundtrack. We’re actually signed up for a journey and a slog. Nothing happens ever after. It’ll change, often in a way we don’t expect.
We have no choice but to condense a story when we want to film it. Our real story, on the other hand, cannot be condensed, it can only be lived. Day by day.
November 7, 2024
Points aren’t just for games. Points are how we keep score and decide what to do next. Pick your scorekeeping wisely.
Too much focus on the score can bend us or break us, pushing us to engage with too much focus and without regard for balance.
And our attachment to obvious points strips us of our agency and independence.
If it’s subtle, variable and up to the user, the uncertainty can amplify our insecurity. “Wear festive clothing,” is an unwelcome line on an invitation, because the point system is unclear. How do I fit in? How do I not lose, or even win?
On the other hand, if the points on offer are industrialized, transactional or predictable, it quickly dehumanizes us into profit-seeking automatons. But at scale, this sort of easily communicated metric is common.
The word ‘jerk’ describes what happens to a human who is controlled by an assembly line (or a horse by a whip). A visitor to the first Ford assembly line was amazed at how the stopwatch and the pursuit of humans-as-a-resource mindset was turning people into puppets.
Points and compliance. Choose carefully.
November 6, 2024
There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is the short-term power of bullies, trauma and mobs.
And then there’s a more resilient form of power. This is power based on connection, discussion and metrics. A power based in reality over the long term.
Divisive power tears things down. Resilient power builds things up.
Resilient power creates the conditions for the community to produce value over time. Resilient power uses optimism and fairness to create value because participants can see ways they can participate and contribute.
Fear might be for sale, but that doesn’t mean we have to buy it.
Better is possible.
November 5, 2024
Culture has stability. “The way things are around here.”
When we are pushed too far from our norms, life gets stressful.
Some of the people in the systems that used to keep things stable have discovered that they can make a profit or gain an edge by embracing extremism instead.
You might not have thought you’d be spending seven hours a day reading the internet, or most of your free time posting and responding, but that’s what the social media companies have pushed us to do.
And you might not embrace some of the extreme views that we’re exposed to every single day, but the pressure can feel relentless. It feels like we come out just a bit ahead if we go along with the latest angry meme.
It’s worth checking in with ourselves and the people we care about. What are we signing on to and supporting? How are we choosing to spend our precious time? Is it riskier than we’re comfortable with? And mostly, what sort of new world are we endorsing?
It might make sense to choose stability when we can.
November 4, 2024
