Strategy is nothing without a set of coherent actions
June 2024
Now that you have a clear understanding on where to go next, it’s time to get your hands dirty. Ideas and goals are nothing without action.
It’s not enough to diagnose the problem and a clear policy to get there. You need to start working on it.
Most of the things in this article are based on my take on Good strategy, bad strategy, which is a great book about strategy.
With that in mind, let’s get on with it!
Previous mistakes
If you followed the SWOT analysis from a previous article, you could see that the conclusion was mixing both policies, goals, and actions:
- Set strategy for the team
- Continuous learning, with a focus on JS, AWS, and UX research
- Get promoted
- Assess the job market and grow my network
- Periodically write a blog article, with a focus on strategic thinking, and technical skills
That list is unfocus and not clear enough. It needs a better structure.
It can be fixed by creating the strategy kernel, defined by a diagnosis of the problem to overcome, a guiding policy to do that, and a set of coherent actions.
Diagnosis
This is where you define the problem. The singular is important. A strategy is a way to solve a problem or gain an advantage. It doesn’t need to be, and shouldn’t be, wide. It has to have a clear focus on an specific issue.
In order to get there, the first step is to define a diagnosis of the situation.
Following the example, it’s clear that it’s too wide. It would be better expressed as:
The economy is affecting job stability and the job market is in a difficult state for employees.
With this diagnosis, you can now work on a guiding policy to help you overcome that problem.
Guiding policy
You can think of the guiding policy as a set of principles that you can follow to overcome the diagnosis.
In the preceding example, a possible set of principles can be:
- Focus on continuous learning
- Asses the job market regularly
- Grow your network
Now that you have some principles, you can start with the most important part, the coherent actions.
Coherent actions
This is where you define how to overcome your challenge.
Following the example, you need to set actions like:
- Apply for a job to either get a better one or to identify where your gaps are
- Read a book about strategy every month
- Develop a side project on the technology that you’re interested to work professionally with
- Write an article on the things you learn from the side project
- Give a talk in a local meeting group
And many more.
Conclusion
Working on your strategy this way is a much more natural approach, and it helps you to tell a better story that’s easier to understand.
That’s all!