The Four Myths of Strategy

What goes unrecognized and unaddressed is that no strategy can ever be right or reasonable enough to account for all the events that might emerge on the road to its fulfillment. Not to mention the amount of buy-in required from all levels to deal with those events as they arise. Therefore, perfect content is an illusion that leads to an increasing investment of resources in the pursuit of the one true strategy that will win the day.

In reality, any strategy is only as good as the degree to which the people within the organization are committed to it. Even the most accurate and well-crafted plan will fail if people don’t take accountability for delivering it.

Picture the following scenario: A large national service company spent $2 million to hire a top-tier consulting firm to figure out what direction it should take the company. By conducting a standard SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, the consultants came up with a well-thought-out, several-hundred-page strategy document housed in a beautiful binder — that no one on the management team believed would work.

Even though the company had just spent millions coming up with the “right” content for the strategy, it did not have the environment of trust, partnership and open communication necessary for it to be executed.

Leaders who are looking to generate alignment and commitment behind a strategy cannot rely solely on the content of the strategy itself, but must address the context — the organizational culture — in which that strategy is to be executed. For any strategy to succeed, authentic, courageous communication and ownership is essential.

Myth No. 2: Consensus Equals Success

In the eyes of many leaders, the ultimate level of buy-in for a strategic plan is simply consensus. The belief behind this myth is that if everyone feels pretty good about the plan and has no strong objections, it’s about the best that can be hoped for.