For years we have received flak for saying you DON’T NEED the ‘perfect strategy’.

For decades, very smart people have told me “what this company really needs”, and then shown me documented evidence (usually in PowerPoint packs) to back up their point.

Often, I have been introduced to a ‘Very Important Person’, who has been flown in to be living proof that the ‘perfect strategy’ is so perfect.

My usual response to being told “what this company really needs” is … “maybe”.

Maybe it is the ‘Perfect Strategy’, maybe it isn’t….

What I try to respectfully explain is that if the people who have to bring it to life don’t co-create and own it – then it just won’t happen.

And there’s nothing perfect about that.

Maybe shards of the strategy will appear for a short time, but the long-term vision will never be realised.

In no way is this disrespectful to strategy teams or experts; most are smart people, but to me the secret of a sound strategy is all in the how it’s introduced and embedded into a company … and how it’s sustained.

Leadership must involve the right people at the right time working out not just how to implement the strategy … but testing the thinking behind the why and the what. Maybe even be open to the idea that there are other ideas worth pursuing. Use the ‘perfect strategy’ as input rather than the answer.

Let the right people in the organisation chew over it, wrestle it to the ground, and test its mettle on a day-to-day basis.

Organisations usually have huge depths of market and industry experience … so why not use it?

I know, I know … there will be executives out there that will say

“We actually don’t have the right people to do that.”

Or

“We have great people but they are fairly insular for all the right reasons.”

Or

“We need our best people to stay focused on the business in hand.”

My response is that you must engage these people at some stage… because if you don’t you will have nothing.

In order to get real and sustained results, you have to push through to engage, respectfully and meaningfully.

Whatever happens, don’t push onto the business, a so-called 10/10 intellectual strategy… if you do, then over time it will become 3/10.

Instead, let your organisation own its future direction, engage people’s hearts and minds.

… you may only get a 6-7/10 intellectual strategy

… but their passion, commitment, ownership and energy will take it well beyond anyone’s expectations.