Need a charity strategy? First chill out.
I bet he knows ALL the terminologies….
It seems to me that strategies are like halitosis. A lot of people are convinced that theirs is absolutely fine, and everyone else’s is terrible. Some have the opposite issue and are constantly worried theirs might be the worst of all.
But there is a lot of variation in strategies, and everybody’s looks different - whatever anyone tells you. It’s important to give yourself space to come up with something that works for you. I really think that if everyone could just chill out a bit about strategy, they might end up with a better one. Here are some top tips….
1: People need to chill
Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of flapping and panicking and arguing about strategy when people could actually be sort of enjoying it. (And yes, I’ve been there too.) I mean, you get to think about what you’re doing, reflect with other people you work with (some of whom you may even like), talk about yourself and how awesome you are, dream big, and use some lovely coloured pens on big paper. At least it’s not another spreadsheet. Also, take your time. Cramming people into a room to thrash it out over 36 hours will not necessarily help. It’s not Guantanamo Bay.
2. People get weirdly status-obsessed
“I’ve got a strategy, you’ve just got tactics.” “I’m not operational, I’m strategic!” “You’re not thinking strategically.” There’s some weird late capitalist ideology, a lot of class politics, and often a fair old whiff of machismo in strategy discussions, as if people think they have to turn into the Wolf of Wall Street the minute anyone gets out a flip chart. It’s not about differentiating yourself from the worker drones. You don’t need to be an MBA Bro. (SMART is another place the willy-waving kicks in. I mean, who wants to be told they’re not SMART?) Avoid the value judgment attached to ‘being strategic’ - it just creates pressure.
3. It’s not a document
The document is not the strategy. The document is the record of the process, and an aide-memoir for the future. It’s a way of communicating the plan for the future. Who will be reading it? Is it a big prospectus, heavy on vision and grand ambition, for funders to look at and say ‘Ooh! You guys look extremely sexy Have some cash!’ Or is it very much a blueprint, perhaps quite technical, for people working day to day? Both are valid - depends on the type of organisation, and where you are in your journey.
4. Arguing over terminologies can kill the vibe.
Once you get drawn into arguing the toss over terminologies and semantics - is it a goal, a tactic, a strategy, a strategic pillar, an objective, animal, vegetable, mineral, perhaps a small alien spacecraft - things go south quickly.
The thing is, people don’t think like that, and ideas aren’t produced that way. You have to get the thoughts out first before you can start defining. If you look across a whole range of guides to strategy, you will see that their uses of terminology all look exactly the same - until they don’t. Every time, at least one differs from the last one you read. Language is flexible and just a tool. It can helpful to gain a shared understanding, but it can often be used as a barrier (indeed, people are often deliberately creating barriers when they start to question it - it’s a hand grenade designed to throw everyone off track). Getting the ideas out, and then being able to shape it into helpful language, is a much better way.
5. It’s an Atlas, not an A-Z
A strategy does not contain all your future decisions - it’s usually a high-ish level map that will help you make those future decisions. Things change, and some things can only be decided later. Make the decisions you can/ need to now (it’s good to plan your journey in some detail at the outset), but make sure there is a big enough picture that people can look at your strategy at any time they need to make a decision, and say - does this help us get to where we agreed we were going? Would this option take us in the right direction?
6. There’s more than one way to skin a strategy
Finally, every strategy will look different, but every single internet shouty person, or megabucks agency, or MBA Bro, or charity leader who has been on a course, will tell you that there is only one way, and that way just happens to be theirs. But if there’s only one way, why are there about 60,000 books on strategy on Amazon? People need to stop claiming divine knowledge.
That includes me, so I’ll stop now.
But if you’d like to work with someone who is a bit more honest and realistic about strategy, give me a shout.