I often see businesses using the same tactics day in day out and complaining they don’t see the growth they would like, they do the same things and expect different results.
There is a saying about that, I am sure.
That is why planning is so important, through proper preparation and planning you create a strategy to deliver the growth and or results you want and then you need to decide what tactics you will use to deliver that plan.
Maybe it is just worth defining the two,
Strategy is the overall high-level plan that moves you from where you are to where you want to go.
Tactics are the actions you will take to get there.
This is why just doing the same thing, trying to do more of it or trying to do it quicker rarely leads to growth because there is no plan. Fail to plan and you are planning to fail.
This is why Vision, Mission and Culture play such a big part, there are the starting blocks of strategy, Goals objectives and targets set the roadmap of getting to where you want to be and then and only then will you know what tactics might work.
Notice I said might work, If you are sure the plan is a good one (you should believe this before you decide on tactics) then when you take action and the results are not what you hoped for don’t simply throw out the plan adapt your tactics (your actions) measure the result and keep trying until you find out what does work, it’s a much quicker way that blind luck.
This is another area were it is easy to get it wrong, the few people that actually do take a step back and develop a strategy, who have worked on Vision Mission and Culture, who have written down Goals and Objectives still fail to see the results they want.
This is usually one of two reasons, either they change the strategy because the tactics didn’t work, or they fail to revisit the plan and review if the tactics are, relevant, effective and are delivering the results.
Large corporations have board meetings for this exact reason and although not all of them are good at this stuff, as a rule they are much better than smaller businesses, this is just one of the many reasons they are bigger.
Strategic planning starts with creating a strategy yes, but if you want to deliver the strategy then sit down with your board or your consultant or coach every month and go over where you are against the plan what is working and what’s not, what new information has come to light, what issues or problems are getting in the way and adjust your tactics for next month if you need to.
This is how your plan becomes strategic.
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