For greater effect – communicate your strategy in 6 sentences

Who says your strategy needs to be heavily documented?  Try doing  it in 6 sentences for greater effect.

Here is a little gem I recently rediscovered and one of the many notebooks that are a key part of my reflective and reflexive practice. The source is Jay Conrad Levinson, and my notes say it comes from something he wrote in in Entrepreneur, that was then quoted in Communication Briefings,  Volume 14 number 2, page four, December 1994 

I have tried to find the original source, but it appears not to be anywhere on the Internet, so I suspect it was from a print newsletter.  Given that it was 1994 that is not surprising.  Levinson was known as a guru of Guerrilla Marketing – and his work can be found here: https://strategiesforinfluence.com/jay-conrad-levinson-guerrilla-marketing/

The gem I rediscovered is about bringing clarity, precision, conciseness and parsimony to your stated strategies.  Levinson used an example from advertising to explain this.

To make sure your advertising as a clear purpose, state your strategy in six sentences.

  • Prime purpose. “The purpose of rainbow tours ads is to get people to call and write for a free video brochure.”
  • Prime benefit. “We will stress the unique and exciting places our customers can visit.”
  • Secondary benefits. “We will also stress the convenience and economy of our tours and the skill of our tour guides.”
  • Target audience. “We will aim our ads at adventurous male and female singles and couples, 21 to 34, who can afford our tours.”
  • Audience reaction. “We expect our audience to call or write to request our video brochure.”
  • Company personality. “Our ads will reflect our innovation, excitement, conscientiousness – and our warm, caring attitude toward all customers.” 

I will own up to not being guilty of actually having followed these rules since 1994. I lost the idea in my notebook. And, continuing with the honesty, when I look back over the last 25 years I have probably been guilty of a common organisational sin – that I’ve been over-planned and under-delivered.

A great deal of thought needs to go into your strategy if you are to capture it in 6 sentences. It’s not an easy task, and certainly not as easy as writing the long, verbose omnibuses that often masquerade as a strategy. It requires a depth of understanding that can be challenging, particularly in our seemingly time poor work environments.

But I can’t help think of how much more effective I might have been if I had used a 6-sentence strategy approach to my work?

Chronic problems in organisations – community, business, government

When it comes to organisation of all types, there are some problems that seem to persist and persist and persist….

When I first started seriously studying management and leadership in the 1980s, people like Stephen Covey were in vogue.  In 1990, he identified chronic problems in organisations. I don’t see much different today. 

Take a look at this list, and ask yourself how well your organisation is doing and what you might do in your organisation differently.

Continue reading “Chronic problems in organisations – community, business, government”

All business is a journey not a destination: Stop Planning and Start the Journey.

A business plan is a necessity for any business. It is the result of painstaking thought and analysis, translated into a strategy and action.

Many advisers will tell you, quite rightly, that simply having a plan is not the path to success. They will tell you that to execute your strategy you will need to be continually planning, and taking operational or tactical decisions as you are sure your objective. I’d like to suggest a different way of looking at this.

Continue reading “All business is a journey not a destination: Stop Planning and Start the Journey.”

Six Enemies of Strategic Planning

And six ways to face them

  1. A focus on means rather than ends.  Overcome this enemy by turning it on its head.  Look at the WHAT and not the HOW.
  2. The failure to recognise the three levels of results:  micro (individual), macro (organisational) and mega (societal).  Overcome this by understanding the distinctions among the three levels and linking them together.
  3. Written objectives that give destination without supplying precise criteria for knowing when you have arrived.  Overcome this enemy by preparing objectives that include measures of success.
  4. Needs that are defines as gaps in resources or methods (means).  Overcome this enemy by defining needs as gaps in results (ends), rather than rushing into premature solutions to ill-defined problems.
  5. A mission that is practical, real world, do-able, and achievable, without being focused on a vision.  Overcome this enemy by defining an ideal vision.
  6. Reliance on plans that are comfortable and acceptable.  Overcome this enemy by pushing out of comfort zones and looking at where you should be, not just where you feel comfortable.

From Kaufman R (1992)  6 steps to strategic success.  Training & Development 46(5):107-112