For the grammar police out there, I’m well aware that grammatically speaking, strategy is a noun. But organizationally speaking, I think it’s much more useful to treat it like a verb.
A common misconception I encounter is the idea that strategy is something you create. Leadership schedules an off-site, spends two days discussing the future, writes a strategic plan, presents it to the organization, and checks “strategy” off the list until next year.
If only it were that easy.
But it’s so much more than that. A strategy has very little value if it never influences the decisions made after it has been written. In fact, I’ve seen beautifully prepared strategic plans that sat on a shelf while the organization continued making decisions exactly as it had before. I’ve watched executive teams brainstorm and spend days in off-site meetings planning the company, then hearing nothing about it until the next strategy session.
These issues happen because strategy isn’t defined by the document alone. It’s not defined by a paragraph saying “this is our strategy.” And it is most certainly not defined in a silo by an individual or an elite group of people who are using “strategy” as a buzzword to mask their own personal agenda.
That doesn’t mean that there should not be a strategy document, or a clear definition somewhere. What it does mean is that strategy, backed by documentation, is instead demonstrated practically by behavior.
Every day, organizations make hundreds or thousands of decisions. Some are small, while others shape the future of the business and in some cases entire industries. Which projects receive funding? Which customers receive additional attention? Which systems are replaced? Which ideas move forward? Which opportunities are declined? Those decisions are strategy in action. They are the outcome and the product of the intent described by the strategy.
I often ask, and hear others ask, “What is our strategy?” Businesses need to answer that. It needs to be known and defined. But then in response to that, also ask, “Are we making strategic decisions?” There’s an important difference between these two. A company may have a well-written strategy and still make decisions that pull the organization in a completely different direction. Conversely, a company may have no strategy defined, but every decision is declared to be “strategic” because someone decided it with purpose and intent.
What differentiates strategy on paper from strategy in practice is what leaders actually accomplish by consistently evaluating opportunities against a clearly defined direction. The document matters and the actions matter, but the two together as a pattern and framework for consistency is what ensures that leaders are actively engaging their teams and building trust in the direction they’re going.
A strategy document without action is meaningless.
Action that is declared strategic without clear direction is chaos.
Action that is expertly chosen to align with a defined direction is where real growth happens. It’s about making deliberate choices that are so obvious to the direction of the organization, that even though every “yes” consumes time, money, attention, and people, the result is that every decision ultimately shapes what the organization will become.
A strategy document tells people what the organization intends to do.
Strategic behavior proves whether the organization actually believes it.