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Several years ago an organization asked me to evaluate the strategic plan they had spent a lot of time and money creating just three years before. I made the rounds of the key executives.

"Do you use the strategic plan?" I asked. Executive after executive said, "No." A couple asked me which strategic plan I meant. Then I walked into Ed's office and asked my question.

"Oh, sure," said Ed. "I use it every day. It's great"

I was excited. "What's great about it?"

Ed jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "It keeps that door propped open so it won't slam shut when I open the window." He chuckled.

I turned to see the three fat binders that held the plan stacked in front of a door. The scales fell from my eyes.

I had studied business in school. My comprehensive exam was on strategy. Business strategies of that time were modeled on the -vaunted GE Strategic Planning system. And they produced plans like the one that propped open Ed's door.

Those plans had several things in common. The most important was an unspoken belief in the possibility of accurate prediction and the power of precise, detailed planning. They were mostly based on a combination of what businesspeople understood as the military model of strategy, combined with a Growth/Share matrix derived from GE, and something about learning curves.

They planned for a predicted future. Then the plans laid out a detailed response to that future.

Scenario planning was talked about a lot, especially after an article in the Harvard Business Review by Shell's Pierre Wack. But for most of the companies using the term, "scenario planning" amounted to making lots of detailed plans.

Those plans were costly to prepare. They had virtually no effect on day-to-day operations. The executives and their staffs who created them would have done well to heed the following two quotes.

"Plans are nothing. Planning is everything." ~ Dwight Eisenhower

"When it comes to strategy, ponder less and do more." ~ Jack Welch.

For a while now, my favorite book on strategy has been Warfighting, the strategic doctrine of the US Marines. It's short, simple, and it's more about asking questions than giving answers.

But as good as that book is, it's still a military model. That's good, but I really wanted to see a strategy book that wasn't military.

Last year, I was chatting with Erika Andersen and she mentioned the book she was writing. The more she talked, the more excited I got, because it seemed like she was going to write the very book I wanted to read. She did.

The premise of the book is that "being strategic" means consistently making "core directional choices" that move you toward the future you want. Here's a quick outline of the process.

How can we …? Defining the challenge.

What is – Pulling back the camera.

What's the hope? – Reasonable aspiration

What's in the way? – Facing the facts

Where's the path? – Roadway first, then asphalt

That's solid and simple and workable, but so far this looks like other strategy systems. You ask a bunch of questions and develop your strategy. The big difference is what happens next.

In most strategy books, what happens next is you go off and implement the strategy. Erika Andersen suggests that what you should do is live your strategy. And that makes more sense.

The metaphor that Andersen uses is that of a Welsh castle, Criccieth. The castle was built in the 13th Century. Since then it's been modified and added to. Parts have disappeared. Others have been created. For Andersen, both the castle and your strategy should be living, changing things.

The key to this book is the question: "How do I get from where I am to where I'm going?" It's a question that you ask over and over again. That's what it means to "be strategic" or to live your strategy as a set of actions and choices.

There's advice about how make this work for you and more advice about how to use the concepts in a group situation. The concepts are effective, but with this book, like Andersen's earlier book, Growing Great Employees, God is in the details. The writing is superb, the examples are well chosen and the stories are well-told.

I recommend Being Strategic to just about anyone with even a passing interest in strategy. It will help you get better results in your life and your business and any other organization you care about. With this book you'll live your strategy instead of burying it in binders.

Boss's Bottom Line

If strategy is part of your portfolio, this is a must read. Think of it as "strategy made sensible."

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.