Reilly Newman | A very common mistake is confusing a plan with a strategy. Having a list of steps or tasks is a plan, not a strategy. Sometimes this list is confused as a strategy which leads to further problems. A strategy will determine what goes in your plan. The items you add to your list or better yet, the items you subtract. A strategy also creates a safety net which can protect you from not achieving your goal when an item on your list fails or isn’t completed.
Imagine going on vacation. After you declare your end objective for your vacation (the destination and its experiences), you start planning. The first thing you do is get travel, boarding, food, etc. figured out based on your destination. Before this, you internally strategize several options in ways you can accomplish getting to the destination and having a great time.
This strategy is like a loose path that has blanks in it along the way that you fill in with planned variables. The strategy is flexible because of the path’s ability to adjust, but also you are giving yourself several options with the strategy to still pull it off. Here’s an example…If Hotel A is filled or overpriced, we have Hotel B and C to choose from. The location of these hotels may be different and they may vary in price, breakfast, etc. but they still help in accomplishing the overarching strategy to meet the objective for the vacation.
These blanks you fill in with your strategy is like a list. You see, to accomplish this end objective, you develop tasks that lead to it. Here’s where your plan comes into place. Just as the hotels above were easily swapped in and out, the planning you did by choosing Hotel A, B, or C made your strategy more likely to lead to the result you want. The planning doesn’t stop at the hotels. It continues into other areas of: packing certain items, put bags in car, fill car with gas, take Hwy X to Hwy Y, stop at nearby restaurant A, B, or C for lunch, etc. — these items all have something in common. They are tangible. In its most basic form, a plan is a checklist. An assortment of tangible tasks to complete in order to achieve a certain result as determined by the strategy. A plan is something you can cross off a list, mark as completed. A strategy is not as literal or tangible.
Relating this to your business and not just your family vacation, you can imagine how it applies to you achieving a business objective. As the result you desire determines your strategy to get there, your strategy now lays out the planning you can devise to further your business. The strategy is a higher elevation view of now just not the objective, but the context, timing, and approach. Based on this strategy, your tasks and tactics will organize. Like stepping stones along a path, each stone serves a purpose. A purpose that was deliberately chosen thanks to the strategy. Important to understand that the path is still true if a stone falls out of place or is missed based on a misstep. The adaptable strategy is flexible and forgiving.
This should also reign true for your business. Having a strategy allows you to avoid having “make it or break it” moments where a misstep isn’t calculated or substituted. Having a strategy adds grace to your business and the decisions you make in effort to achieve your goals. A strategy increases your probability of achieving the goal because it helps determine deliberate choices as well as introduces flexibility and adaptability that a plan cannot account for. In my mind, strategy is liquid while planning is more solid. Like water, a proper strategy will always find its way back to the ocean (objective) weather via creek, rain cloud, pipes, or the earth. Your strategy makes business, and your family vacations, less stressful and more enjoyable.
