Can you think about strategy too much?

A good percentage of the posts here touch on the topic of thinking. But can you “over-think”?

Ok…I’m going to carefully step out on a slippery slope here and try to find a balance. On the one hand, we can labor overt what our strategy should be, and spend so much time honing it that we never actually get into the execution phase…or miss the window that would have produced the most fruit from execution.

My observation is that organizations and individual leaders tend to fall into four categories when it comes to finding a balance between planning and execution. I’ll use a metaphor to explore this. BTW…ALL metaphors break down at some point, and I can quickly point out how the one I’m going to use does, so don’t get too wrapped up in the metaphor itself.

For our purposes here, “Ready” = Strategy Development, “Aim” = Planning, and “Fire” = Execution

• Ready, Aim, Fire
• Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim
• Ready, Fire, Aim
• Fire, Fire, Fire

We’ll explore each in subsequent posts, but a hint about where I’m going can be found in the following quote…paraphrased from a conversation with Paul Marshall, Vice President, Bentley Systems, Inc…

“A (B) Strategy with an (A) Execution will beat an (A) strategy with a (B) Execution everytime.”