Strategy
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The diagnosis - framing the challenge
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The guiding policy - the approach to dealing with the issues in the diagnosis
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Coherent Actions - the actions, resource commitments, and policies needed to carry out the guiding policy
Learning from others’ mistakes…
“War is fraught with random dangers and careless missteps. Clear orders and relentless rehearsals based on intelligence and repetitive training build muscle—not once or twice, but hundreds of times. Read history, but study a few battles in depth. Learning from others’ mistakes is far smarter than putting your own lads in body bags.“
-General Jim Mattis
#Quotes
“No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”
-Isaac Asimov
#Quotes
Remember: “Mistakes” are inevitable. They’re how we discover what does or doesn’t work (albeit sometimes quite viscerally).
It’s how we respond to mistakes that defines our success.
Some of the best advice I ever received from a manager:
“Hope? I get to ‘hope’. You need a plan.”
Make sure you always have a plan.
It’s about being prepared and staying agile in a fluid environment. Think about the future. Anticipate challenges. Identify potential risks before they become problems.
Sometimes simply writing things down and then methodically reviewing your lists can be a superpower.
Remember to always ask “how will this simplify things?”
For example: before you buy that retro mechanical keyboard that looks exactly like your childhood Commodore 64.
A good strategy (according to Rumelt) has 3 parts:
Strategy is a cohesive response to an important challenge (Richard Rumelt).
This is a phenomenal distillation of the concept.