What is Poor Strategy?

Poor Strategy has several distinctive components. Being able to identify poor Strategy helps avoid
using it, so it’s important for a leader to familiarize themselves with what poor Strategy looks like.

Poor Strategy ignores an organization’s values and Vision. It dances around the true underlying problems and important details. It lacks focus, attempting to do many things at once with little coordination or
direction. Poor Strategy can look like good Strategy to the untrained eye; it often looks “busy” and like
change is happening when it really is not. It can also look like goal setting, but the goals will often be
meaningless, disregard the overall Vision, or even conflict with each other.

PROBLEMS OFTEN SEEN IN POOR STRATEGY INCLUDE:
  1. Never getting to the needed action.
  2. True diagnosis of the underlying problems may not be allowed by the leaders.
  3. The leaders may avoid making hard choices.
  4. Having conflicting goals.
  5. Committing resources to unconnected, often unnecessary, and very specific results.
  6. Trying to accommodate incompatible interests. This is often seen as a “laundry list” of goals that are not connected.
POOR STRATEGY ALSO HAS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:
  1. FLUFF Words that look or sound good, but are often meaningless and meant to impress.
  2. FAILURE To face the actual challenge presented.
  3. FALSE FLAG STRATEGY Mistaking goals for Strategy by making statements of desire instead of plans to overcome obstacles.
  4. FAULTY Strategic objectives that are impractical and not possible to accomplish.
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