Picture yourself on holiday, in a new destination you’ve never been before, beaches, bays, lake, mountains, malls, museums, historic sites, whatever is your fancy, they’re all around. You intend to leave your hotel and head to your destination of choice for the day and we inevitably do the same things with some sort of map.
In my last thought we talked about using Maps as an analogy for developing a strategy. If strategy is about figuring out how we get from A to B then a tried and true method of delivering on that sounds like a great place to start. Whether it’s Maps with Google or Apple, Uber or even a old fashion paper map, they all works exactly the same. This means that multiple engineers, orienteer’s and explorers have refined this process for generations. When it comes to figuring out how to get from where we are to a new destination we don’t need to re-invent the wheel.
Here’s how they work, we decide where we want to head to and put that into Maps. Maps then finds out where we currently are, or we give it a start destination. Then we’re generally given multiple route options to arrive at our destination pending the road conditions. Finally, having picked one we are kept on track, in my case, by Siri’s lovely voice that makes sure I prepare for a turn, actually turn and inevitably turn around when I got stuck in the wrong lane.
This is not rocket science. It’s clear, refined, easy to follow and intuitive. When it comes to developing a strategy to get from A to B this is a great set of steps to follow.
But as I mentioned last time it’s important to remember that things can change. To continue the analogy with an example; you’re done at your destination, the family’s heading home and you realise there’s no food for dinner. Your need to change your destination, find a supermarket, and then head home. When this happens, the process starts again. Change the destination, confirm your current location, replot the course and keep yourself on track.
This is strategy formation according to Maps, five questions our phones ask us every time we want to plot a course, they are:
1. Where do we want to go?
2. Where are we now?
3. How are we going to get there?
4. How do we keep ourselves on track?
5. When / how will we check if we need to change our destination?
To be clear, even though we’re using the word strategy, this concept and these questions are not just limited to business. Call me excessively over-planned perhaps, but I use these questions all the time as a parent, when I’m dealing with trip planning, and many other situations. They represent a structured process of planning how to get from where you are to where you want to get to.
When it comes to working through these questions we can’t allow ourselves to be tempted to skip any of them without first giving each of them the time they need. Answering question 3 (How are we going to get there?) isn’t going to produce a useful strategy unless it’s built on questions 1 and 2 (Where do we want to go? And where are we now?). Understanding what we’re working towards and what we’re working with is intuitively crucial to developing the tool (read strategy) to help us get there.
Further, question 5 (When / how will we check if we need to change our destination?) starts the loop back to question 1 again. This is the cyclical nature of strategy, and ensures we remain flexible in a world that is constantly changing. In a business there are enough examples of that over the last few years for us all to understand but as parents, this happens frequently as well. Our children hit new levels of maturity, they start treating each other differently or something unexpected happens at school and it requires us to change our approach and responses to them. The moment the change is significant enough to change our approach we need to revert to step 1 and re-develop it.
There is so much this leaves unsaid, strategy and even just these questions can be much more broadly unpacked, however, that work is best done in the context of the strategy you’re trying to define. In the meantime, for those that aren’t already familiar with, or even off put by, the concept of having a clear strategy these five questions can be an accessible and easy place to start.