strategies | Kerrzone Musings

Strategy is a widely misunderstood term. Simply put, strategies are directional and include the objective and the approach. They are a guide but not the detailed recipe.

Todays post focuses on some exaggerated examples of strategy and tactics to illustrate the concepts. These are a bit outlandish and only intended to frame the difference between strategy, tactics and the associated planning approaches.

How should I dress?

My approach to dressing starts with a basic strategy. This can range from bare bones (naked) to fully dressed and all points in-between. The strategic statments could be things like:

Our strategic approach to dress, is to be free and unencumbered. Minimal use of garments is both environmentally focused, cost effective and beautiful.
Our strategic approach to dress is to be fully clothed protecting our bodies from the weather and other naturally occuring hazzards that could be harmful. Our beauty is expressed through our clothing.

Tactics

To implement these strategies we may proposes activiites like purchasing black wool pants and comfortable sweaters. These form the requirements to achieve the objective.

Obviously the specific clothing requirements support the second strategy whereas tactics in support of the first might include finding tanning saloons that can be leveraged to enhance the beauty of the exposed body.

Planning

Both the strategies and the tactics can have plans outlined activities, schedule and resources. The main difference in strategic and tactical plans is the level of detail.

The value equation

Strategies, tactics and underlying plans form the recipe for sucess. Without them you might create a tasty dish, but with them the probability of a successful meal is higher.

Organizations of all types (charitable, corporate, government, social) all are subject to some form of internal politics. Some more skeptical people simply refer to this as game playing.

Often called office politics, to put a boundary on the play space, these are strategies that people play to gain advantage, personally or for a cause they support.

The term often has a negative connotation, in that it refers to strategies people use to seek advantage at the expense of others or the greater good.

What to do?

The first, and most important, step in sucessfully navigating organizational politics is identification. That is recognizing that a strategy is in play.

While not always possible, determining the goal of the strategy and forcasting how it will be played out can be very helpfu to you when deciding how to react.l

The key though, is understanding a political strategy is in play, even if the way it is playing out is not really clear. From this point the question is will it benefit or harm me?

The next step is to determine your reaction – that is either play or avoid. If you decide to play be sure you can be in control, limit your risk, and won’t be played yourself. Otherwise select an avoidance approach.

Well played strategies can cause you harm, this is true if you are the target or even just an innocent bystander. This is where recognizing somethings in play and staying away can be beneficial.

If you choose to play, obviously you should have a personal goal in mind (if there is no benefit to you, why play) and remember this is the riskier approach.

Kerrzone Musings

Tag Archives: strategies

Strategy and Tactics

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