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TBM 27b/52: Why Most Strategies Lack Clarity
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TBM 27b/52: Why Most Strategies Lack Clarity

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John Cutler
16 hr ago
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TBM 27b/52: Why Most Strategies Lack Clarity
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NEW: Check out my three (free) Miro templates: Competitive Analysis, 
Can / Should, and Mandate Levels. If you've read TBM for a while,
these will look familiar! Please send feedback. A big thank you to
Anna Savina from Miro for her patient nudges.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

KP Frahm posted this on LinkedIn today, and it caught my attention:

    Why do most companies [lack] a clear and coherent product
    strategy? My take: Because in most companies, there is a lot of
    (hidden) value in the lack of clarity and coherence.

There are many ways to interpret KP's statement--some more
Machiavellian than others. Obfuscation is a classic power (and/or
hedging) move. Alan Greenspan used Fedspeak to basically keep people
guessing:

    I would engage in some form of syntax destruction, which sounded
    as though I was answering the question, but had not. 

In a company setting, I am sure there are some people who have
self-serving intentions. But my guess is that most people don't
consciously strive for a lack of clarity and coherence. They don't
wake up and say "I want to keep the team in a fog!"

Here is what I think is going on. 

We confuse clarity/coherence and certainty. If clarity/coherence
equals certainty, and a strategy is supposed to be clear and
coherent, then unless we are certain, we can't have a strategy.
Meanwhile some high percentage of the audience for our strategy wants
certainty. If they haven't heard confident certainty, then they
haven't heard a strategy.

Them: "Ugh. We need a strategy!"
Leader (pretending to be confident): "Fine! Here's the strategy!"

The lack of clarity and coherence is a natural outgrowth of fear--fear
of being seen as less capable, fear of limiting optionality, fear of
being wrong, and fear of making informed guesses.

I met with a leader recently to chat about strategy. I did my normal
FAB activity (facts, assumptions, and beliefs) activity, and they
stopped a minute or two in and said (paraphrasing):

    This is getting depressing. There is a lot I don't know.
    Shouldn't I go and learn this stuff before presenting the
    strategy? Or maybe I could do something a bit more high level? I
    also don't want to limit our vision. What if [Other Persona] is
    the right persona?

It took a lot of prodding to keep them going. If I had been in their
shoes, it would have been hard for me as well.

No wonder so many strategies are expressed as simple list of
priorities, and/or tasks OR as vague, clarity-lacking platitudes.

The unlock, I think, is realizing that you can confidently
communicate a coherent strategy that also acknowledges uncertainty.
You know what you know. You assume what you assume. You believe what
you believe.

Yes, there will always be some people internally who will only accept
certainty. But you can't change those people, and catering to them is
a losing game.

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        Dave Graves
        6 hr ago

        John, great post as always. Where can I learn more about your
[https] "FAB" activity? Sounds like something I need to try.

        Expand full comment
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1 reply

        Vinish Garg
        Writes The Major Arc 16 hr ago

        Hi John, I left a comment on KP's LinkedIn post itself--lack
        of clarity is also about the misplaced communication systems
        in an org. Establishing a workflow and expecting that a
        design systems or DesignOps *definitely* helps the product
        success is a misplaced assumption.
 
[https] People (mostly leaders or their associates) do not really
        discuss (or ask or share) how certain decisions are made in
        the org. The communication system that they have for the
        operations, efficiency, speed, are designed around their own
        KPIs and metrics--rather than building the support structure
        for other functions too.

        Expand full comment
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