[HN Gopher] Why Most Strategies Lack Clarity
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Why Most Strategies Lack Clarity
Author : jger15
Score : 30 points
Date : 2022-06-24 10:32 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (cutlefish.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (cutlefish.substack.com)
| darkerside wrote:
| Agree it could be clearer, but I think people are too harsh on
| the author here.
|
| > The unlock, I think, is realizing that you can confidently
| communicate a coherent strategy that also acknowledges
| uncertainty.
|
| Figuring out how to do this well is the trick.
| MrYellowP wrote:
| Post-Ed Disclaimer:
|
| If your whole article was meant to serve as a prime example of
| someone who lacks coherence, clarity and certainty, then I
| _profoundly_ apologize, because you 've hit the nail on the head
| with that one.
|
| Here's my initial post: ----
|
| This article is dumb. Period. There's no excuse.
|
| What he hell is wrong with you?
|
| Ignoring that it seems rather obvious that the lack of clarity
| comes from too many people believing there's actual depth behind
| buzzwords. I could be completely wrong, though not partly, yet
| _definitely_ not as wrong as you are, because mine 's not based
| on a _wild_ assumption mistaken as potentially valid conclusion,
| but in actual reality backed up by peoples experiences.
|
| Besides _that_ , your conclusion is ... superficial. Shallow.
| Lacks depth just like buzzwords do.
|
| This article/blogpost/whateveryouwishtocallit is horribly
| written. While you _do_ take a first step into the right
| direction towards understanding, you seem to stop at the first
| finding that pops up, mistaking it for some important information
| of actual value.
|
| It fucking isn't. In fact, your whole article is based on
| _nonsense_ and you 're actually insulting _yourself_ with it,
| publicly.
|
| Regardless ... I've actually read through all of it. That's
| something I usually don't do, because it's not fucking worth it.
| Sooo .... you've got that going for yourself, which unknowingly
| means a lot.
|
| It's also short, of course, which may or may not give us hints
| about your attention span.
|
| You have this nugget here, "They don't wake up and say "I want to
| keep the team in a fog!"", and then you somehow magically not
| just leap, but outright conclude:
|
| "We confuse clarity/coherence and certainty."
|
| This is definitely true if everyone else thinks like you, because
| you've actually tried taking this nonsense to actually make a
| case for it.
|
| "If clarity/coherence equals certainty" ... they fucking don't.
|
| clarity does not equal coherence, coherence does not equal
| certainty, certainty does not equal clarity.
|
| _You can not, in fact, even just understand the problem, as long
| as you are oblivious to the actual definitions and meaning of
| significant words._
|
| "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."
|
| Do you, yourself, even understand what this means? This isn't a
| coherent, structured thought. Worse, the negation! The whole
| sentence _requires_ a negation to actually even exist and count
| as a valid ... _verbal construct_.
|
| ...
|
| If this is just trolling, though, then it's a fucking master-
| piece.
| burnished wrote:
| Could you re-edit with less vitriol?
| baxtr wrote:
| Surprisingly, this post lacked clarity. To me, at least.
| MrYellowP wrote:
| Just so you know: I am _absolutely_ certain that it 's not you.
| basseq wrote:
| Horribly written. Seems like the crux here is twofold:
|
| 1. Strategies should be directionally correct to help guide an
| organization to a common goal, but not be overly prescribed in
| order to adapt and remain flexible in the face of an unknowable
| future.
|
| 2. People like confidence, so if you say, "We'll figure it out as
| we go along", it sounds like you don't know what you're doing,
| and no one will follow you.
|
| The natural result if these two forces are strategies _sound_
| good (i.e., "certainty") by lack real strategic meat (i.e.,
| "clarity/coherence")--either by being overly vague or too
| tactical. So the crux, as a strategic leader, is to figure out
| how to drive _confidence_ in a strategy while "also
| acknowledging uncertainty".
| [deleted]
| dchuk wrote:
| Vision: How the future will look
|
| Mission: What's compelling us to make that Vision real
|
| Strategy (as a roadmap): The ways we think we could get closer to
| creating the future contained in the Vision
|
| Backlog: How we've chosen to try and move forward on the Strategy
| karatinversion wrote:
| I always have a concrete example in my mind in any discussion
| of strategy, to keep it grounded. So:
|
| Vision: the unconditional surrender of Nazi German
|
| Mission: defeat Germany militarily
|
| Strategy: land an army in northern France, liberate France,
| invade and occupy Germany
|
| Backlog:
|
| - [...]
|
| - isolate Cherbourg
|
| - [...]
|
| - capture Cherbourg
|
| - [...]
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(page generated 2022-06-24 23:02 UTC)