Have you been waiting for your organization to really be strategic instead of continually fighting fires?
If so, this story is for you.
Near the start of any presentation, I ask the audience for their expectations during our time together.
One participant at a Creating Strategic Impact workshop for an organization responded to the question with a challenge on how I would customize the content to his organization's unique situation.
Fair question.
I spent several minutes of the limited time with the group explaining the multiple steps we had taken to tailor the content specifically for his organization. Based on his body language, the answer satisfied him that they wouldn't be hearing a canned presentation (which mine never are, btw).
How to Start Creating Strategic Impact
At the workshop's conclusion, this participant was among the first to come forward. He asked a really important question:
“What does it take to get organizations, particularly those outside the for-profit sector, to fundamentally embrace a strategic perspective and begin operating differently than they have?”
My answer was to just START. Today. Or tomorrow at the latest.
I followed with several ideas to get people thinking strategically without them even realizing what was happening.
He responded by saying he was asking specifically about what it takes to force strategic changes at the senior-most levels of an organization such as his.
Given the complexity of the question's answer and the rush to clear the room so the next presenter could begin, I didn't get to answer his bigger question.
My answer to his BIGGER question would have been to just start. Today. Or tomorrow at the latest.
Just Start!
Many people want to wait around for strategic changes to happen at the top. The best way to capitalize on change when it does happen, however, is to have prepared YOURSELF and the people YOU can realistically influence to improve their orientations toward creating strategic impact.
While you may not be able to set the overall strategic agenda for your organization, you can find ways to shape strategy in your own little corner of the world.
That can start with small things done repeatedly and consistently to demonstrate you both understand the bigger picture and can take action to bring it about within your sphere of influence.
Creating Strategic Impact Wherever You Can
Some people get off on big picture speculation about what senior leaders are thinking, expecting, and doing.
Yet, at some point, it's up to YOU to start crating a change.
OR if you aren't up for that, you need to quit worrying about it. Or perhaps you need to move on to another organization. - Mike Brown
