According to Google, the word “tactic” is defined as: – noun: an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.
This definition confuses the meanings of the words “strategy” and tactic.” The words strategy and tactics are often found being used interchangeably, almost synonymously, as if they have the same meaning. They don’t.
Acknowledging that “strategy” and “tactics” mean different things enriches both our language and our comprehension.
So how are they different? And is the difference important? Aren’t tactics just small-scale strategies?
There are common references to the idea that strategy is large-scale and tactics are small-scale. They are sometimes distinguished as long-term versus short-term, or more general and more specific. None of these comparisons seem to catch the essence of the difference.
More useful are the ideas that strategy is about planning and tactics are about doing, or about “why” or “what” versus “how”.
Here are some attempts to define the differences between strategy and tactics:
“Tactics operate within the framework of the strategy.”
“Strategy is done above the shoulders, tactics are done below the shoulders.”
“Thought without action, vs action without thought.”
“Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.”
— Max Euwe, mathematician, World Chess Champion, 1935 – 1937
“Tactics are the servant of strategy.”
— Edward de Bono
“Strategy is about picking the right battles. Tactics are about successfully executing those battles.” — translated from Carl von Clausewitz’s On War
And more from von Clausewitz, from the United States Marine Corp University’s An Annotated Guide to Tactics: Carl von Clausewitz’s Theory of the Combat:
“Strategy is only possible through the tactics that carry it out.”
— from forward by Major General Julian Dale Alford
“Tactics . . . are the means of strategy.”
— from the preface by B. A. Friedman
A couple of examples might help.
Jeff Greason, entrepreneur and amateur historian, used American participation in World War II to illustrate some concepts of strategy. Paraphrasing for brevity:
“The goal was the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan.
The over-arching strategy was “Germany before Japan.
The sub-strategies were:
In Europe, surround Germany and choke its war industries, then invade.
In the Pacific, develop naval superiority, then island-hop around strong bases to cut their supply lines.
Within this, there should be tangible, measurable objectives, for example, land at Normandy and hold it.
Tactics would be the means you would use — air cover, amphibious landing craft, tanks, . . . “
And another example provided by Dr. Timothy Snyder, a professor of Eastern European history at Yale University.
“Russian strategy is to diminish the power of their rivals by dividing and weakening them, both at the level of the trans-Atlantic alliance and by breaking the EU down to individual countries.
Their tactics include hacking and leaking conversations of rivals out of context, disinformation, polarization, undermining and denial of civil society.”
— Timothy Snyder lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFObB6_naw
Staying within the model we’ve been developing, if strategy is about resources and choosing, or planning, how and where to use them in support of achieving a goal, then tactics are the specific, concrete actions one takes in applying those resources.
Deciding to go to university would be a strategic decision. Deciding how much to study, at the library or at home, alone or with a study group would generally be tactical decisions.
Perhaps some of the confusion is, in the end, about scale. Just as we have goals within goals in life, it is possible to have strategies within strategies. While your over-arching goal may still be to drain the swamp, the arrival of an alligator obliges you to come up with a more immediate strategy in support of a perhaps lesser, but more urgent goal . . .
In the end, strategy and tactics are interwoven and inter-dependent.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
— Sun Tzu