. . . Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.”
— Robert Frost
So, if “Strategy is the art of allocating resources to achieve a goal,” or in other words, strategy is choosing how to use what we’ve got to try to get what we want, then choosing, allocating — the central component of strategy — is where the action is. It is, literally, the verb.
While it is fundamental to look at strategy through the lens of available resources — something that sometimes doesn’t get enough attention — and it is important to have clear goals, that doesn’t change the fact that it is the act of deciding what to do, and then doing it, that makes the difference.
“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” — Pythagoras
How do we employ our resources — our time, energy, money, people, things — to work toward getting what we want?
Making decisions is what strategy is about. Strategy implies making choices and not leaving outcomes to chance.
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
The process of choosing, the art of making decisions, is an infinite topic, with many pieces: research, critical thinking, decision-making tools, intuition, gut-feeling, and “experience.” It will take time to begin to explore the approaches to, and components of, making decisions.
There are at least three components to making good decisions.
Information: We may know what we have and we may know our goal, but to find a path from one to the other requires knowing the landscape between them. To avoid just throwing darts blindly at the board we need information. And the better (more accurate, complete) our information, the better our decisions and choices can be. The clearer our vision, the better our chances.
Critical Thinking: We need to be able to judge and test the quality of the information we have. Sometimes there is too much information. We need to be able to organize it, to identify what information is most relevant and be able to distinguish facts from opinions and guesses.
“The facts ma’am.” “All we want are the facts.” — attributed to Sergeant Joe Friday, Dragnet
Decision-making methods and tools: Analytical tools may be helpful in making choices, in making decisions: setting priorities, assessing pros and cons, scheduling, “critical path method” . . .
Often decisions are made based on past “experience,” a catchall for all that we have learned before, and the memory of what worked and what didn’t. With too much information to analyze, people refer to “hunches,” or “intuition.”
Or we try to see into the future with forecasts, predictions, and things like “scenario planning.” We try to predict and test possible outcomes before making a commitment.
The reality of life is often just “cut and try.” And we keep trying until something works, if we have the time, and the means. Often there just aren’t enough facts, and the art of moving ahead is making decisions amid ambiguity.
Choosing, "allocating," is where most of this exploration will go — the “how” of it. It’s an attempt to learn something from what others have done and examples of what has worked.
In the end, our life, our past, doesn’t determine our decisions for us. Our decisions determine our life.