Strategy is one of those words that was misunderstood by me for many years. That word always seemed a little mysterious and abstract. It just sounded so sophisticated, and somehow implied complexity. “Strategic” was even fancier, and seemed to imply effective and efficient military operations, and required special knowledge. I realized eventually that these terms are actually really simple. They just mean how you get goals done; how you go about reaching a goal. “How are you going to do it?” and, “what’s your strategy” are essentially the same question. If you have a goal and you plan ways of reaching it, viola! You are now “strategic.” So, you don’t have to be a military mastermind to be strategic, you just have to work out ways to achieve a given goal.
I think it helps to explain things plainly. Innovation is another term that sounds very sophisticated. It just means finding new ways to do things. Sometimes, often times, new ways don’t work out too well. But, they are still innovative by definition. They are just sucky innovation. Sucky innovation is another way of saying failure. We must keep trying, and failing, in order to find a new way of doing something that actually is better. In other words you have to fail, and fail again, in order to improve. Thomas Edison famously made over a thousand light bulbs that didn’t work very well before he made one that did. So innovation is not necessarily a stroke of genius, but more often a methodical process of incremental improvement and trial and error toward a goal. That’s it. Just grinding it out with determination, making small adjustments is being innovative. Don’t get me wrong, being brilliant helps. But a brilliant idea is nothing without execution. Execution is another fancy word that has a simple meaning; it means getting it done.
So, don’t be intimidated by fancy sounding words like strategic innovative execution. Just take time to figure out what you want, come up ways of doing it that may be new to you, and then do it. Then, after some real effort, step back and evaluate how you are doing. If you are failing, adjust and then take another run at it. Keep this up and you’ll become disciplined and conscientious to boot! Then you will be a strategic innovative disciplined and conscientious executive. Very fancy indeed! Nice work if you can get it!
The 365 Commitment builds your capacity to reach your goals. It provides the daily opportunity to adjust your aim and evaluate how best to “do life,” one day at a time. Fancy that!
Ben Wagner (46)
Member The 365 Commitment
