A compass tells you your direction. A map shows you the planned route. Terrain awareness keeps you in the real world. Most leaders lean on one at the expense of the others. The best use all three. Without a compass—your values and purpose—you drift. Decisions get made for the wrong reasons, and it’s hard to … Read more
You’ve got your compass — your values, your north star. You’ve got your map — your strategic plan, built as a testable hypothesis. Now comes the part that humbles every business owner: the terrain. You start moving, and everything changes. A competitor opens across the street. A supplier drops a bombshell. A customer segment you … Read more
In the last post we explained how a compass (your values), a map (your strategy) and the terrain (the real world) work together to give leaders direction.Now we zoom in on the map and treat it like a road‑trip itinerary: a series of educated guesses that you test, adjust, and sometimes reroute as the landscape … Read more
Every organization plans with the future in mind—but the future never shows up exactly as expected. That’s why great strategy isn’t just about building a plan. It’s about knowing how to navigate. One of the most useful metaphors for strategic planning is understanding the relationship between the compass, the map, and the terrain: The Compass … Read more
This will begin the discussion of creating a strategic plan. The most important thing here is that there are many ways to create a strategic plan. Before anything else, I’ll say this – use what works for you. A strategic plan can be as detailed or general as you need it to be. So let’s … Read more
In our last post, we explored what makes a plan living—ongoing review cycles, leadership conversations, and real-time feedback loops. Now, let’s talk about how to actually make that happen. Keeping your strategy alive doesn’t require a massive overhaul or another big initiative. It’s about using the right tools and rhythms to make strategy part of … Read more
In the last post, we explored why static strategic plans fail—how they lose relevance, drift away from reality, and slowly disconnect from the daily work they’re meant to guide. So what does it look like when a strategy stays alive?What separates a document that gathers dust from one that actually drives decisions? A living plan … Read more
In the last post, we introduced the idea of strategy as a living, breathing document—not a polished report kept on a shelf. Now, let’s take a closer look at the other side of the coin: what happens when strategy is static, fixed, and never revisited. Because if strategy is meant to guide decisions, inform priorities, … Read more
Intro In a previous post, we explored strategy as a spectrum — from rigid blueprints to adaptive improvisation — and how to determine where your organization fits. In this next series, we’ll dive deeper into what it means for strategy to be a living, breathing document. Lost Opportunities Too often, a strategic plan is treated … Read more
In our last post, we talked about how to determine where your organization currently falls on the strategy spectrum — from highly structured blueprint-style planning to more adaptive, improvisational planning. But here’s the important truth: Your organization will evolve—and your planning approach should too. As teams grow, markets shift, or priorities change, the type of … Read more