in the previous chapter.)
Let’s Also Ban “Work Smarter, Not Harder”
People have lots of snappy advice for you. “Work smarter, not
harder.” “Be more strategic.” These maxims tend to be TBU: True
But Useless sound bites that sound good but are impossible to act
upon. In fact, “strategic” has become an overused qualifier,
something we add to anything that we want to sound more
important, more useful, more thoughtful, more... good. This isn’t
just a meeting. It’s a strategic meeting. A strategic report. A
strategic lunch date. A strategic purchase of that fantastic pair of
Jeffery West shoes I can’t really afford but have been admiring for
a while.
It can all leave employees supremely indifferent to the idea of
strategy. When you combine the overuse of the term with the fact
that anything to do with strategy is often seen as being “their
work”—when “they” are anyone two or three levels higher than
the employees—well, you’re likely to encounter a nasty but
predictable case of the SPOTS: Strategic Plans on Top Shelf.
But strategy isn’t a thick PowerPoint document gathering dust
somewhere. It’s far more fundamental and common than that. Of
the many definitions of “strategy” that I’ve seen, I think I like
Michael Porter’s best, when he said, “The essence of strategy is
choosing what not to do.”