and consensus to the team, because everyone sees those things. Obvious elements build mental momentum
and initiate creativity and intensity. The best way to create a road to the complex is to build on the fundamentals.

6. Put the Right People in the Right Place

It’s critical that you include your team as part of your strategic thinking. Before you can implement your plan,
you must make sure that you have the right people in place. Even the best strategic thinking won’t help if you
don’t take into account the people part of the equation. Look at what happens if you miscalculate:

Wrong Person: Problems instead of Potential

Wrong Place: Frustration instead of Fulfillment

Wrong Plan: Grief instead of Growth

Everything comes together, however, when you put together all three elements: the right person, the right
place, and the right plan.

7. Keep Repeating the Process

My friend Olan Hendrix remarked, “Strategic thinking is like showering, you have to keep doing it.” If you
expect to solve any major problem once, you’re in for disappointment. Little things can be won easily through
systems and personal discipline. But major issues need major strategic thinking time. What Thane Yost said is
really true: “The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.” If you want to be an effective
strategic thinker, then you need to become a continuous strategic thinker.

As I was working on this chapter, I came across an article in my local paper on the celebration of the Jewish
Passover and how millions of American Jews read the order of service for their Seder, or Passover meal,
from a small booklet produced by Maxwell House Coffee. For more than seventy years, the coffee company
has produced the booklet, called a Haggada, and during those years it has distributed more than 40 million
copies of it.
“I remember using them all my life,” said Regina Witt, who is in her fifties. So does her mother, who is
almost ninety. “It’s our tradition. I think it would be very strange not to use them.”^9
So how did Maxwell House come to supply the booklets? It was the result of strategic thinking. Eighty years
ago, marketing man Joseph Jacobs advised that the company could sell coffee during Passover if the product
were certified Kosher by a rabbi. (Since 1923, Maxwell House coffee has been certified Kosher for Passover.)

And then Jacobs suggested that if they gave away the Haggada booklets, they could increase sales.^10
They’ve been creating the booklets—and selling coffee during Passover—ever since. That’s what can happen
when you unleash the power of strategic thinking.

Thinking Question

Am I implementing strategic plans that give me direction for today and increase my potential

for tomorrow?