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Fight Incrementalism

“Do Everything a Little Better” isn’t exactly a strategy.

Every function has real needs. Prioritizing them means some valid requests won’t make the highest-level cut.

If anyone offers to fix this With One Weird Trick, buyer beware.

But I’ll suggest a start: spend a little time maximally zoomed out before your next strategic session.

Here are two ways to reduce bias, amplify focus, and create a sense of fair play.

Articulate how your org thinks

Our brains are pretty good at papering over gaps until they can’t. Precisely spelling out decision structures can be tricky:

• What do we care about?
• What level of rigor is required?
• Who decides?
• Why?

There will be points of disagreement. That’s where you start talking.

Payoff: A logic system that can underpin hard decisions, and the start of a weighted scorecard.

Funny thing: some of this is probably spelled out at a department level, through RACI and the like. Why not at the highest possible level too?

Examine your org through a very broad lens

Don’t jump to keep-drop-add just yet.

What does the developmental arc of your business suggest about its next priorities: sales, marketing, product, or operations? Set aside what’s working, or not working, today for a minute.

Ever gone all the way back to Porter’s Generic Strategies and thought about what they might mean for you? If you have, congratulations. A lot of organizations never get around to it.

Payoff: A prioritization framework that feels less political, one that isn’t built entirely around what’s not working right now.

I’ve also found this fun, provocative, and bonding. A useful reminder tends to surface: less of what’s wrong now usually doesn’t equal the path to your desired future.

Combine these and you have the foundation of a focused plan, instead of Do Everything a Little Better.

I get it. It’s not easy to commit time to matters this abstract.

Try it at small scale and see where it takes you.