Making Strategy Come To Life

Develop Strategy Like Writing A Story.

Do you dread the annual strategic planning exercise? Frustrated when the strategic plan is out of sync before the financial planning cycle is even over? That’s because strategy is a living and changing entity and not a planning process. (If you want to go deeper into strategy vs planning, check out my prior issue You Can’t Plan Your Way Into A Strategy). Strategy is a series of choices in motion, and it best comes alive as a story!

Turning strategy development into story creation is a fun way to bring strategy to life. Strategy is all fiction anyway, until it’s put into action. So why not turn it into a creative process with strategy becoming crafting the actual story that you want to play out to your mission and advantage.

Elements of Story Structure

A good story has a literary structure where the author makes choices around core elements like the theme or purpose of the story, characters who enact and carry out the story, the setting including the time and arena where it takes place, the unique lens or point of view the author takes in framing the story, the major action sequences or plot line of the story, epic struggles or conflict that create tension among characters and the setting environment, and finally resolution of how the characters overcome conflict and realize the mission or theme.

Creating strategy by following these core elements of story writing will provide the critical structure, breath life and reality into your strategy, and is way more fun than just doing SWOT analysis and forces diagrams. Let’s create and delve further into the strategy writing model.

Strategy Writing Model

Elements of Strategy Story Writing

Theme: First, underlying as the anchor of your story is the theme or the value and purpose driving the strategy story. It’s what your strategy story is ultimately about like the product or company’s value and sustaining advantage. This includes core decisions about the mission or why the business and/or product exists, the value and impact to be realized, the differentiation or competitive advantage to be provided, the influence to be created among the ecosystem, and the extent of disruption desired to happen.

Characters: Then develop the characters -- customers, consumers, competitors, and ecosystem players. Who are the friends, foes, and heroes of this strategy story? For example do you make the customer your hero, the competitors are foes? What are the desires and motives of their actions, and what are their back-stories? What are the flaws of each of your characters? Even call out your business flaws or blind spots. Note how the personalities, values and actions of each character evolves as the story unfolds.

Setting: Frame where the action takes place and how that might change over the course of the strategy story. Include aspects like what is the industry landscape like, specific market segments of interest, the market maturity and typical market cadence, and any geography areas of focus. Where is your strategy occurring, and what is the mood, situation, or atmosphere of your strategy story? Is it in a mature Industry or one undergoing transformation, known or new category or usage model? Is it a market with serious implications or customer experience such as healthcare or transportation, or more about customer enjoyment such as entertainment or hospitality industries?

Point Of View: Everything is an assumption or someone’s perspective. Strategy is just a set of assumptions or a “fictional story” until consequential choices are put into motion. Point of View is the angle or vantage point you’re seeing things in the strategy. Be clear about calling out assumptions that might not be obvious you have about the characters, setting, and plot line. Things like what customers may or may not want, the timing market growth, or desirability of the product by the target market.

Plot Line: A great story has a believable and compelling plot line – products, mission and motives, and how the market responds. In literature, the plot gives the story structure to keep the readers engaged and not confused. Similarly in strategy writing, the plot line provides the structure for making choices, testing your assumptions, and sequencing your moves that will keep the team, business, and partners engaged with clarity on intentions and desired outcomes. This includes strategic choices on the type of product or service, the technology, how it will be differentiated from alternatives, the ways you will Go-To-Market, and if it will be built internally or outsourced. The plot thickens when comprehending initiatives for growth, at what pace to invest or build new capability, the business model strategy and what scale is needed for economics to work?

Conflict: Of course every good story needs conflict -- like industry disruptions, epic battles among competitors, and live or die challenges for the business. Conflict encompasses all the obstacles the strategy will face, unexpected problems or hurdles to navigate related to things like competition, market disruptions, new players or game changers, encroachment into your lane or space by value chain players, and even unforeseen global or industry situations. Calling out conflicts are critical to anticipate where the strategy story can run off the rails. Conflict can also include disconnects in assumptions compared to what plays out in reality, talent or technology gaps to what is needed for strategy success, not being at the right place or time to hit a market window, and even the difficult trade-offs around time-to-market, features, and quality.

Resolution: All stories have an intended ending were the characters have moved through conflict and embody realization of the theme. It’s important to call out what the strategy story resolution or success will look like and have some signals along the way to tell if you are on a path to positive resolution. Consider some markers like how to tell when the vision is close to reachable, outside-in validation of the strategy received by the market, or revenue and market or social impact objectives are realized. It’s important to have indicators or flags showing the strategy story is on the path to a good ending or making positive momentum toward the sequel “Strategy Story 2”.

Writing the Strategy Story

Now it’s time to pull together your co-creators, and put pen to paper or whiteboard, and craft your strategy story! If you would like some help, here is a free downloadable worksheet with key prompts for each strategy story element. Or reach out to me to discuss or share how it goes.