An ABC for how your strategy maybe doesn’t get eaten for breakfast just quite as often 

A is for Attitude. This is where good strategy starts. With the right attitude. If you do not have the right attitude while updating your strategy or while you’re implementing it, your strategy will with 99,2% likelihood get eaten for breakfast.

 

Yet, the required right attitude is almost never discussed when working on strategy. On the contrary, I’ve often come across an attitude of: “Okay people, let’s get this slide rehearsal over and done with so that we can get back to business as usual” And if it is discussed, the closest we get to it are a few superficial check-in-the-box values.

 

This is weird, especially as we know that attitude is the cornerstone of many other areas in life. For instance, it is hard to win a tennis game if you don’t have the right attitude. Or to bring up your kids into sensible human being, if you don’t have the right attitude. Or to cook a good pizza, if you don’t have the right attitude.

 

So, what is the right attitude to have when working with strategy? Different things will work at different times, but these 3 are helpful almost always: Be open-minded, accept that it will be hard and be willing to learn. Key is, that the attitude is discussed when starting a strategy renewal and regularly brought up for discussion while continuously implementing the strategy. The right attitude should be celebrated and the wrong attitude should not be accepted.

 

Attitude is king in strategy, and in life. We all know the story of the rabbit and the turtle. The turtle had the right attitude.