Strategy isn't difficult, it's just a lot of work

Strategy often feels difficult because the work behind it is easy to underestimate. You can run a workshop, complete a few frameworks and make decisions quickly, but that is not the same as building a strategy that can guide real choices and adapt as circumstances change.

The title of this blog comes from a quote from strategist Alexis Mather: "Strategy isn't difficult. It's just a lot of work."

That distinction matters. Strategy does not depend on a secret formula. But it does require disciplined thinking, evidence, collaboration and ongoing attention.

Strategy isn't difficult

There is no ‘secret sauce’ to doing strategy. There is no magic formula.

If someone is trying to sell you their secret formula, be cautious.

Much of strategy can be done using a relatively simple set of tried-and-tested frameworks, applied well and in the right sequence. The challenge is not simply knowing the frameworks. It is using them to ask better questions, test assumptions and make coherent choices.

StratNav is built on this principle. The tools and frameworks included in the platform are well known and proven. Most, though not all, have been around for decades. SWOT analysis, for example, has been used since the 1960s.

What StratNav offers is:

1. Support, including automation and AI, to help you use these tools well.
2. A way of integrating them, so that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual frameworks.
3. A process that guides you through the strategy development and execution lifecycle in a logical, easy-to-follow way.

This matters because a framework is only useful when it informs a decision. A SWOT analysis, for example, should not be a static list of observations. It should help you identify the issues most likely to affect your strategic choices and the actions you need to take.

Strategy is a lot of work

Unfortunately, the apparent simplicity of strategy can lead people to approach it too superficially.

They get a few people in a room, complete a quick SWOT analysis, make a few decisions and declare the job done.

But good strategy requires significant, ongoing and diligent work. It means gathering evidence to support your hypotheses, assertions and assumptions. It means digging deep to understand how internal and external factors could affect the future success of the organisation.

It also means casting the net wide. You need enough perspectives to challenge groupthink, reveal blind spots and build alignment among different stakeholder groups. The people responsible for delivering the strategy need to understand it, believe in it and see how their work contributes to it.

Then there is the need to remain alert to changing circumstances. Markets change. Customers change. Technologies change. Competitors react. Regulations, costs, risks and opportunities do not stand still. When the evidence changes, you need to re-evaluate your analysis and decisions, then adjust your strategy where appropriate.

Strategy is therefore a constant process of deliberation, testing and learning.

It does not happen in a vacuum. The world continues to change, and it responds to your strategy. As soon as you act, customers, competitors, partners and other stakeholders may react. Sometimes that response is positive, such as when customers value your offering. At other times, it is more challenging, such as when competitors respond to neutralise or defeat your strategy.

So strategy is never simply ‘done’. It is an ongoing journey of making choices, acting on them, learning from the results and refining your direction.

Even without all of this, strategy involves thinking. And, as Daniel Kahneman showed in his seminal book Thinking, Fast and Slow, thinking is hard.

It is understandable that people shy away from the work. But avoiding it does not remove the need for strategic choices. It simply means those choices are made implicitly, inconsistently or too late.

StratNav helps to reduce the burden where it can. It uses automation and AI to help you work more easily and consistently, collaboration to gather multiple perspectives and keep everyone aligned, and a structured process that breaks strategy down into simple steps which flow and build logically.

Going without strategy is even harder

If you think strategy is hard, imagine how much harder it is to succeed without it.

Without a clear strategy, you risk flying blind. People head in different directions, based on different and untested assumptions. Resources are spread too thinly. Decisions become reactive. Progress depends too much on luck and good fortune.

A strategy does not guarantee success. But it gives you a shared basis for deciding where to focus, what to prioritise, what to stop doing and how to respond when conditions change. It gives your organisation a better chance of making deliberate choices rather than simply reacting to events.

Conclusion

Strategy may not be inherently complex, but effective strategy requires skill, dedication, consistency and attention to detail. Its success is defined by the quality of the work you put into it: the evidence you gather, the choices you make, the alignment you build and the way you learn and adapt over time.

If you are struggling to make your strategy clearer, more practical or easier to execute, try StratNav. Free and paid plans are available, and you may be surprised by how quickly you can create greater clarity, focus and alignment around the work that matters most.