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Strategies & Tactics
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Location: BlogsExoBlog (by John)Strategic Thinking    
Posted by: exocubic 3/7/2008 12:21 AM


This is one of the topics that drives me nuts - in the corporate world people will throw around buzz words like "strategic thinking" and "getting tactical" without really putting much though into what these terms mean - much less bothering to exaplain to the minions how to actually do this.  I hate this because the assumption is that if you are not an exactuive that what you do is not strategic... and likewise it assumes that CEOs do not have tactics (tact, perhaps...)

Overview

Strategic does not mean long term.  Tactical does not mean imminent or without forethought.  Strategy is the plans we have put in place to achieve an objective and Tactics are the methods we employ with our available resources to implement the Strategy - both are required to accomplish anything of real lasting value, even if they are short-term and very simple.

Setting Strategies

How does one go about the process of "strategic thinking" - and how is that different than "tactical thinking"? Most often it is assumed that Strategic Thinking is the job of high level staff and only applies to the big-picture for the next ump-teen years. Strategy is important for today's tasks!

Getting Tactical

Tactics change based on the tools we have available, the experience and training of the team, and the environment (among other things).  Setting and using the tactics correctly is hardly haphazard.  I have often heard the term "tactical" used to refer to the chaotic hand-to-hand combat situation when you grab anything you can as a weapon (in the conference room, of course) and just hack away at something.  In other words, when all else fails, get tactical.  This is really a poor understanding of the planning required to develop and impliment tactics effectively.  The chaos is not tactical, it is just doing the best you can in spite of not having a plan that you can actual execute against!
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