Here's a quick lesson that I think needs some reinforcement: your strategy documents are not your strategy. I know that we all know this already, but looking at the behavior of so many organizations, I'm not so sure. We invest so much time and money in producing strategic documents that we hold onto them even if they turn out to be not particularly useful to the whole system.

The primary value of any kind of strategy process, from what I've seen, is in the strategic conversations they generate and the strategic insight that is generated in the conversations. We then try to take that and turn it into some sort of deliverable that we can share with everyone, partly because we genuinely need to share the insight across the system, but partly (let's be honest) because the consultant promised it in the proposal, or someone in charge needs something tangible to show someone even more in charge.

But I think we should hold onto these documents loosely. We should be prepared to trash them six months in if they aren't really sticking with people. We should stay close to the insight and keep having the conversations, because that's what will give you the most powerful documents and the most effective strategy. The documents are good; they are important. But they are not "it."

Jamie Notter