# Strategy - A Hard Work of Creativity By:: [[Steven Denman]] 2023-06-16 Strategy is too often viewed as either an abstract vision function or a logical exercise rather than the learning, design, and planning process that it is. Think about strategy games: I enjoy more interactive, dynamic strategy games like chess or poker, but I respect those that regularly use the word "meeple" and enjoy the multi-hour, mentally oppressive, resource planning, and multi-phase strategy games. Imagine yourself playing a game like this: - Would you win if you only understood the rules of the game? No. - Would you win if you understood the rules and clearly understood the key dynamics and critical bottlenecks to overcome? Nah. You could maybe win if you understood those things, coordinated your resources, and committed to a set of actions with policies of adjustment and reaction, right? Yes! In the same way, can an organization move from goals (e.g., grow your business, increase school attendance, lower national debt) to relevant objectives by just understanding the industry or understanding the industry and key dynamics to overcome? This would end up sounding like most organization's "strategies": - "Grow attendance by family engagement" - "Grow Revenue and Gross Profit by 10% over the 3 years by being customer-obsessed" Add to these commitments trade-offs, a new level of focus, and proximate objectives based on complexity and knowledge, and then we are getting somewhere! I enjoy strategy work because of the need for detailed learning, distillation of the complex, creative design of an approach with trade-offs and bets, and practical action planning to coordinate and commit resources. The strategy reduced to an abstract thought exercise or logical argument falls short of the practical art it is! #### Related Items [[Games]] [[Strategy]] [[Creative]] [[Work]] [[Thinking]] [[Organization]] [[Decision-making]]