The problems with an unspoken strategy

A funny thing about strategy is you have one whether you have said it out loud or not. You act and operate everyday in a way you think is optimal - this is your strategy.

The problem with not writing your strategy down is you cannot analyse it to determine if it is effective and therefore cannot improve it over time.

In order for a strategy to be successful it needs to answer questions like:

• Do you have the resources required?
• Do you have the core competence to see it through?
• Are your teams aligned to it? Are they happy with it?
• Are the risks of the strategy within acceptable limits?

If you have not written down your strategy you cannot compare it against questions like these to validate it. Not verbalising or writing down your strategy does not mean you can ignore the above, it means whether you succeed or not is random based on how you currently operate.