Power is defined as the ability to act or have influence over others. It is the ability to influence or change an outcome. Power is the influence that you have on other people. A person can have an influence on others by the virtue of his or her personality traits, knowledge, skills etc. Power is the ability to make something happen. The term power has many aspects to its meaning. It can refer to the authority granted or assumed. It can refer to actions in reality. It can refer to properties of matter or things or energies. It can refer to ideas, ideals and intuitions.
Power is the influence you have on other people. Today we are here to talk about the power of strategy, the influence and authority strategy has in our life. You need not just a strategy to progress in life, you need the right strategy. A strategy for yourself or as a leader is a plan to get from where you are today to a future situation that is what you want. Every strategic action plan requires people with the right skills. The power of strategy and skills is to transform your life, your career, your team, your organisation, or your system from what it is right now into something different and better.
You need to develop a strategy that will take you from where you are now to where you want to be in the future. You do not have to wait for the future to start implementation. If you do, it means the future, you hope for will never come to fruition. Faith is not for the future, it is present tense. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. What you hope for is for the future, but you begin now to strategise by applying your faith and working towards your goal so you can achieve your goal.
When I use the word organisation, it refers to you as an individual and the organisation as a company. Organisations that fail to think strategically will be vulnerable to threats and ill-prepared to take advantage of fresh opportunities. None of us planned for the Covid-19 pandemic that is killing and lock down the world. It is huge. It is new. It might after this epic outburst never happen again. You do not have to plan for Covid-19, but the strategic plans you have in place for disasters will take care of Covid-19 in your organisation.
The most basic solution when there is no vaccine is to wash your hands, close your mouth and nose, and social distancing. The social distance is what is new among the mix. All the other should have been your lifestyle, and if it was, you don’t have to struggle, you’re living it. If it is indeed your lifestyle, it means in the past, you strategised, planned, and maintain good health habit. You have a hygienic lifestyle. The rules to stay safe are no longer new to you.
A flexible but focused approach will put organisations in a better position to deal with setbacks and to respond to new opportunities as they emerge. Nonetheless, organisations still need to gain a clear understanding of the market place and their strategic position within it. Analysis and planning remain important for the majority of organisations.
If you don’t plan to win it means you plan to fail. A strategy is a way of describing how you are going to get things done. It is less specific than an action plan which tells the who-what-when; instead, it tries to broadly answer the question, "How do we get there from here?" Do we want to take the train? Fly? Walk?
Having a strategy is not a guarantee that things will work out the way you intended. Some strategy is good and others can be bad as well. I develop products from time to time. After running a campaign and going through the data, I know my strategy is not the right approach. From the data insight, I have the intelligence to see things and apply another strategy that will work.
A good strategy will take into account existing barriers and resources. Resources include people, money, power, materials, etc. It will also stay with the overall vision, mission, and objectives of the initiative. Often, an initiative will use many different strategies--providing information, enhancing support, removing barriers, providing resources, etc.--To achieve its goals. Objectives outline the aims of an initiative--what success would look like in achieving the vision and mission. By contrast, strategies suggest paths to take and how to move along on the road to success. That is, strategies help you determine how you will realise your vision and objectives through the nitty-gritty world of action.
A strategy without tactics isthe slowest route to victory. The tactics without strategy are the noise before defeat. – Sun Tzu
A tactic is a conceptual action or short series of actions to achieve a short-term goal. This action can be implemented as one or more specific tasks. The terms tactic and strategy are often confused: tactics are the actual means used to gain an objective, while strategy is the overall campaign plan, which may involve complex operational patterns, activity, and decision-making that govern tactical execution.
Strategy development is the process of researching and identifying strategic options, selecting the most promising and deciding how resources will be allocated across the organisation to achieve objectives.
Here is a framework for thinking about and developing an organisational strategy. It is based broadly on established processes of analysis, choice and implementation.
- Understand the current position
- Reflect on how you got there
- Be clear about your corporate identity (mission, vision and values)
- Analyse your strengths and weaknesses
- Analyse the business environment
- Identify and evaluate strategic options
- Set objectives
- Communicate the strategy
- Implement the strategy
- Review progress
Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals in a game or other endeavour. As a cognitive activity, it produces thought. The ability to think strategically is not a skill as such that can be taught – it’s more a mindset or a way of thinking. Developing a great strategic thinking skill requires you to gain exposure to strategic roles, synthesise broad information, participate in a culture of curiosity, and gather experiences that allow you to identify patterns and connect the dots in novel ways. An analysis is the critical starting point of strategic thinking.
