‘Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy’

‘One person’s strategy is another’s tactics. The unnecessasy and fruitless war of what is tactics or strategy or execution must end.’

‘A strategic direction absolutely needs to be solid for a company to achieve success. But that’s not enough. Yet, it is often treated as if it were all things ‘strategy’ and everything else ‘execution.’ Then all failures is blamed on execution.’

‘Having a great strategic direction or idea without a prepared set of people who ‘get it’ is effectively the same as having a bad idea.’

‘Outward signs (titles, affiliations) don’t measure the choices we’ve made for how to be at work, nor do they indicate value created.’

‘It’s certainly better to look dumb and learn than to keep quiet and stay uninformed. It’s called the courage to learn.‘

‘When the ‘why’ is unknown, decisions can seem arbitrary and self-serving. When the ‘why’ is known, it raises everyone’s ability to align subdecisions.’

‘The ultimate goal isn’t to win once, but rather to win over and over again.’

‘Most people don’t see how conflict can serve business. They think appeasing everyone creates peace, but that just waters down solutions. It is our ability to work through tension that resolves issues and creates new solutions.’

‘For strategy to work, it has to meet the needs of the people who must support it.’

‘There is no such thing as ‘the right answer.’ There is something that is best for you, given your problem and particular set of circumstances. Envision that.’

Source

Nilofer Merchant (2010). The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy