Rethinking strategy
Perhaps we should consider principles based action instead?
When implementing a strategy, many managers focus on the approach to how they will carry out the mission. The difficulty lies in how individuals and organizations adjust the strategy when the environment changes. Recently, Stanford scholar Amy Zeigart argued that the US is stuck in timeworn thinking that is hurting US foreign policy and the Grand strategy is largely ineffective because is it concentrated on an enemy that she identifies as outdated: The Russians.
Zeigart’s assertions furthered my thinking about how we develop strategy, grand or otherwise, in the post 9/11 world; one with agile and uncertain enemies.
Zeigart’s proposition that threats of today differ so greatly from those in the Cold War Era got me thinking about the potential that a focus at any level of government and the agencies which address homeland security based on the “old enemy” or “known enemy “ potentially places us at risk. While the strategies that we implement are alluring, but do not rise to the level of what would be considered Grand Strategy, we can learn from the premise that we should instead of strategy use guiding principles?
Principles would provide for a single alignment to an unyielding truth or standard without setting its sights on a strategy that is fixed and tempting. “The sorry truth is that American grand strategies are usually alluring but elusive,” Zeigart asserts. “The Cold War this isn’t. We live in a hazy threat du jour world. This is too much complexity and uncertainty for grand strategy to handle.”
Considering the “enemies” that you battle, have you changed your strategy to minimize the risks that they pose?
If you are a manager and you create strategies to help complete your mission, have you considered a new foe?
Take some time to examine strategies that you operate within, how can the brief lessons of Zeigart help you narrow your focus? While we likely do not operate at the national policy level, this level of thinking can influence how we proceed given our level of strategy and policy level action in the larger enterprise of Homeland Security.
