Everybody talks about strategy. Constantly. Right this minute — while you’re reading these words — someone in your organization is saying something like:

“We need a strategy for that.”

“Let’s figure out a strategy ASAP.”

But what do we mean by strategy?

At its core, strategy is about making better, more thoughtful, deliberate decisions. In business and in life, we face an overwhelming number of options. Strategy helps us sort through them, decide what to do now, what to do later, what to cross off the list.

Think of strategy as a map. You’re here, but you need to be there. A good strategy lets you pick the best route while dodging dead-ends and detours.

Strategy is the best route from here to there

Of course, it’s rarely that simple. Today’s world moves fast. The landscape around you is always changing. You’ve just started down one road when it turns into a river. All of a sudden, the set of directions you started with has become less relevant.

That means your map — your strategy — has to change, too.

Good strategy isn’t content to pick a plan and stick with it. Good strategy is a series of decisions that evolves as quickly…