This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life)

by Seth Godin

A Framework for a Strategy • Awareness of the system and the rules. Any change we seek to make involves scarcity, the status quo, networks, and what came before. Most of all, it involves awareness of time and the distance from today until tomorrow. • Empathy for the individuals who must engage with your project. We don’t need to have sympathy or agreement to realize that other people have the independence and power to make choices, and those choices will always be based on their experience, worldview, and self-interest. • Choices are available to each of us. We have more agency than we’d like to admit, and our decisions can be better aligned with the goals of the project. • Uncertainty is a feature of every strategy. Not the delineated steps of a proven process, but the exploration and probabilities of creating a better version of the future. • Resilience comes from acknowledging that the x-axis is time, and that today is not the same as tomorrow. Few projects work as we intend, and our strategy embraces the truth that our plans will change. • Resources involve a clear understanding of what’s available to execute the strategy. This includes financial resources, human capital, technology, and other assets that can be leveraged to achieve the desired outcomes.