Imagine you have the opportunity to serve as the proverbial fly on the wall for various organizations across different sectors to observe the process of strategy creation.

When asked to share what you observed, I'm confident you will highlight a confusing morass of discussions, political debates, arguments over resources, glorified attempts at operational planning, and the gross abuse of something called SWOT. I’m equally confident you won’t have a better understanding of the actual work of defining strategy as a result of your adventure.

While we live and work in interesting times where traditional elongated planning processes no longer fit, leaders still have the responsibility to define a coherent strategy. After all, organizations must determine how and where to apply resources to serve stakeholders, beat competitors, and navigate the unexpected twists and turns of shifting business models and accelerating change. An organization’s leaders must develop competence as strategists.

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