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Hill 265
“Congratulations Captain! You have successfully captured Hill 265. You destroyed the enemy and did it will minimal casualties. Unfortunately, Hill 265 has no tactical significance to our Army’s overall mission”.
The above is an analogy of the classic management conundrum of efficiency versus effectiveness. Too often, leaders are so engaged in the tactical battle that they forget to pause to check whether what they are doing is aligned with the larger mission. Being efficient is always important, but it is second to being effective as it is pointless being efficiently ineffective.
As a leader, I loathe approving plans without first hearing the larger strategy. This is because it is impossible for me to assess the effectiveness of a plan without connecting it to the larger mission of the organization. Failure to do so will result in the team capturing Hill 265.
As organizations enter the final quarter of the work year and start thinking and developing their work plans for 2023, I want to remind leaders to pause, to raise their heads above the parapets of the trenches they are fighting in, to connect the dots to the larger mission of their organization, and to develop their strategy. Too often, leaders simply continue doing more of what they have been doing and end up capturing Hill 265 …. over and over again.
There is a quote that sums this up rather well: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Tactics and strategy are two sides of the same coin and should always complement each other.
