Strategy ‘Should’ Cause Anxiety

Strategy is uncertain, and it causes anxiety.

And it’s supposed to. 

In business, if you’re developing a strategy, it’s because what you’ve been doing so far isn’t sufficient to get you where you want to go. This by definition means you’re going to have to do something you haven’t been doing – something new. And new is uncertain.

New is risky. New is scary.

The results of ‘new’ aren’t guaranteed. New carries with it the possibility of failure. There’s a certain amount of ‘gamble’ involved. We look at our cards, we place our bet on how we think they’re going match up against the uncertainty of the rest of the table, and we take the risk. We hope we’re right, but there’s the chance we’re wrong. It’s this possibility of failure that derails most strategies (because in most cases they’re not *really* strategies). 

Too often I’ve seen ‘strategy’ workshops devolve into the easy things – things we already do, things we already measure, things we know are achievable and safe. Small incremental increases rather than bets on the uncertain. Putting your money in 3% savings account vs investing in a business. 

In every endeavor, to reach the next step you have to do something you’re not currently doing (otherwise you’d already be there). 

That means ‘new’ and new is scary.

If your strategy isn’t causing some amount of discomfort or anxiety, you need to go back and re-think it.  

*Originally published on LinkedIn