If you're new, start here ...
Episode 115: The strategy cargo net
You're doing strategy right now. Really. Every time you decide what to do with your next three hours, that's strategy. It just doesn't always FEEL like it because somehow we've collectively agreed that strategy is something that happens in glass-walled rooms with important people saying momentous things in front of dark mode Powerpoint decks full of charts.
This episode will annoy anyone who's sold you strategy as something grand and out of reach. Good.
This conversation is also available on YouTube.
Then this ...
Episode 136: When they tell you to "be more strategic" (but not what that actually means)
"Strategic" is a suitcase word. It can mean whatever the person saying it wants it to mean. Which is extremely useful if you're the one saying it, and extremely maddening if you're the one being told it.
In this one we unpack what's actually being asked for when someone wafts around the word "strategic" as feedback. Spoiler: it's usually one of a relatively small number of specific things. The trouble is, without knowing which one it is for you right now, you're playing a game with invisible goalposts.
This conversation is also available on YouTube.
And then ...
Episode 137: The six or seven problem when "being more strategic"
There's only so much org-level strategy to go around at any one time, and getting your hands on it is often more about proximity to power than actual skill. Frustrating, but true.
The more useful question is what you can do with the sort of strategy that's always available. How you approach your work, your next decision, your next three hours, your next week and month. And this doesn't have to be a consolation prize. Here we talk more about the cargo net concept from episode 115 and dig further into the stance you can take.
(The "six or seven" in the title? That's about stress. Real breakthroughs happen near zero or near ten. The simmering 6–7 most people are constantly stuck at is precisely where strategy stalls.)
Also available on YouTube.
Three episodes. One thread. Coming to about 90 minutes in total if you're walking or driving somewhere.
Does any of this sound like something a team you know is wrestling with? We can help with that too. It's what Crown & Reach is for. Check us out at crownandreach.com.
Tom & Corissa x
P.S. Tentacles podcast is the best bad podcast around. Unfiltered, unedited, and unpretentious. If you haven't listened before, this is a perfectly reasonable place to start. If you have ... hello, good to see you again, your hair looks great today.
