Why does “culture [actually] eat strategy for breakfast”?
Imagine you and I are in a car. We’re headed to Denver and we decided that taking Diamond Road is the best way to get there. (For those who live near Denver, don’t be mistaken — this is a made-up road!)
In this analogy, Strategy is the road we’re driving on. We chose the road because we thought it would go straight to our destination.
Well… what happens when our strategy becomes defunct? What happens when Diamond Road suddenly veers northwest, and Denver is due north?
Culture is the navigational skill that reorients us to the destination, and quickly selects and executes a new strategy.
Does your culture have a stable grasp on the destination? Or does it mistakenly & erratically change the destination from “Denver, CO” to “Danvers, MA”?
Does your culture consider all information inputs? Or, does your culture have mud caked on the windows that prevents it from seeing the cyclist in its blind spot?
Does your culture have a healthy information-sorting and prioritization mechanism? Or, does it have a difficult time discerning whether A) the vehicle ahead moving in the same direction or B) the stationary telephone pole is more life-threatening?
Does your culture continually adjust its strategy according to the latest information & evaluations? Or, does it continue to send you down a road that now has a 45-minute traffic jam?
A lack of a healthy navigational system means that you won’t be able to continually choose *the right new strategies* for your shifting landscape.
Build a culture of navigational skill, and you’ll be able to use any number of strategies to get successfully to your destination.
Here’s the great news: YOU CAN LEARN TO BE A MASTER NAVIGATOR.
This is what you’ll get when we coach together - you’ll build skill at setting destinations, identifying your blind spots, refining your decision-making, and iterating to find the strategies that work for your life right now.
Reach out to begin building this skill now.
(And in case you were wondering - for companies, Agile coaches are the people who scale the culture of navigational skill. USE THEM.)
