Thought-Provoking Strategy Quotes Exercise
Engage in a thought-provoking strategy quotes exercise to kickstart your strategic planning process. Inspire abstract, long-term thinking, and highlight diverse strategic approaches. Encourage participants to reflect on resonating quotes, fostering productive discussions and insights for effective planning. Adapt the activity for both physical and virtual settings, leveraging quotes by renowned figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Welch.
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Introduction This is the strategy quotes exercise. I use it at the start of a new strategic planning process to do a few things: Get people out of day-to-day thinking and into the more abstract, external, and long-term thinking that supports effective strategic planning Expose people to different ways of thinking about strategy to show them that there isn t only one right way to be strategic Highlight differences in how people are approaching the task so that they are prepared for tensions and productive conflict when it arises (which is a big help as a facilitator) If you re together in a room Print one set of the quotes and stick them up around the room as if it s an art gallery of quotes Ask participants to wander around the room, read each quote, and reflect on what each one means to them Ask each person to choose the quote that most resonates with them (because they like it, because they disagree with it, or because they think it s important) and sign their name on that quote If you re meeting virtually Send the set of quotes out in advance of the session. Ask everyone to select the quote that most resonates At the start of the session, have each person read out their quote or type it into the chat box Debrief in one of two ways Have each person share the quote they chose with the team and tell people why they think it s important to the current planning process Have participants get into partners or small groups to share and discuss the quotes Throughout the strategy process, refer to the quotes for motivation and course corrections, where required.
Black and Decker doesnt sell power tools, it sells holes. Richard Whiteley
The biggest risk is not taking any riskIn a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. Mark Zuckerberg
Growth and comfort do not coexist. Ginni Rometty
Youve got to eat while you dream. Youve got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it. The success of doing both. Walking and chewing gum if you will. Getting it done in the short- range, and delivering a long-range plan, and executing on that. Jack Welch
Dont be intimidated by what you dont know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else. Sara Blakely
Strategy is a pattern in a stream of decisions. Henry Mintzberg
The opportunities and threats existing in any situation always exceed the resources needed to exploit the opportunities or avoid the threat. Thus, strategy is essentially a problem of allocating resources. If strategy is to be successful, it must allocate superior resources against a decisive opportunity. William Cohen
One of the challenges associated with a company becoming large is that companies become hierarchical. They become bureaucratic. They become slow. They become risk averse. Kenneth C. Frazier
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Harriet Tubman
Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. Oprah Winfrey
We need to accept that we wont always make the right decisions, that we ll screw up royally sometimes understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it s part of success. Arianna Huffington
In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things. Miyamoto Musashi
Strategy without tactic is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel
The real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation. Henry Mintzberg
In God we trust. All others bring data. Edward Deming
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Muriel Strode
Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all. Peter Drucker
In preparing for battle Ive always found that plans are useless, but planning is essential. Dwight Eisenhower
Rarely are opportunities presented to you in a perfect way. In a nice little box with a yellow bow on top. 'Here, open it, it's perfect. You'll love it.' Opportunities the good ones are messy, confusing and hard to recognize. They're risky. They challenge you. Susan Wojcicki
Whats the use of running if you are not on the right road? German proverb
Its not the customers job to know what they want. Steve Jobs
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. Maya Angelou
You cant change anything by fighting or resisting it. You change something by making it obsolete through superior methods. Buckminster Fuller
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin
The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its successes, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conductions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. Machiavelli
In many organizations, budget is king. Its like the Amazon, the source of life. The strategy process is more like a small stream that meanders slowly through the organization (an if you re unlucky, the water doesn t flow at all and starts to smell) Jeroen De Flander
There are times at which it is right not to listen to customers, right to invest in developing lower performance products that promise lower margins, and right to aggressively pursue small, rather than substantial, markets. Clayton Christensen
One gets paid only for strengths; one does not get paid for weaknesses. The question, therefore, is first: What are our specific strengths? And then: Are they the right strengths? Are they the strengths that fit the opportunities of tomorrow, or are they the strengths that fitted those of yesterday? Are we deploying our strengths where the opportunities no longer are, or perhaps never were? And finally, what additional strengths do we have to acquire? Peter Drucker
The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether its the same problem you had last year. John Foster Dulles
Look for whats missing. Many advisors can tell a president how to improve what is proposed or what s going amiss. Few are able to see what isn t there. Rumsfeld s Rule
Excellence is the result of caring more than others think wise; risking more than others think is safe; dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible. Anonymous
You cant solve a problem on the same level that it is created. You have to rise above it to the next level. Albert Einstein
If you build castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put a foundation under them. Henry David Thoreau
Leaders live in the future, managers in the present, and accountants live in the past. Paul Orfalea
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald
