Quotes About Strategy

Our Rider has a problem focus when he needs a solution focus. If you are a manager, ask yourself: "What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?

To make better decisions, use the WRAP process: Widen Your Options. Reality-Test Your Assumptions. Attain Distance Before Deciding. Prepare to Be Wrong.

The hard question for a leader is not how to form habits but which habits to encourage.

Warren Buffett said, "In the past, I've observed that many acquisition-hungry managers were apparently mesmerized by their childhood reading of the story about the frog-kissing princess. Remembering her success, they pay dearly for the right to kiss corporate toads, expecting wondrous transfigurations." Unfortunately, said Buffett, "We've observed many kisses but very few miracles.

companies often emphasize features when they should be emphasizing benefits.

The Combat Maneuver Training Center, the unit in charge of military simulations, recommends that officers arrive at the Commander's Intent by asking themselves two questions: If we do nothing else during tomorrow's mission, we must _________________. The single, most important thing that we must do tomorrow is ________________.

When the Rider analyzes a problem, he seeks a solution that befits the scale of it. If the Rider spots a hole, he wants to fill it, and if he's got a round hole with a 24-inch diameter, he's gonna go looking for a 24-inch peg. But that mental model is wrong.

to make changes stick, we've got to think about shaping the Path.

tripwires allow us the certainty of committing to a course of action, even a risky one, while minimizing the costs of overconfidence.

Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades. And

You can't script every move—that would be like trying to foresee the seventeenth move in a chess game. It's the critical moves that count. Recall

If you are leading a change effort, you need to remove the ambiguity from your vision of change. Granted

Any time in life you're tempted to think, 'Should I do this OR that?' instead, ask yourself, 'Is there a way I can do this AND that?' It's surprisingly frequent that it's feasible to do both things.

Whether the switch you seek is in your family, in your charity, in your organization, or in society at large, you'll get there by making three things happen. You'll direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the Path.

Sternin's strategy was to search the community for bright spots—successful efforts worth emulating. If some kids were healthy despite their

Sternin's strategy was to search the community for bright spots—successful efforts worth emulating.

The answer may sound strange: You need to create the expectation of failure—not the failure of the mission itself, but failure en route.

to make progress on a change, you need ways to direct the Rider. Show him where to go, how to act, what destination to pursue. And that's why bright spots are so essential, because they are your best hope for directing the Rider when you're trying to bring about change.

SMART goals presume the emotion; they don't generate it. In looking for a goal that reaches the Elephant—that hits people in the gut—you can't bank on SMART goals.

successful change transformations were more likely to set behavioral goals:

What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?

the more successful change transformations were more likely to set behavioral goals: 89 percent of the top third versus only 33 percent of the bottom third. For instance, a behavioral goal might be that project teams would meet once a week

Or you could focus on the Path, in which case you would disregard hearts and minds entirely. In fact, suppose you stipulated outright that your workers are hopeless, that they're irredeemable daredevils who are determined to waggle their fingers in the machine's danger zone for the sheer sport of it. Could you still keep them from dismembering themselves?

In looking for a goal that reaches the Elephant—that hits people in the gut—you can't bank on SMART goals. (There are some people whose hearts are set aflutter by goals such as "improving the liquidity ratio by 30 percent over the next 18 months." They're called accountants.)