Lost in the Details??????

I've had a full and interesting week. I've been up in Chicago at our Libertyville Corporate Innovation Center looking forward at all types of innovations on our horizon and that always is a "Mountain Top" experience for me.

One HUGE take-away is a great discussion I had with one person about my blog on the 4 "P's" of Preparation, Perseverance, Patience, and Persistence. This person was wondering if I was leading folks to be lost in the details rather than seeing the entire or whole picture.

The discussion centered around what makes a good (or great) strategy. We both agreed that it requires, at minimum, at least 3 vital elements:
A Diagnosis of the current situation and thoughts around what you want the situation to become.
Decide on a Guiding Policy, that is the outline of your plan to become that new situation.
Decide on the Course of Action, as well as a time frame for that action.

Where we started to disagree is deciding the level of details that would be best to make this action strategy work at maximum effectiveness. My friend suggested that my suggestion provided way too many details that could cause someone to become lost in the details and lose the value of a great strategy. My contention is that without at least a minimum of details the strategy could be so mis-interpreted that it would lose value, i.e. that you NEED a level of detail that provides a solid framework for the strategy to be easily understood as to the intention of the mission.

We both realize that a effective strategy is critical to any operation that you want to go in a certain direction, no matter how simple or detailed it may be. It is that level of details that seemed to be our sticking point.

So my friends, here is my CALL TO ACTION for YOU TODAY: Hit comments and reply with YOUR thoughts and/or experiences on what level of details you feel are necessary for a great strategy to work best. I won't judge or be offended, just want to share with others more useful information.

Steve