|
Everyday Decision Power
Where
Planning Works
Where
Reflexes Are Needed
Why
Perspective Works
Competition and Production
Faster, Better Decisions
The Power of Everyday Decisions
 While
mastering Sun Tzu helps create very inventive plans,
linear strategic planning is not its focus. Its focus is making better decisions in
every situation. It helps us recognize and use opportunities that cannot be planned. Strategic
planning is most valuable within the organization. Sun Tzu's system is the most
valuable on the front lines, making the strategic decisions that we make
every day.
Planning follows a series of steps to produce a well-defined
result.
Planning
within controlled environments is not
only useful but necessary.
It would be nice to think that every event can be planned, but
in our fast-changing competitive world, many
critical events fall outside our control.
Real strategic understanding starts with the
humble acceptance that the world is
outside our control. In this environment, most of our key
decisions are not planned. We have to make decisions that recognize what is
changing in our situations and are appropriate to changing
conditions.
Sun Tzu saw
that losers clung to their
plans like an excuse while winners responded to the dynamics of their situation. Instead of a series
of pre-planned steps, we develop a perspective
that allows us to respond to competitive situations. While
These three areas of study are called position awareness, opportunity development, and situation response.
Both strategic planning and
strategic decision-making reflexes are necessary. Together, they create the resources and need for each
other. The control of advanced planning and the competitive maneuvers from
strategic reflexes
both require human creativity, but they require different methods to apply that
creativity. The problem is that our knowledge of planned production has overshadowed
our understanding of competitive strategy.
|
