Simon Sinek on How to Improve Strategic Thinking

How do you make strategic thinking more implementation friendly? Language. Strategic thinking can be more implementation friendly when you use words that you understand. It's amazing to me how often we read strategies that are incomprehensible. You know, to be the preeminent supplier, you know, we're gonna, I mean, what, I mean, these are, these are things that you can't do. You know, based on what metric? You know, we want to be the best. That's your strategy? Like, that's not a strategy. That's nothing. Right? You know, we want to be the, we want to be ranked number one. What? Revenues, profit, quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty. What? I have, I mean, it's complete nonsense. You know? And so, the more specific a strategy can be, the clearer the language can be, the more implementable it can be. I'm a great believer that if you speak like a scientist, only scientists will understand you. But if you speak like a truck driver, both truck drivers and scientists will understand you. You know? And the amazing thing is if you actually speak like a scientist, even a lot of scientists don't understand you. The point is, use very simple terminology that somebody who's not in your industry, who doesn't know your business, would understand what you're trying to do. And if that's the basis of the language that you choose to use, that anyone can understand what you're attempting to do. And if you started someone tomorrow, they would be able to take the reins and go because it's so crystal clear. That's the standard that we need to use inside our own organizations. When the language is clear, when the language is specific, when the language is simple, it's easy. It's easy to implement, right? Off to the races you go.