Conventional wisdom says that strategy starts with a bold vision.
BHAGs — big, hairy, audacious goals — are the gold standard. They’ve gotten us to the moon. They’ve built iconic companies. And leaders spend billions every year in boardrooms and off-sites chasing the next great one.
Here’s what nobody seems to be talking about: the moon landing wasn’t really a BHAG. It was a proximate objective — a carefully chosen target that the administration knew was feasible given their existing resources, competence, and timeline. Of course, the audacity was real. But beneath it lay a foundation built on thorough, sharp analysis, not just desire.
Unfortunately, most strategy work skips that part entirely. Instead, templates get filled in. Vision statements get wordsmithed to death. Hockey stick graphs get drawn. And everyone leaves the off-site feeling like they’ve done something “strategic”.
They haven’t. Far from it. They’ve done something that looks like strategy but functions like wishful thinking.
Most people think strategy is blue-sky thinking. I’m starting to think it’s actually proximate thinking — solving the real problem in front of you with what you actually have.
Which raises a question I can’t fully answer yet: is there still a place for blue-sky thinking? And if so, when?