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It is often said that a strategy is a choice or a decision. The words “choice” and “decision” evoke an image of someone considering a list of alternatives and then selecting one of them. There is, in fact, a formal theory of decisions that specifies exactly how to make a choice by identifying alternative actions, valuing outcomes, and appraising probabilities of events. The problem with this view, and the reason it barely lightens a leader’s burden, is that you are rarely handed a clear set of alternatives. In the case at hand, Hannibal was certainly not briefed by a staff presenting four options arranged on a PowerPoint slide. Rather, he faced a challenge and he designed a novel response.
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
All those lovely ideas you have for projects get moved into your pipeline. Pipelines are more suited to OKRs than Roadmaps. ... I’ll define Roadmaps as a plan for our desired future and Pipelines as a collection of ideas of projects that might get us to our desired future. Roadmaps have dates. Pipelines use impact/effort/confidence to prioritize the best ideas. By saying Pipelines are preferable to Roadmaps, I simply mean that Pipelines give you flexibility as you try to reach your Objective. If you call it a Roadmap but treat it like a Pipeline, that’s fine. The critical idea is that you have a long list of potential solutions to try out. ... If you have a Roadmap, you’ll want to dismantle it and put it in a Pipeline format.
Radical Focus SECOND EDITION
Christina Wodtke
However, if it's the first time they have worked on this problem, then they will likely need some time to learn the space, start collecting some data to establish a baseline, and get a sense of what the possibilities are. In this case, encourage the team to jump in and not get stuck in paralysis by analysis, and acknowledge with them that they will learn much more as they progress, and that the confidence level will, of course, be low in this first quarter because they are still learning what they don't know.
Empowered
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
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