I want strategy development to serve a much more useful purpose than crossing something off a leader’s to-do list.
So, I’ve set about looking for strategy “in the wild” — watching for how it’s being implemented in practical, helpful ways in real life.
At the risk of sounding partisan, I want to use Mark Carney, the newly elected Canadian Prime Minister, as my first example.
Normally, when a new government is formed, each ministry receives a mandate letter from the Prime Minister’s office, outlining the leader’s priorities for that department. I’ve read many mandate letters since they were made public in 2015, as they set the parameters and priorities, and are treated as marching orders by my government clients.
Mark Carney is setting strategy differently. Rather than sending separate mandate letters to each member of his Cabinet, which previously contained several hundred to-do items, he issued a single mandate letter, outlining seven ambitious priorities that apply to his whole government. (These priorities included, for example, “renegotiating Canada’s relationship with the United States and strengthening relations with other countries” and “helping Canadians with the cost of living.”) It arrived with an expectation that each Minister would figure out how to advance those priorities within their area of responsibility and what their metrics of success would look like.
Clear. Aligned. Right altitude and jurisdiction. Gutsy. With appropriate doses of measurability and autonomy thrown in.
Time will tell how effective it proves to be, but the early signals point to strong, strategic leadership. I’ve had several conversations with people who’ve expressed a longing for something similar in their own organizations and lives.