Every Meeting Should Be a Strategy Meeting

Developing strategy is often like painting the Sistine Chapel—a painstakingly crafted work of art.  

On the other hand, successfully implementing a strategy is like taking a kindergarten class picture—99% of the effort is getting everyone to look in the same direction at the same time.

Everyone, look here.

Sarah, we need everyone standing. 

Tommy, turn to your left.  

Your other left.  

It’s not just about the first effort to get people aligned—e.g., announcing the strategy—it’s about the constant effort to keep people looking in the same direction. And the only way to be successful in that is to approach every meeting as a strategy meeting. 

I often talk with leaders who lament that their meetings are a distraction from the “real” work. But from the point of strategic leadership, all of these meetings are the work.   

Every meeting is an opportunity to learn, especially when you ask, “How is the thing we’re talking about here related to the big picture?”

Every meeting is an opportunity to reiterate and clarify for others what the strategy is. Drew Gilpin Faust, the former president of Harvard, talked about how constant this communication effort is. 

She said, “One lesson I’ve learned has to do with communication. Someone would say, ‘Well, you’ve never talked about X,’ and I’d say, ‘I’ve talked about that here, here, here. I talk about that all the time.” Then I realize that ‘all the time’ isn’t enough. You have to do ‘all the time,’ and more.”

Additionally, every meeting is an opportunity to “stitch together” the organization’s efforts—e.g., to create connections across departments and resolve conflict between activities.

By treating every meeting as a strategy meeting, as an investment in creating and maintaining alignment, one can create a team that operates more strategically.