Good Quotes

New blogger Maddie Grant (Ben: too early to start thinking about Rookie of the Year, and other awards?) has two outstanding quotes from her last two posts. One of her own writing and one from another blog. First her own, on the topic of strategic planning:

But I fear that the minute a strategic plan is in place, that will be the death of my being able to think and act strategically

Many seem to have a hard time even considering that the process they use to be strategic can be PRECISELY the thing that prevents you from being strategic. Don't worry, I will write more about this topic on the Association Renewal Blog. In fact, I am trying to get language down over there that moves the debate AWAY from whether or not we do strategic planning. I'll write  that soon.

The other quote she borrowed from Euan Semple:

Management is becoming about noticing and enabling rather than driving and controlling.

I think this ties in nicely to Lisa Junker's post on Acronym, that provided a definition of leadership that was similar to the one I have quoted from Peter Senge (which was picked up by an Australian association blogger, by the way). If leadership is about the capacity of the system, then management should be about building capacity as well. And you don't particularly build capacity by driving and controlling.

Comments

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Jamie,

Being 'strategic' means making either/or decisions. Being tactical means getting stuff done towards a goal (decision).

e.g. Coming up with the idea to use a larger font on conference nametags isn't strategic thinking. Choosing whether to have nametags IS strategic thinking.

Management is about decision-making. A strategic manager will make decisions (setting strategy), then enable, encourage, engage their team in pursuit of the goal/decision. It isn't about controlling, it IS about decisions.

Once a strategic plan is in place, it is time to move from strategic thinking to tactical execution and excellence!

The great managers move fluidly between strategic and tactical.

Best, Joe

[Ben]

It's not too early, but the competition will be fierce this year. There are a lot of new assn bloggers on the scene!