S2E1: Unlearning Strategy

Look at a child building with blocks. They don't write a strategy first. They don't separate planning from building.

They think while they build.

They build while they think.

Have you noticed how this natural flow disappears in our marketing work?

First, we plan. Then, later, we do. Different rooms. Different meetings. Different people.

This space between thinking and doing isn't natural. We created it.

And what grows in this space?

Misunderstanding.

Frustration.

Lost ideas.

In the process isn't strategy series, I explained that strategy is a compass, not a process. Even the best compass becomes useless when separated from the journey itself.

Here's the truth: When you make while you think, you discover solutions impossible to plan. As design thinking pioneer David Kelley has emphasized, trial and error outperforms perfect planning.

The hand finds what the mind cannot see.

The taste reveals what the recipe cannot describe.

The doing discovers what the planning cannot imagine.

Do we have it backward?

Thinking before doing?

What if the opposite is true?

What if our best ideas don't come from planning, but from the act of making, even with clear direction and minimal waste?

Make. Learn. Adjust.

That's how breakthroughs happen.

With this new paradigm, can you see how when we separate "strategy" and "execution" phases, it costs us our best insights.

And this backwards approach isn't just about doing and thinking. It's the first step in unlearning everything you've been taught about strategy itself.

Now, what happens when parctitioners gather to define strategy? The answer might surprise you...

To be continued in episode 2: The blindness of expertise.