Donna Flagg

A Garden Variety Strategy: Planting Seeds for Growth
March 23, 2008

The strategy business, in my opinion, has become overly complicated. In fact, I feel as though it’s gotten to the point where we need a strategy to figure out most strategies. And like many things in life, I tend to think that there must be a better and easier way. In this case, it came to me recently while helping my friend plan her garden. 

In that light, strategy suddenly became very simple. 

1. The first thing we did was decide on what we wanted the garden to look like when fully grown at various points over the course of the season. This included not only its physical attributes, but also how they would fit into the broader environment of the yard and best complement her house. We also plotted out a start-to-finish timeline.
2. We looked at what options we had that would bring us to our desired results in terms of types of plants and their various behaviors. With that, we had to make sure that we understood the needs and conditions under which our choices would not only survive, but thrive. 
3. Then we started planning what needed to be planted where and when, so that the flowers bloomed at the right time in the right place. This also involved having to think through the relationships of the plants and how they not only might interact with one another, but also how they would likely respond to their environment depending on where we planted them. 
4. At this point we had our basic strategy and just needed to decide on what tools we would need to execute it. So we made a list.
5. And lastly, when the right time came, we planted the seeds, watered, fed and nurtured them so that we did our part to ensure the successful implementation of our strategy. 

So in business, you have your outcomes (the garden), your people (the plants), your environment (the landscape) and the conditions (weather, light, soil, etc...) under which you must operate.  In HR especially, it’s important to plot and plan who is doing what and why, by when and with what tools, in order to strategically link your employees to your business.

Posted by Donna Flagg on March 23, 2008 | Comments (0)