A common failure mode I have seen and experienced myself: 1) [[Strategic Artifact]]s are defined in a dedicated location 2) Day-to-day work is expected to be directed and constrained by these strategic artifacts 3) Day-to-day work happens in a separate tool/system from the strategic artifacts 4) Day-to-day work evolves due to realities on the ground and ceases to reflect strategy 5) Strategy ceases to represent reality 6) **Strategy does not do its job, and operations continue without strategy** This happens in business, but this _also_ happens on a personal level. > [!EXAMPLE] Example Failures > - [[SPOTS]] - strategic plans on the top shelf > - New Year's resolutions written on a piece of paper, then quickly forgotten This is a lack of [[Goal Presence]]. I've seen this "addressed" using [[Band-Aid Fix]]es, like rules for revisiting the strategic artifact on a given cadence, but those fixes tend to fail the same way that "just use [[Willpower Limitations|willpower]]" fails. # Avoiding the failure mode Easier said than done, but **collocating strategic artifacts with day-to-day work helps**. This keeps the day-to-day work constrained by strategy and keeps the strategy close to the reality of the day-to-day. > [!EXAMPLE] Examples > - Much of what James Clear preaches with regard to [[Goals Alone Don't Get Results|Develop systems, not goals]] > - Collocating of strategic goals and objectives with task management functions using a tool like [[Notion]], Jira, or Asana Developing systems to help with this is what many [[Notion]] influencers are essentially doing, like August Bradley's [[Pillars Pipelines Vaults]] system. ## Failure Mode Avoidance Failure Modes Here's where things get tricky - the gulf between the strategy and day-to-day is hard to close. It isn't feasible to do day-to-day work in a system designed to represent strategy. Baking strategy into [[Project Management App]]s or [[Task Manager]]s can work, but also it can be difficult to [[Balance]] constraining day-to-day needs to make them fit strategic initiatives or goals. For example, "the fridge died, I need a project to replace it". This represents an urgent need that wouldn't fit into a hypothetical New Year's resolution-based project management hierarchy. There's likely no goal to "hang" this urgent and necessary project off of. I've seen acknowledgment of need for a place to put ad hoc day-to-day needs with a literal "do day to day things" bucket, but said bucket is hard not to abuse. **** # More ## Source - self ## Related - [[What is a Strategy]]