How smart is your strategy?

It staggers me how vague many strategies are.

They talk about growth. Not by how much, in what periods, by what increments.

They talk about the penetration of new markets. Not which markets, nor with what degree of success, profit or cost.

HR strategies point to an immeasurable ambition to be an employer of choice.

IT strategies talk of digital transformation and being AI-enabled, with no definition of what that means, by when, or what good actually looks like.

If any of this looks or feels familiar, it's time to SMARTen your strategy up.

Every objective, every deliverable has to have a fully SMART objective at the top of it. In fact, most of the strategic process is actually the systematic breaking down of objectives into sub-objectives. Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-bound. All the way down.

I'd go so far as to say a strategy isn't really a strategy unless and until it is fully SMART. Without that, it's a statement of intent. A wish list with good intentions. Something to point to rather than something to deliver.

This is also why feeding a strategy up into a vision leaves you on shaky ground. If you've read my work before, you'll know I'm a big fan of visions. But visions don't belong inside strategies.

A vision should never be SMART. A strategy must always be SMART. They do two completely different jobs. One inspires and gives direction. The other defines, measures and delivers. Blur the two, and you weaken both.

So here's the test. Take your current strategy and read it line by line. If you can't measure it, track it and know with certainty whether you've achieved it, you don't have a strategy yet.

You have a good intention that nobody can measure.