How To Develop A Community Strategy

A good strategy should make you feel uncomfortable.

Your instinct is going to tell you not to take the risk. Your instinct will be to keep doing what you’re doing, or simply try to do everything better. This ‘do everything better’ approach is the worst possible thing you can do.

Trying harder or working better is not a strategy. It might help, to some small degree, but it’s not a strategy. At best, it’s a collection of tactical optimizations. It is more likely to be a continuation of what you’re doing now, not a new strategic direction. This completely fails to achieve the aims of a strategy.

This is where you have to make tough decisions. This is going to make you feel very uncomfortable. You’re not alone here. Everyone who has ever developed a good strategy also needs to make the very same decisions about where to expend limited resources to have the biggest impact.

You will need to stop doing things that seem successful (that you’re used to doing) in order for this strategy to work. The discomfort you feel comes from the very real possibility of making the wrong decisions and pursuing the wrong strategy. This is an unavoidable risk. The best consolation is that this is probably what you are doing today.

You can, however, mitigate this risk by undertaking proper research. Make sure your strategy is not based upon hunches, but upon visible data you have collected. There are no certainties your strategy will work. However, you can ensure you are pursuing the strategy which will allow you the biggest possible odds of success.
Every strategy inherently incurs a risk. But the purpose of a strategy is to embrace this risk, make decisions with the risk in mind, and allocate resources to achieve the biggest impact.

Summary

  1. If your strategy doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable, it’s probably not a great strategy.
  2. If your strategy doesn’t make you feel excited, it’s probably not a great strategy.
  3. A good strategy understands and embraces risk. It allocates resources to win decisive engagements.

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