Community Strategy Insights

The latest insights on community strategy, technology, and value by FeverBee’s founder, Richard Millington

Strategy Should Make You Feel Uncomfortable

Richard Millington
Richard Millington

Founder of FeverBee

To do a few things extremely well you would need to stop doing most of the things you’re doing today.

This is the entire purpose of strategy. Strategy should force through really difficult decisions about what you’re not going to do, which battles you’re not going to fight, just to focus on the things that really do matter.

Most people avoid this. They create strategies to help them do what they’re doing even better. This isn’t strategy, it’s wishful thinking.

A strategy should make you feel uncomfortable. If it doesn’t, it’s probably not a strategy.

A strategy takes bravery and courage to execute. It’s really hard to say “these things are working…but not well enough to justify us to keep doing them”.

Some members will be upset, some colleagues might be upset, but you need to push through that to stick to a strategy that you know will have the best possible impact on the largest number of people.

Believe me, I know how hard it is to embrace that discomfort and kill programs that are popular with a vocal minority but taking up too many resources. But this is exactly what separates the amateurs from the professionals.

Those managing communities as a hobby can afford to do the work they most enjoy. This might mean delighting members at a micro one to one level and resolving each problem as it arises. But you’re not paid to only do the work you enjoy. You’re paid to look at the community in its entirety and figure out how to deliver the maximum possible value.

Get ready to embrace that discomfort, the personal attacks, and the criticism from members who complain about you personally.

…and get ready to enjoy success in the form of graphics steadily ticking up and to the right.

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