What Needs to Be True?

A strategy can sound compelling and still be built on assumptions that will never hold.

I learned this while serving on the board of a nonprofit.

We had a meaningful mission, committed leaders and a new five-year strategic plan. We had clarified our goals, sharpened our focus and made several ambitious choices.

The board was energized.

But as the year progressed, strategic drift set in. Some of our most important priorities were going nowhere.

The problem was not the quality of the ideas.

We had failed to ask:

What needs to be true for this choice to succeed?

Did we have the required capabilities?
Could we build them?
How long would that take?
What would we need to stop doing?
How much would it cost?

That question changes the conversation.

It moves the team beyond whether people like the strategy and forces the assumptions behind it into the open.

Some choices may fall away because they are not grounded in reality. Others become stronger because leaders now understand what execution will require.

A good strategy is not just a set of attractive choices.

It is a set of choices supported by conditions the organization can realistically create.

Do you use “what needs to be true” thinking in planning discussions?