70. Strategic Discussion Takes PRACTICE!

SCRIPT: As much as I stand by my advice from the previous episode, asking big questions in advance of your board meetings probably won’t flip a switch and suddenly transform your board into a generative strategic powerhouse. Taking a step back, the whole reason most organizations want boards to focus on the future in the first place is because that’s where they’re the most useful. Obviously your board needs to have a super comprehensive understanding of your operational performance, too, but that’s mostly for the sake of information and validation. Having a diverse bunch of super smart people dreaming with you about the future of your organization is where the superpower lies. But just posing some big question ahead of a meeting probably isn’t going to have amazing results,..at least not on the first try. This is why I like thinking about strategic discussion as a skill you need to practice. It’s more like bodybuilding than riding a bike – you need to work on it regularly and from different angles, or else it goes away. Just like any kind of useful practice, it can be valuable sometimes to *only* practice the fundamentals – like scales in music, or basic drills in team sports – instead of always acting like it’s game time. For example, try practicing having big, future-oriented conversations around questions that are super audacious and unrealistic, or maybe even things that aren’t directly related to your business…JUST TO BUILD YOUR MUSCLES. Sure, practice may never make PERFECT in this case. I mean, what does “perfect” even mean here? But without practice, you won’t get very far.