The classic concept of strategy (from Greek στρατηγία stratēgia, "art of troop leader; office of command") means an overall plan to achieve goals. It began in the military as a method of defeating the enemy. Later, business adopted it as an approach to reach the objectives and win the competition.
Having a strategy means knowing what is needed to achieve what is wanted. In the past, it could be a five year plan. Now it is hard to stick to a strategy for more than a few months or even weeks. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity set the scene and make it impossible to have a fixed idea of where you want to go and how you will get there.
The stakes are higher, things are more complicated, and the consequences are graver. Customers are unreliable, and employees are reluctant to play their roles in the corporate theater. As strategy work has become more of a calculated experiment than a portfolio of planned projects, the focus has changed from executing and implementing the strategy to staging it.
The idea of staging the strategy may be new to you. Essentially, it is about opening up the strategy process to exploit the thinking and action power of the many, not the few. Making strategy come alive and something to experience, not just a bunch of imposed behaviors that you can take on.
