The Four Building Blocks of Strategy™

A simple framework to focus your strategy conversations

Sometimes strategy feels needlessly complicated, put on a pedestal as something only an initiated few can do. At its core, though, strategy is simple: finding where to focus your efforts, so you can overcome the biggest challenges holding you back from your vision.

That simple idea is the basis of the Four Building Blocks of Strategy™, a framework I developed in 2019, building on Richard Rumelt's book Good Strategy / Bad Strategy. It breaks strategy into four parts, each with a handful of practical questions to guide your thinking.

1. Vision 

   Why does your organisation exist?

   Where do you want to be in five years?

   How will people think of you?

   What difference will you make to the world?

   
   

2. Accelerators & Sticking Points 

   What are the biggest Accelerators driving you forward – internal strengths and external opportunities?

   What are the biggest Sticking Points holding you back – internal weaknesses and external threats?

   Identify the three biggest Sticking Points you can overcome. These are your addressable challenges – the real focus of your strategy.

   
   

3. General Approach 

   What is the general way you’re going to overcome your three biggest Sticking Points in order to deliver your Vision?

   How might your Accelerators help you do this?

   Don’t try to solve everything – just focus on one, two or three of the biggest things holding you back.

   
   

4. Action Plan 

   What initial steps will you take to put your General Approach into action?

   Don’t over-plan. Start small, then come back and identify the next wave of actions based on what you’ve learned.

The Four Building Blocks of Strategy™ Framework

It’s a model I’ve used with dozens of leadership teams in practical, energising strategy workshops – and it works just as well for a 60-minute conversation as it does for an away day.

If you’d like to explore the framework in more detail, I've talked it through on both of my podcasts:

• Quiet Leadership Revolution, episode 013: How strategy makes leadership easier. Listen here.

• The Independent School Podcast, episode 134: I walked through each building block, with examples, The stories are school-based, but the thinking applies across all kinds of organisations. Listen here.

I work one-to-one with senior leaders, helping them build strategies to tackle complex challenges. If you'd like to explore what that could look like for you, you can find out more here.

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