Strategy is Not A Plan: The Bridge Between to Action

You spend a full day for maybe even two, on strategy. Maybe it was a facilitated workshop, maybe it was an off site.With your team, you mapped out your vision, you set your goals, and you leave feeling energized and clear. This is it. This quarter, everything changes. And then Monday. Client emails, team questions, urgent fires. The day to day stuff pulls you right back in.And that beautiful strategic plan. It goes in a drawer or a folder or a document you never open again. Here's what I've Planning feels productive, but it's not the same as doing.In this episode, I'm going to show you why your strategy stays stuck on paper and how to actually bridge the gap between thinking and doing. Let's talk about the strategy to action problem. Here's a reality check. I've been in a lot of strategy sessions. Like a lot.Some for my own team, some with clients, some as part of an accelerator program. And here's the pattern I keep seeing.We spend hours, sometimes days, thinking big, getting clear on our priorities and mapping out the next three months, six months, year, three years. Everyone would leave excited, aligned and ready to execute. And then we'd go back to our desks on Monday and nothing would change.Not because the strategy was bad and not because people didn't care, but because we went straight from strategic thinking back to operational doing with nothing in between. We were confusing thinking about the work with actually doing the work. So what was actually happening? In the strategic session?We'd ask big questions. Where are we going? What matters most? What should we focus on? We get answers. Good ones, clear ones. But we never ask the next question.What are we actually going to do about this? Who is doing what by when? So Monday morning would roll around.Everyone had their regular tasks, their standing meeting, their email inbox, and the strategy would slowly disappear into the background. Because strategic thinking and execution are two very different modes and you can't do them both at once. You need a bridge.Something that translates the big thinking into actual doing. So here's the shift. I don't mind meal planning. I actually enjoy it. Thinking about what we're going to eat, finding recipes, getting inspired.But here's what I grocery shopping, prepping and cooking. But here's what happens when I only do the planning. We eat toast for dinner again.Because new planning without the grocery shopping is just wishful thinking. That's what strategy without implementation looks like. It's just wishful thinking. The gap between strategy and execution isn't a motivation problem.It. It's not a discipline problem either. It's a translation problem. You're thinking in quarters and years. Your team is thinking in days and hours.You're asking, where should we be in six months? And they're asking, what should I work on today?And if you don't connect those two things, the strategy stays stuck in a big picture world and your team stays stuck in the day to day. You need something that turns. Here's where we're going into. Here's what you're going to do this week. That's the bridge. That's what's missing.All right, here's your move. It's called the strategy to action bridge. Every time you do strategic planning, you need to walk it all the way down to action.Not later, right there in the room. And here's how you do that. First, you end every strategy session with this question.Before anyone leaves the room, you what are the three things we need to do in the next 10 days to move this forward? Not in the next quarter, not in the next month, the next 10 days.Because if you can't name three things to do in the next 10 days, your strategy is still too vague. In step two, you assign owners and the deadline for each of those three things. Write who's doing it by when. Not the team will handle it.Not will figure it out. Actual names and actual dates. If nobody owns it, it won't happen. Third, you block time on the calendar right now.Don't leave the room until everyone has blocked time to work on their action. Not I'll find time for it. Block it right there, please. Because if it's not on the calendar, it's not real. Okay, let me give you one more rule.The 10 minute implementation rule. Here's the rule I use now. Every strategy session must end with 10 minutes of implementation planning.10 minutes where we stop thinking big and start thinking small. What is the first action? Who's doing it and when? That's it. Just 10 minutes that turns the strategy into action.Without this, you'll walk out feeling great with big ideas. Ideas that go nowhere. With this, you walk out with a plan and someone who's already scheduled time to work on it.The difference between a strategy that sits in a drawer and a strategy that actually happens. It's just in those 10 minutes. Here's what I want you to remember. Planning feels super productive. But it's not the same as doing.Strategy is important, you need it. But strategy without action is just expensive daydreaming.So the next time you're in a planning session, whether it's with your team or just by yourself? Don't stop at the big picture. Walk it all the way down. What are the three things we need to do in the next 10 days?Who's doing each one, and when is it getting done? Block the time. Write down there. And that's the bridge from strategy to action. So think about your last planning session, your last big strategy day.Did you walk it all the way down to action, or did it go in a folder? If it went in a folder, pull it back out. Take three actions, assign them, and block the time.Because beautiful plans don't change anything, action does.