Over the past month, we’ve worked with countless organizations to help communicate and roll out their Strategic Plans for 2025.

In that process, one challenge keeps coming up: a lack of clarity in defining success.

This lack of clarity often leads to a lack of direction for employees. 🤔 They’re unsure how to prioritize their work and align it with the Themes of the organization.

If an organization struggles to set clear, measurable outcomes at the Leadership level, then you can rest assured that it will be nearly impossible for employees to define success and prioritize the important over the urgent.

This issue is most evident in organizations that treat strategy as a long list of to-do items or a series of projects measured solely by "percent complete" instead of tying those efforts to operating metrics. 🔢

What does this lead to within a strategy? A lot of ‘to-do’ items, and a lack of measurable impact.

While there might be some Tactics measured by percent to complete within a Strategy, these should be in the minority.

The key is finding the right balance and providing a clear definition for employees to ensure they can distinguish between an Objective, which is quantifiable and measurable, versus a Tactic, which tends to be measured by percent to complete. ✅

Even after reading the above, you might be thinking to yourself, ‘Wait, what’s the difference between an Objective and a Tactic again?’

Well, rest assured, you aren’t alone in asking that question. While it might seem small, the delineation between an Objective and a Tactic could be the mental barrier your organization has struggled to overcome in providing clarity to employees.

What’s in an Objective?

Typically set on an annual or quarterly basis, Objectives represent the strategy we are choosing to implement as a business to help deliver on our operational outcomes.

Even if set annually, Objectives should be re-evaluated quarterly to ensure there aren’t significant changes internally or externally that would warrant pivoting.

But it’s not the time frame that defines an Objective—it’s the clearly stated goal and the measurable way success will be tracked. For example:

• Build Product Feature XYZ to unlock a new addressable market
• Implement a New Sales Process to reduce sales cycle and increase close rates
• Launch a New Website to increase MQL conversion rates
• Reduce Days Sales Outstanding by 10%

Related: How to Build Objectives template

All of the above are clear goals which have an intent. A measurable purpose that can be tracked and defined as successful or not.

Whether you use the OKR methodology or another variation, Objectives should set a goal and allow for that goal to be measured.

However, there will likely be underlying work that allows for any Objective to come to fruition. That my friends, is where a Tactic comes into play.

What’s in a Tactic?

Potentially crucial to the success of an Objective, Tactics are the high-level outputs owned by employees across the organization that directly impact the success of outcomes tied to Objectives. It’s imperative that the work of Tactics are closely monitored, because they can serve as early signals of overall health for an Objective. They’re crucial to the strategy—but they aren’t the strategy itself.

The question of "Is this a Tactic?" often arises during the rollout of a Strategic Plan.

When in doubt, have your employees ask themselves ‘Is this a deliverable that is crucial to the success of an Objective and needs to be visible and monitored by the Leadership team?’

• If yes, it's a Tactic!
• If no, clear the clutter and focus on what matters most.

Tactics shouldn’t be a laundry list of day-to-day tasks. Leave those for personal to-do lists. Instead, focus on work that directly drives the Objective forward. ➡️

Just as important as clear, measurable Outcomes for an Objective, Tactics are supportive of the strategy you are implementing across the organization. However, they should be used to compliment Objectives driving your strategy.

Tactics themselves won’t empower your employees to gain clarity and direction into the right priorities.

Shifting from Transactional Tasks to Purposeful Work

Let me finish by saying that if you’ve been struggling to gain alignment in rolling out your Strategic Plan this year, or you notice that your strategy looks like a laundry list of Tactics without measurable outcomes, then you aren’t alone.

Making the shift from Transactional Tasks to Purposeful Work is one of the biggest and most common challenges facing organizations today.

However, the importance of doing so can be the difference between achieving your organization’s shared vision, or causing priority fatigue and uncertainty.

Today, organizations report that their Strategic Plan Management lives across more than seven different tools on average, and nearly 52% of Executives don’t believe their organizations are prepared for the expected pace of change. That number only increases with the introduction of AI across so many industries.

Clarity starts with defining what success looks like in your Strategic Plan for 2025 and ensuring employees can align their work to that success—whether it’s as an Objective or a Tactic.

‍

To read the rest of this edition, click here or subscribe via email below.

‍