Why Strategy and Tactics?

More than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu—the Art of War

taught:
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

In other words, planning without action is futile, action

without planning is
fatal.

Strategy
Strategy—determining what is important to do.
Flawed Sound

Destined A difficult
to fail & poor
Taking time to determine your strategy Flawed
from the effort
increases your chances for success and the start
possibility of reaching your goal. By Tactics
determining your strategy, you will better
A good
understand both your current reality and how Tempting
chance
Sound disaster
you are advancing toward the future you are for
trying to create. success

A "grand" strategy entails the broadest conception of how an

objective is to be attained and serves to coordinate and direct
all appropriate and available resources (human, economic,
political, moral, spiritual, etc.) to attain its objectives.

Other more limited strategies will likely need to be applied

to achieve particular objectives in subordinate phases of an
overall struggle toward the goal. This level of strategy
defines the plan for a major phase or campaign within the
grand strategy.

Your strategy will help you to better channel your resources towards the outcome you want to
achieve.
The costs of change can be very high. Having a well thought-out strategy can reduce human
casualties as well as other costs and sacrifices that may be required to succeed.

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“Why Strategy and Tactics?”
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Smart strategists lay out strategic, achievable and measurable objectives. They also acknowledge
and celebrate their achievements along the way.

Source: Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership: A Guide for Organizations in Changing Times,
by Berit Lakey, George Lakey, Rod Napier and Janice Robinson)

Strategy involves a gathering of many decisions—with a focus toward a plan:

! Selecting key objectives and appropriate targets (people, organizations, laws, etc.),
reaching a clear understanding of the specific interim goals to implement the strategy.

! Reviewing your resources: Understanding allies and opponents, resources available and
needed (e.g., people, time, money).

! Deciding which tactics to use and when.

! Implementing the tactics chosen.

! Monitoring and assessing the results of your tactics to apply the lessons learned to plan
your next steps.

Define goals &

agree on objectives

Assess & evaluate

Understand results, resources,
evaluate and apply Plan allies/opponents,
lessons conditions, and
Assess Review potential targets

Strategy
Review
Determine
Monitor Tactic (s)
Track progress
against Implement Define & select
expectations Tactic(s) tactic(s)

Ensure operational
deployment &
implementation
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Why is a strategy important?
Strategic
Having a strategy helps you: Analysis

! keep the initiative in your hands;

! enhance your ability to see opportunities;
! use your strengths to the best advantage; and
! minimize your weaknesses. Strategic Strategy
Choice Implementation

What are TACTICS:

A “tactic” is a specific or concrete action taken to affect a given situation.

! The success of an individual tactic often depends how it was used in conjunction with
other tactics.
! A tactic is an action tool that is part of a larger strategy.

When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

“New” Tactics
In reality, “new” tactics are the endless variations that we can make out of
the ideas, resources, skills and capacity that we apply to a situation.

“There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white,
and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever be seen.

In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack--the direct and the indirect; yet these
two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.

The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never

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“Why Strategy and Tactics?”
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come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?” From Sun Tzu—The
Art of War
From Sun Tzu—
What are your goals, the Art of War
strengths and limitations?
Know Who are your allies? Know Your
Yourself Know
Yourself Adversary
It’s important to do an honest
assessment. Don’t get caught
believing your own propaganda. Be as realistic as
possible when assessing your strengths and Know the
weaknesses. Terrain

Know Who is your adversary? What are their goals, strategy, strengths, and
Your weaknesses? Don’t believe your adversary’s propaganda either.
Adversary

Understanding Your Adversary – Opponents & Allies—Assessing the dynamics of power

In addition to assessing and evaluating your adversary, also assess and evaluate your potential
opponents and allies in relation to your strategy:
! Position
! Decision-making ability
! Reputation
! Social Influence

Where will the battle be fought?

Know ! Assess the conditions (political, physical, social, cultural)
the ! Assess points of strength and weakness related to the terrain
Terrain ! Assess potential openings that can be used to advantage
! Assess danger areas

Know the Terrain – an essential element for reaching your goal

Like a mountain climber:
! Research the terrain
! Determine a route to reach the goal
! Make on-going decisions about the conditions.

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“Why Strategy and Tactics?”
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Know the Terrain – Areas for exploration (dependent on your context)

Governmental System
(including laws, policies &
infrastructure)

Political
System
Social/Cultural
Influence & Practices (including
Impact on religious, family &
Social
Strategy community practices)
Structures/
Systems (decisions on
choices of
tactics) Educational Systems
(formal & informal)
Economic
System

Other Factors

It’s important to
understand and assess
accurately ourselves, our Issues: Capacity:
What is important to us What resources we bring
allies and our opponents. and what we work on (skills, talents, position,
Building good strategy and influence, time, money, etc)
selecting appropriate
tactics can maximize the
number of potential allies Values:
and minimize the number The principles that motivate us
(faith, beliefs, etc)
of opponents. This process Interests:
takes time and an ability to What is at stake
What we get out of the issue
listen. Understanding how How we benefit from the issue
and why an issue may be
important to different
people can help. What
Commitment:
moves someone to actually Our willingness to act,
work on an issue, commit Source: Wellstone Action! For more What gets carried out
information contact: http://www.wellstone.org/
their skills, time and
resources to the issue? Does the motivation come from the heart—their values (principles,

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“Why Strategy and Tactics?”
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beliefs, faith) or does it come from their vested interests—how they might benefit from an issue.
(See diagram)

Put your knowledge to work

! The following chart can help you to think about where you would place people,
organizations and institutions in relation to your issue.
! Use the “Spectrum of Allies” exercise with your group or organization. You can find this
exercise at the Training for Change website under “tools”:
http://www.trainingforchange.org

Understanding Allies & Opponents

Decision
Leading Leading
-Making
Allies Opponents

ACTIVE
ACTIVE OPPONENTS
ALLIES
Passive Friendly Oblivious Hostile Passive
Allies Neutrals Neutrals Neutrals Opponents

Increase cohesion & activity Win over or at least neutralize Arouse doubts and conflicts
within the supporters’ camp uncommitted parties within the opponents’ camp

Source: "Spectrum of Allies“ refined by George Lakey, from Training for Change:
http://www.trainingforchange.org

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“Why Strategy and Tactics?”
www.newtactics.org [email protected]
 3

2 4

1 5

You can draw a diagram on a piece of paper. For a group, use a very large sheet of paper. It is
helpful to use “post-its” or moveable pieces of paper so you can move your ideas around and
debate where they might best be positioned. Modify the diagram by using a simplified version of
the spectrum by creating only 5 segments to represent the following elements (moving from
LEFT to RIGHT).

+ Side

1. Active Allies
2. Passive Allies

3. NEUTRAL: You can view this segment as one rather than 3 separate segments.

- Side
4. Passive Opponents
5. Active Opponents

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“Why Strategy and Tactics?”
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