By stopping the non-essential, you liberate the energy, capital, and focus required to long term perspectives.
If you aren't deciding what to stop doing, you don't have a strategy; you have a wishlists. Here is how to translate strategy into "stop-doing" orders through four distinct lenses.
The Biological Lens: Selective Apoptosis: In biology, It is not a failure; it is a vital process that allows an organism to grow and remain healthy.
What to Stop: Stop supporting projects that turn out to be irrelevant.
The Strategy: Identify "vestigial" processes—things you do only because you've always done them.
Next Practice: Implement a "Sunsetting Clause" for every new initiative. If it doesn't meet specific KPIs in a year, it is "" eliminated
The Economic Lens: The Opportunity Cost of "Yes": Economists view the world through Opportunity Cost. Every minute spent on a low-value "vanity" project is a minute stolen from your most critical strategic pillar.
What to Stop: Stop "nickel-and-diming" your attention.
-The Strategy: Use the Production Possibility Frontier. To move toward a new strategic goal, you must move away from another.
-Next Practice: For every new "Priority" added to the dashboard, the leadership team must vote on which existing priority to remove.
The Physics Lens: Managing Organizational Entropy: In thermodynamics, entropy is the natural slide toward disorder. In an organization, entropy manifests as "Process Creep"—the accumulation of meetings, reports, and approvals that slow down the system.
What to Stop: Stop "fixing" problems with more layers of management.
The Strategy: Combat entropy by simplifying the "surface area" of the organization.
Next Practice: Conduct a "Meeting Audit." Delete any recurring meeting that doesn't have a clear decision-making output.
The Psychological Lens: Overcoming the Sunk Cost Fallacy: Human beings are hardwired with Loss Aversion. We find it twice as painful to lose something (or stop a project) as we do to gain something new. This leads us to "throw good money after bad."
What to Stop: Stop honoring "Legacy Projects" that no longer fit the current world.
The Strategy: Strategic thinking. Ask: "Knowing what we know today about the market, if we weren't already doing this, would we start it?" If the answer is no, stop immediately.
Wisdom in leadership is the ability to prune the tree so the fruit can grow. By stopping the non-essential, you liberate the energy, capital, and focus required to long term perspectives.
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