The Strategy of Saying "NO" - Sun Tzu's Art Of ... Business Part 4

[Music] Back in season 4 we spoke about Sun Zoo and the art of war and I gave an overview about the book of why it's relevant to today. We had a lot of comments and feedback that asked if we could do more of a deep dives. I've decided let's do a mini series that looks at the book in more detail. Hello and welcome to all you leaders and strategy, our Mike Harris and welcome back to another episode in our mini series Sun Zoo and the art of war. Now most leaders think strategy is about working harder, selling more or simply outperforming the competition. But whatever I told you the best business leaders don't win because they do more, they win because they think differently before they act. There's a book written over two and a half thousand years ago that explores exactly this idea. Not about business, not about leadership, at least not directly, it's about something far more fundamental. How to win before the fight even begins. And that book is this, the art of war by Sun Zoo. And in this mini series we're taking those ancient principles and turning them into a practical toolkit for modern business leaders because this isn't about war, it's about making better decisions, choosing better opportunities and building a business that wins more consistently with less waste. So this episode I'm calling the cost of conflict why focus wins in business strategy. Now most business leaders don't fail because they're not doing enough, they fail because they're doing too much, too many priorities, too many projects, too many opportunities and too many initiatives and not enough focus. In the art of war Sun Zoo warns us about the cost of prolonged conflict not just in the terms of loss but in the terms of drain, drain on energy, drain on resources, drain on momentum. And that's exactly what happens in business because every additional priority comes at a cost. So let's start with a simple observation about the hidden cost of doing too much. If you look at most businesses they're not sure of ideas, they're not sure of ambition, what they're short of is strategic discipline. They say yes to too many projects, too many clients, too many directions and over time something happens. Performance drops, teams become stretched, quality becomes inconsistent and leaders feel constantly under pressure, not because they're failing but because they're overloaded and here's the key point, every yes in your business silently creates multiple nodes somewhere else. So here's the reality about limited resources. Sun Zoo understood something fundamental, resources are finite in war that meant troops time supply. In business that means people time cash attention and attention is the one most leaders underestimate because you can't focus on everything equally. You can't lead every initiative properly and you can't drive performance across unlimited priorities. So when businesses try to do too much they don't just stretch resources, they dilute impact and dilution is dangerous because everything looks like it's moving. Nothing is truly progressing. And that leads to a problem, the illusion of progress. This is where many leadership teams get caught. They see activity, they see more meetings, more updates, more reporting, more movement and they assume things are improving but activity is not progress and busy teams are not always productive teams. Sometimes they're just fragmented and working hard but in too many directions at once and the result is slower decision making, reduced quality, missed opportunities and growing frustration because deep down everyone can feel it. We're doing too much and not enough is landing properly. So this is where it comes together. Let's look at strategic focus versus strategic overload because this is what strong businesses do differently. They don't do everything. They identify top priorities, align their team around a small group of goals and commit fully to delivering them. And more importantly they are disciplined about what they don't do because this is where strategy becomes real. Not in what you include but what you deliberately exclude. Strong strategy is much about subtraction as it is about addition. So now I'm going to take you through the strategic focus audit. This is where we can make it practical. Here's a simple tool that you can use. Ask yourself one what are our top three priorities right now. If you can't answer this clearly that's the first issue. Two what are we doing that doesn't directly support these priorities. This is where most of the noise sits. Three where are we spreading ourselves to thin? Where we have too many projects, too many initiatives, too many client times. Four what should we stop, simplify or delay. And this is the hardest part because stopping something feels like losing. But in reality it's often the fastest way to regain control and momentum. So there you are the strategic focus audit. And to help with this we've loaded it up onto our Patreon where you can find it, download it and use it within your business. So what does this mean in the real world? Well you'll see this everywhere in business in leadership teams trying to drive too many initiatives at once. In growing companies which are expanding too many markets too quickly. In service businesses taking on work that doesn't align with their strengths. And in strategy delivery plans that look impressive but are impossible to execute fully. And the common thread is always the same. Lack of focus leads to lack of results. So here's the strategic shift that comes from this. Stop asking what can we do and start asking what must we stop to achieve what really matters. Because focus is not about doing less for the sake of it. It's about doing fewer things better. So in summary today we've taken another key idea from the art of war. The cost of conflict. And we've translated it into a business principle. Every additional priority has a cost. And if you don't manage that cost it will show up in performance. So that's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed it and you come back next time. One will be moving from focus to smart strategy moves and we'll be looking at how to compete without direct conflict, how to differentiate properly and shift the game in your favour. I'll see you then. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]