Sometimes you get what you need
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (middle left in the 1965 photo of the band) died today. He was a great drummer. He was unassuming and did not care much for the flamboyant lifestyles of his peers in the band. Watts quietly focused on his craft for more than 50 years.
But, you ask, what does that have to do with strategy? Let me digress and you soon will see that it has all to do with strategy.
I was a drummer as a young lad, from band to orchestra to rock group. Not a good one, just passable. But I wanted to play and to be part of the group. Yet, as it turns out, while music of all sorts has enriched my life greatly, it was not what I needed most to be successful. That turned out to be leaning on my writing and communications skills and pursuing strategy as my passion.
Charlie was a graphic artist who played drums on the side. After he joined the Rolling Stones, he abandoned his career as an artist, but continued to draw for the rest of his life. According to the New York Times, “On tour, he would go back to his hotel room alone; every night, he sketched his lodgings. ‘I’ve drawn every bed I’ve slept in on tour since 1967,’ he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996. ‘It’s a fantastic nonbook.’” In Charlie’s case, art enriched his life greatly, but it did not turn out to be what made him famous and wealthy.
DO YOU SEE?
Are you starting to see what I see? In the words of the Stones,
“You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need”
Key premises underlie creating and implementing strategy. Here are several: 1) The world is always changing. 2) This change creates threats and opportunities. 3) By being strategic, intentional, and focused, you can plan and execute actions to make the best of this change and get to a better place. 4) Plans encapsulate this “better place” in a vision of great success.
The thing is, the vision in a four- or five-year strategic plan actually is rarely reached. Oops, I just let the cat out of the bag! Planning does not usually get the organization or the person executing the plan what they want. Or at least what they thought they wanted when they created the vision and the strategies for getting to the vision.
Is that bad? I think not. If the organization or the person had not planned and acted and had just continued to sit on the proverbial railroad tracks, did not try sometimes, in the words of the Stones, the railroad train - change - would have run over the organization or person. Better to plan and act, for sure.
ADAPTATION DELIVERS WHAT YOU NEED
The Stones have it right. Getting what you want is much less likely than getting what you need. When you try to change, grow, adapt, and leverage your strengths and opportunities, you are most likely to find what you need. Your plan adapts to continually changing circumstances, new opportunities and possibilities that are uncovered, and takes you to a better place.
Thank you, Charlie, for your part in reminding us:
“You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need”
