The biggest threat to strategic thinking today is not information scarcity — it’s information suffocation, under which we suffer.
With signal and noise so indistinguishable from each other, even the most resoute leaders can expect doubt to follow effective decision-making.
Sound judgment today requires more than just new technologies or analytical frameworks — it’s a shift in how we communicate.
More specifically, I believe it entails a reorientation of perspective, one characterized by a deeper and more holistic understanding of both communications and technology. One better able to encompass the complexities of today’s challenges both for humans and machines.
This starts by simply viewing communication, like technology, as an integrated and continually evolving discipline. Just as human communication encompasses more than just written or spoken language, our communication with machines entails more than tapping away on keyboards. In fact, in communicating with machines, communicating with ourselves, and communicating with people who communicate with machines, we find ourselves witness is something far grander: Unwitting participation in our species’ quest for technological evolution.
In the context of history, this should be awe-inspiring, since the earliest technological evolutions were ancient communications systems themselves — and they also afforded new cultures to support their development. Arriving at this insight, we reveal the theory that technological progress may only be achieved through these very same systems of symbiotic processes. We comprise processes and systems — strategy both enables and is enabled by operational excellence.
I’ve worn a variety of strategy hats over the years (content strategist, digital strategist, senior strategist, etc.), and so my thinking is of course biased, shaped by these and other experiences. Nonetheless, its important for me to clearly disclose my view: That an integrated, communications-first approach to strategy is essential to the long-term success of any enterprise, commercial or non-profit. 1
Just as tighter personal communication can help one identify and execute on new information, so too is improved communications between humans and machines (fostered at the intersection of strategy and operations) essential to growth in the modern age. Moreover, because communication is culturally determined, the cultures that develop to support these communications innovations will be just as important as the communications themselves. It will be interesting to see how these cultures evolve alongside our own understanding of our modern condition.