Strategy vs Tactics

In his book The 33 Strategies of War, author Robert Greene writes about the difference between strategy and tactics. Before you assume war is inapplicable to you and click away, I assure you that this blog was written with the intention of delivering actionable nuggets of wisdom that you can directly apply to your daily life. So bear through the military analogies and I'm confident you will walk away with useful knowledge.

Tactics are the boots on the ground operations that unfold moment to moment. In war, this might look like carrying out a flanking maneuver, or a diversion to distract the enemy. Tactics are undertaken by the soldiers themselves and the officers who organize them.

Strategy on the other hand has two levels in my estimation. The first level of strategy, which I'll call battle strategy, is the 10,000 foot view of the battlefield. It's the plan for winning the battle of the day. Battle strategy is planned by generals.

The second level of strategy, which I've coined war strategy, is the highest form of strategic thinking. War strategy is planned by leaders of nations. War strategy involves the purpose for going to war in the first place, the overarching plan for winning the war, the context in which individual battles take place.

The saying, "you may have lost the battle, but can still win the war," nicely articulates the difference between battle and war strategy.

As I mentioned from the beginning, all of this military jargon is purely metaphorical. The objective of this blog post is to summarize the wisdom of strategy and tactics derived from the art of war in a way that will provide practical utility in the context of your daily life.

Before moving forward, a few examples of strategy vs tactics in civilian settings are in order. Strategy and tactics show up just about everywhere.

In athletics, tactics are the moves and plays performed by players. In football, tactics are run vs pass plays, blitzes, trick plays, etc. Battle strategy is the game plan for a particular opponent, planned by coaches. For instance an offensive coordinator might write a game plan that involves more run plays against one opponent or more pass plays against another opponent. War strategy is the plan to win as many games as possible in a season, and the plan to ensure the long term success of the team over many seasons, planned by general managers. This could involve strategically resting key players against lesser opponents, hiring a new defensive coordinator, drafting a talented young player to develop his experience over the course of many seasons, etc.

In business, tactics are the day to day operations that keep the business running, such as posting advertisements, creating the product or service, and making sales, which are carried out employees. Battle strategy is the plan for a particular project or quarter, such as a marketing campaign, a new product launch, a generalized pivot, etc, which are carried out by managers (marketing directors, sales directors, etc). War strategy in business is the high level concept of the business model, and the plan to stay in business over the long run, which involves things like adapting to market demand, disruptive competitors, the state of the economy, supply chain changes, and so on, which are directed by the CEO.

Firefighters have a plan for putting fires out (battle strategy), tools and methods for doing so (tactics), and concepts (public education, firesafe materials, etc) for minimizing the number of fires that start in the first place (war strategy).

In fitness, if your War strategy is to build muscle, your battle strategy is your strength training program and nutrition plan, and your tactics are the individual workouts.

As promised, we'll now take the concepts of strategy and tactics and apply them to your own life, starting with your War strategy.

War Strategy

Whatever stage of life you're in, ask yourself, where is the overall trajectory of your life headed? Most people mindlessly transition from one stage of life to the next, without thinking through the consequences of their decisions and how their endeavors fit into the grand scheme of their lives as a whole. Thinking strategically in this way is not easy. It requires that you step back, detach from your life, and focus on thinking objectively about why you do what you do. When was the last time you truly thought about your life this way? If you can't remember the last time you considered where your life was headed, then fate smiles upon you today, as this blog presents an instructional reminder to do so. The following questions are designed as a framework to help you think through the War strategy of your life, at whatever phase you find yourself in.

High school -> College

If you're about to graduate high school, you're likely planning on going to college. Why are you going to college? Does college serve a purpose as part of your overall plan in life, or do you just not know what else to do? If you'll need to take out loans, will your degree, which is likely commoditized, yield a positive return on your investment? If you decide to go to college, does the college you attend offer significant advantages over other colleges you could get accepted to? Will the major you choose give you a strategic advantage in your prospective career? While these are heavy questions for a young person fresh out of high school, they are worth considering, as going to college is a major decision that most people don't think twice about.

College -> Career

If you just graduated college, why are you taking the job you're taking? Will the job arm you with marketable skills, get you one step closer to your dream career, or put you in proximity to a valuable mentor? Or are you just taking the cheese of the highest pay?

Entrepreneurs

Maybe you want to start a business instead of taking a job. Applying strategic thinking, consider what specialized skills or knowledge you have that would fulfill a market demand for a given niche. Make a plan for how you will make ends meet while the business gets off the ground. Figure out a general idea of how you will scale your business in a way that divorces your time from your income. Otherwise, you'll create a frankenstien business that is a glorified job.

Serendipity

Yes, a case can be made for serendipity and spontaneity; it's impossible to predict with 100% accuracy exactly how the events of one's life will unfold. Unforeseen setbacks and opportunities force us to change course in ways that we could have never expected, for better or worse. But when you have a general direction for your life, you'll be able to adapt to such changes with grace by incorporating them into your plan as you go. If you know your ship is headed north, and an easterly gale gusts your sails, you'll know to compensate by adjusting your mast to the west.

Action Items

Since everyone's situation is different, these questions and considerations aren't meant to be prescriptive. They're designed to be thought provoking so that you can adapt them to your unique situation and use them as templates to come up with more of your own.

The main theme of your life's War Strategy is to map out a general yet detailed plan about where your life is headed and what you want your future to look like, in all aspects of your life, including your career, where you live, your lifestyle, family design, and so on.

Battle Strategy

Your Battle strategy is the way in which you take action on a consistent basis to make your dream life as a reality, using your War strategy as a framework to guide each battle. In other words, your battle strategy is your War strategy, which is the design of your entire life, divided into seasons and phases, each of which has their own sub-agenda.

For example, suppose part of your life's War strategy for attaining financial freedom involves starting a business. If you're suck in a dead end job that you hate, your battle strategy is your plan to leave it to start a business. This would involve planning your days and weeks in such a way that you block out time to bring your business to life in your off hours. As your business gains traction, you slowly taper down your work hours and commit more and more to your business, until the time comes to bow out from your job and go all in on your business.

Maybe another part of your War strategy is to start a family. Your individual battle strategies would then involve finding the right partner, and financial planning.

Tactics

Your tactics are the hands on tasks you complete on a daily basis, the totality of which compose your current battle strategy. You use tactics to operationalize your battle strategy into very specific, repeatable steps that move the needle.

Going back to the example of the entrepreneur, their tactics for starting a business might include creating content to grow a following on social media, working with a mentor to learn the ropes of business, and reaching out to prospects online. By repeating these tactics on a daily basis, the aspiring entrepreneur is stacking the odds in their favor of winning the battle of starting a business, which is all part of the grand War strategy of attaining financial freedom.

Carpe Diem

The Latin phrase Carpe Diem means to "seize the day." What we do on a daily basis, the tactics we use to win battles, is where the rubber meets the road. Here's how you can use strategy and tactics to seize the day, every day.

Leverage Type I & Type II Thinking

In his book Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes two forms of thinking; type I is thinking "fast," type II is thinking "slow."

"Slow" thinking is the conscious, intentional, administrative thinking used to plan, organize, and manage. This is the kind of thinking you use to decide what to do and how to do it. It's the way you use your mind when devising strategies.

"Fast" thinking, also referred to as a "flow state" or "deep work," is where the mind executes on the tactics that were strategically planned using slow thinking.

It takes the human mind about twenty minutes to transition between type I and type II thinking. The problem is that most people spend most days switching between the two, constantly getting sidetracked by the litany of distractions that pull for our attention.

Ivy Lee Method

To counteract distraction, batch all of your slow, strategic thinking at once the night before. Using what's known as the Ivy Lee method, make a list of all that you want to get done the next day in order of highest to lowest priority. The next day, review this list first thing in the morning, then execute on each task one after the other without disengaging from fast thinking. Working "hard," is really just a matter of staying focused, and if you train yourself to maintain that flow state, working "hard" becomes effortless, and your productivity will skyrocket.

The General and the Soldier

At the end of each day, break out a journal, reflect on what went well, what could improve, and remind yourself of your goals. I call this "General mode," and executing on your plans each day "Soldier mode." Oftentimes there's a disconnect between what the General planned and what the Soldier does. Our natural tendency is to get lost in the day to day dramas of our tasks, forgetting why we do what we do. Journaling daily maintains connection between the General and the Soldier by reminding you where you are in your journey, which helps you keep perspective and stay on track.

Final Thoughts

When you finish reading this blog, apply what you've just learned about strategy and tactics using the following steps.

1. Define in as much detail as possible your dream life, everything between where you are right now and when you will die (assuming you live a long life).
2. Map out the general steps required to make that dream a reality. This is your War strategy.
3. Reverse engineer your War strategy into individual seasons or milestones along the way (i.e. finish your degree, get a certain job, save up for a down payment, start a business, etc). These are the battles you will fight in the context of your War strategy.
4. Identify which battle you are currently fighting, and define the tactics you must use on a daily basis to win the battle you find yourself in (i.e. get good grades to succeed in college, hire a mentor to start a business, save X amount of money per month for a down payment, etc). At the beginning of each phase, or "battle," operationalize the daily actions, or "tactics," that will put you in the best position possible to emerge victorious.

Taking charge of your life and planning far into the future is one of the most powerful yet overlooked strategies for success. Not only does it give you a sense of direction and agency, it equips you with confidence to take massive action, knowing exactly what you need to do to succeed, and patience to endure hard times, knowing that each phase is just part of your master plan.