Phyllis’s insight that “the engineers can’t work without a specification” applies to most organized human effort.

he faced a challenge and he designed a novel response. Today, as then, many effective strategies are more designs than decisions—are more constructed than chosen.

Walking through a suburban neighborhood, you could tell who lived in each house by the car parked out in front: ordinary people drove Chevrolets, the foreman a Pontiac, the manager a Buick, and the CEO a Cadillac.

Strategy cannot be a useful concept if it is a synonym for success. Nor can it be a useful tool if it is confused with ambition, determination, inspirational leadership, and innovation.

Moving to Action INSEAD, a global business school located in France, was the brainchild of Harvard professor General Georges F. Doriot. The INSEAD library holds a bronze statue of Doriot inscribed with his observation “Without action, the world would still be an idea.”

Another powerful way to coordinate actions is by the specification of a proximate objective. By “proximate,” I mean a state of affairs close enough at hand to be feasible. If an objective is clear and feasible, it can help coordinate both problem solving and direct action.

When a leader characterizes the challenge as underperformance, it sets the stage for bad strategy. Underperformance is a result. The true challenges are the reasons for the underperformance.

Just as in a large university, the breakthroughs of a tiny number of very talented individuals had been used to justify a contemplative life for thousands of others.

A good strategy does more than urge us forward toward a goal or