Strategy is “HOW” you get something accomplished, whether you or someone else is doing the work.
People sometimes get strategies, plans, goals, outcomes, mission, purpose, vision, and action steps confused. Briefly, here is the difference:
Vision: What is possible. A vision is what you see that perhaps others cannot see as wall. It is about an improvement, a betterment, sheer possibility, yet it is not pie-in-the-sky, either.
Mission: What you are all about. What you are really doing.
Purpose: Why you are doing what you are doing. Why you have set a goal, why you are going for an outcome. What is motivating you.
Outcome: Occurs after you reach your objective or goal. The outcome includes the results, but also the benefits of those results–both tangible and intangible.
Goal: Measurable result you are going for.
Plan: What you develop in order to identify, organize, and schedule your time, resources, and energy. A plan consists of a list of resources needed, actions steps to take, a timeline of events and progress milestoness.
Strategy: How something gets done, not just what you do. A strategy is your approach. It is your positioning. It is your smart way of reaching the goal with the least amount of wasted effort or cost. With a strategy, you are not always working directly on the goal itself, but rather on improving or positioning the environments, relationships, resources, flows, systems, or even yourself.
So, strategies are very different from a plan. In fact, when you devise the right strategy, the plan naturally becomes obvious. Without the strategy, the plan is merely a set of linear action steps (read: lots of work).
Strategy: How something gets done, not just what you do. A strategy is your approach. It is your positioning. It is your smart way of reaching the goal with the least amount of wasted effort or cost. With a strategy, you are not always working directly on the goal itself, but rather on improving or positioning the environments, relationships, resources, flows, systems, or even yourself.