Ministry

What does good strategy look like?

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When did you first encounter the idea of strategy? 

For me, I could say that it was when I studied commerce and then worked as a management consultant – a job I had for four years, specialising in strategy and organisational design as I consulted with a variety of government, private sector and not-for-profit organisations (including a couple of Christian not-for-profits). But I think a better answer is that I first encountered strategy as a kid. My older brother and I would play games all the time: Connect Four, Monopoly, PlayStation games. As I lost these games to my brother – repeatedly – I learned that he had something I didn’t have. He planned to succeed. He was (and is) a shrewd strategic thinker. 

‘Strategy’ is bigger than corporate strategy

While the discipline of corporate strategy has thrived and entered the mainstream over recent decades, it is easy to forget that strategic thinking existed before the modern corporate world. The heart of strategy is planning to succeed (however we define ‘success’ in any given context), and humans have always intuitively planned for success – on the sporting field, the battlefield, or even the farmer’s field. Strategy was a human intuition before it was a business tool for success.

Where we get stuck

When I left consulting and began my theological degree at Moore College, I noticed a couple of things. First, strategy is often a vexed topic in ministry circles. Second, and relatedly, when I compare the corporate realm to the ministry realm, I find that people ask very different questions about strategy. Consider these two questions:

1. Is strategy good?
2. What does good strategy look like?

In the corporate realm, no-one really asks the first question. It’s a foregone conclusion that strategy is good, because it has proved itself useful time and time again. However, to get the most value from strategy, everyone asks the second question: ‘What does good strategy look like?’1

Compare this with the ministry realm. In my experience, our conversations tend to almost entirely circle around the first question (‘Is strategy good?’) and we rarely get around to asking what good strategy looks like. Furthermore, answers to the first question tend to form two ‘camps’. There are those of us who mostly see strategy as bad (or at least suspicious), and so don’t even see it as necessary to ask what good strategy looks like. On the other hand, there are those of us who answer the first question keenly (‘Yes: strategy is good!’) but perhaps still haven’t explored when or how strategy might be good (or not good). Given that we all use strategic thinking at some level (that is, we all intuitively plan for success), we can all benefit from a richer conversation about what good strategy looks like.

How to move the strategy conversation forward

Here’s the main thrust of this article: it’s time for us to move the conversation away from whether strategy is good (question 1), and instead focus on how we can do strategy well (question 2). If we focus on what good strategy looks like, we will end up answering the first question anyway. Strategy is good – when it is done well. But as we evaluate ‘good strategy done well,’ we need to bring our full theological muscle to bear on the words ‘good’ and ‘well’. We also need a clearer understanding of what strategy itself actually is.

The rest of this article will lay some foundations that I hope will help us to continue the strategy conversation. First, I will define what strategy is, with help from both the Bible and the corporate discipline of strategy. Then, I will put forward some theological foundations of good strategy, especially in ministry.

Defining strategy

As I’ve already mentioned, the heart of strategy is planning to succeed. However, not every plan is a strategy; for example, my shopping list is a plan of what I want to buy, but it falls short of being a ‘strategy’. Rather, strategies have a level of rigour that come down to three core components: goal + diagnosis —> plan:

  • Strategy is governed by a goal: ‘Where do I want to get to?’
  • plus a diagnosis: ‘What is my context? Who am I in this context? What barriers or opportunities might I face?’
  • which the strategist then uses to solve for a plan: ‘What path will I use to get to the goal?’.

A strategy is a plan to succeed that is discerned through goal-setting and diagnosis. This practice of strategic thinking is a kind of human wisdom. As humans, we have finite information, time and resources – but we also have goals we want to meet. Strategy is the kind of wisdom that helps us to plan a way forward to these goals, using finite resources and information.

Strategic thinking in Proverbs

Given that strategic thinking is a kind of wisdom, it is not unexpected that we see examples of strategic thinking in the book of Proverbs. Take the woman who embodies wisdom in Proverbs 31. Notice the goal she works towards: providing good things for others, including her husband (‘She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life,’ v. 12), her household (‘She provides food for her family, and portions for her female servants’ v. 15) and the needy (‘She opens her arms to the poor’, v. 20). Notice her diagnosis of the setting in which she works towards her goals: she is aware of what ventures are profitable (v. 18) and attentive to the current and future needs of others (‘When it snows, she has no fear for her household,’ v. 21; ‘She watches over the affairs of her household’, v. 27). All this shapes her planning, which she industriously brings into action, making things (vv. 13, 19, 22, 24), earning and investing (vv. 16, 24), and instructing others wisely (v. 26). This woman’s exemplary wisdom is shown in her diligence to do good. Strategic thinking at its best is a kind of wisdom that directs diligent action towards good ends.

At the same time, Proverbs is full of statements that relativise human wisdom, placing it beneath God’s overarching wisdom as the one and only creator and sustainer of all things. For example:

  • ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (3:5)
  • ‘There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death’ (14:12, 16:25)
  • ‘Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails’ (19:21)
  • ‘A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart’ (21:2).

These proverbs are sobering, as they remind us of the limitations of our human wisdom due to our sin and creaturely finitude. Taken as a whole, Proverbs shows us that strategic thinking can be a good exercise of wisdom that directs diligent action towards good ends. Yet even our best strategic thinking is still human, so we should strategise with humility and dependent faith in God (Jas 4:13-17).

The corporate discipline of strategy

Now that we have seen strategic thinking in Proverbs, how does this compare to the corporate discipline of strategy?2 In short, corporate strategy takes the same logic of goal + diagnosis —> plan, but helpfully bumps things up a notch in terms of rigour and codification. At the same time, corporate strategy has a different shape to the strategic thinking in Proverbs because it is not intentionally connected to theology. Let me expand on these.First, corporate strategy takes the logic of goal + diagnosis —> plan, but amplifies the ‘problem-solving’ rigour that underpins this logic. In fact, in the discipline of corporate strategy, ‘strategy’ is often described as ‘problem-solving’, because we are trying to solve the problem of how to reach our goal. Whenever we describe a course of action as a ‘strategy’, the discipline of corporate strategy expects that we should be able back up our claim by showing our working: ‘how does your goal + diagnosis lead you to this specific plan, as opposed to other plans?’We can benefit from this rigour as we approach strategy in ministry. We sometimes call approaches ‘strategic’, but without showing our working. However, no course of action is universally strategic. For example, we might claim that it is ‘strategic’ to invest in ministry to a particular group of people because we’ve seen similar ministry be effective in the past – but then move forward without considering if this choice makes sense for us, with our goals, in our specific context, and compared to the alternative ways in which we might invest our time and effort. Whether an approach is strategic always depends on the particular situation and the goal. Therefore, if we describe something as ‘strategic’ we should ask: For whom? In what context? And towards which goals?

Second, corporate strategy is normally defined without reference to God and his ethically-ordered creation. There are many implications that follow from this, but I’ll highlight two for now.

Corporate strategy does not relativise itself under God’s wisdom as Proverbs directs us to do. This means that its value is real but limited. While corporate strategy may help us to squeeze more out of our limited information and resources, it cannot help us to humbly make peace with our human limitations under God.

Furthermore, corporate strategy creates a definition of what is ‘good’ in terms that do not relate to God. This contrasts with biblical wisdom, where the ‘good’ is defined by God and his creation. Look again at the definition of ‘strategy’ above. Do you notice that a strategic plan is effectively a miniature ethical framework? It defines a certain course of action as ‘good’ because it is likely to lead to a certain goal that we deem to be ‘good’. However, this miniature ethical framework is sealed off from what God defines as good – unless we thoroughly integrate our strategy into our theology.

What does good strategy look like?

To summarise so far: strategy is a practice of wisdom that plans for success, aided by goal-setting and diagnosis. But what does good strategy look like? Here is my summary, which I will then unpack in three parts: strategy is good when we wield the tool of strategy skilfully, with thorough theological integration, and with sensitivity to its strengths and limitations.

Good strategy is skilful
First, good strategy is skilful strategy. Sometimes we treat the ability to think strategically as an enigmatic thing, like an indefinable personality trait that some charismatic leaders are born with. However, strategic thinking encompasses a set of skills that we can all grow in, including: self-knowledge, observation and reflection on the context you are in, shrewd prioritisation (including the courage to say no to some options) and team communication (so that you can develop and enact the plan together). I could go on. It is possible that God may give this span of competencies to a single person who plans and acts as competently as the Proverbs 31 woman. But God may also distribute each skill of strategic thinking separately across many different people in our church or churches, who can together produce wonderful strategic thinking. We should be prepared to recognise these skills and steward them well together.

Good strategy is theologically integrated
Second, as I’ve already begun to discuss, good strategy (as a kind of wisdom) should be integrated with our Christian theology. To be clear, I am not saying that Christians have a monopoly on wisdom: the Bible shows that people who do not worship God can still observe his creation and gain wisdom, and I place the discipline of corporate strategic planning in this category.3 But for those of us who fear the Lord, our knowledge of God, his creation, and his saving work to bring all things in heaven and earth under Christ (Eph 1:9-10) must shape how we ethically deliberate and act.

In my experience, it is possible to treat theology as though it merely gives us ethical ‘guardrails’ that stop us from making wrong ethical choices: theology tells us what is out of scope, and then pragmatics helps us to choose from the remaining options. But the theological integration I’m arguing for is more profound than that. Theology bears on every part of how we do strategic planning: what goals we choose, how we diagnose ourselves and the situations we are in, how we weigh up different courses of action and how we evaluate ‘success’ and ‘failure’ (see some worked examples of this below). Theology even informs when we might decide to use the tool of strategic planning, or whether we opt for a different tool altogether. Which brings us to the final point.

Good strategy is sensitive to its own strengths and limitations
Third, to do strategy well we should recognise that strategy is a tool that is suited for some jobs, but not for others – and so we need more than just strategy in our toolkit. My husband and I have a basic toolkit at home: a hammer, a spanner, Allen keys, and a screwdriver with a range of changeable tips. It would be very annoying if we had to trade in our whole toolkit for just one Allen key. The Allen key would be good for some tasks (like tightening the connections of our Ikea bookshelf). But the fact that the Allen key is suited for some tasks means that it is not very good at others.

Likewise, for every strength that strategy has, it has an accompanying limitation. This is not to criticise strategy – that would be like criticising an Allen key for not being good at hammering in nails. But to use the tool of strategy well, we should use the tool for what it is good at, compensate for its limitations, and consider not using strategy at all if it’s unsuitable for the job.

To make this more concrete, here are six paired strengths and limitations for strategy where each strength is a flipside of its limitation, along with a brief example for each pair.

1. Doing vs. being. Strategy has the power to stoke the fire in our bellies towards a goal. At the same time, strategy is not conducive to contentedness and simply ‘being’ without striving towards a goal. Relatedly, strategy tilts us to value people and activities based on how they contribute towards our goal. Without some compensation, strategy can foster a mercenary mindset that primarily values people for their performance.

E.g. A growth group sets a year-long strategy together to share the gospel with unbelieving friends and family. A strength of the strategy is that it fans the group’s zeal for evangelism. A limitation is that the strategy does not inherently place value on the group member who is suddenly hit by a debilitating chronic illness, and is finding survival hard enough without extra goals to evangelise his friends. The group members are therefore flexible with their strategy: they still strive towards evangelism, but also prioritise the care of their brother in a demonstration of his profound and steadfast value in the family of God.

2. Responsibility vs. finitude. Strategy helps us to be responsible with our finite time and resources in the face of uncertainty and limitations. However, strategy is not designed to regard the good in human limitations, weakness, and humility.

E.g. A church plant sets a strategy to grow to a certain number of members in three years. The strategy is great at helping church members to exercise responsibility to reach out and invite local friends. However, the pastor recognises that the strategy intrinsically won’t foster certain things, including humble dependence on God, and an appreciation of human weakness and need for rest. He and the church consciously bring these elements in to round out the strategy.

3. Distilling for clarity vs. being simplistic. As we do the ‘diagnosis’ part of strategy, we need to distil our complex situations down into key elements that seem most pertinent to our goal. This distillation helps us to cut through complexity and plan for success. However, there is a risk that the distillation involved in the strategy process can simplistically smooth down things that are necessarily complex.

E.g. As I personally consider how to plan for my life in the future, I find it helpful to define some loose goals that will keep me focused on important projects that I may otherwise neglect to work towards in the busyness of life. However, I don’t think it would be fitting to develop a strategic plan that governs all of my life. One reason is that life is too complex to be distilled down, so any strategy for a human life would necessarily be simplistic. If I try to avoid this problem by choosing the broadest possible goal for my life (e.g. to glorify God) that doesn’t yield a particularly helpful strategy (e.g. how can I prioritise one course of action over another if I can glorify God in all things [1 Cor 10:31]?). So, I prefer to stick with flexible goals that can weave in and out of the complexity of my life, rather than design an overarching strategic plan that attempts to govern every aspect of life’s complexity.

4. Bespoke vs. universal. Strategy is a great tool for forming a plan for a given group of people, in a given situation, in a given point in time. However, there is no universal strategic plan, just as there is no dress that fits every, or even most, women. Therefore, when we move into a new context, the strategic plan we developed for the original context easily loses relevance. A plan needs to be tailored again to fit the new context. Otherwise, we are in danger of applying the wrong strategy to the new situation, just because we know it worked well in the previous situation.

E.g. A church that has been growing and maturing people well is planning to plant into a different suburb of their city. Before assuming their existing goal-directed approach to ministry will work just as well in the new plant, they will consider the new church and tailor their approach to its unique context.

5. Planning vs. action. Strategy helps us to plan what to do. But strategy itself doesn’t get you anywhere: action does, under God’s sovereignty. A good strategy will be designed for action, but if it only exists in theory and not in execution, it’s still useless. Furthermore, sometimes we may need to act responsively without a concrete plan, and only then reflect and strategise for next time.

E.g. The leadership team of a Christian not-for-profit develops a strategic plan for the next three years. However, they find after a year or so that the plan does not seem to be shaping people’s attitudes or actions in the organisation. On reflection, they realise that their staff weren’t trained with the skills needed to execute the strategy, so the strategic plan only remained a report on the CEO’s desk.

6. Bare consequentialism vs. a fuller ethical approach. Strategy helps us to focus on the likely consequences of our actions, and then favour actions that we expect to lead to ‘good’ consequences (a kind of ethical reasoning called ‘consequentialism’). In other words, when it comes to strategy the desired end (our goal) rationalises the means (the strategic plan). But strategy does not help us to consider other factors that determine whether a course of action is good. These other factors include whether an action may be inherently good or bad in God’s eyes, what our attitudes or motivations are behind an action, and the degree to which our actions fit into God’s purposeful design of the world.

E.g. The church team who caters for afternoon tea has the goal of providing good food to facilitate good fellowship. However, one man mixed up his sugar and salt, and brought in inedible brownies. By a strict strategic logic this man’s bad food was a failure because it didn’t meet the catering team’s goal – but the church recognises his attitude of love in his attempted brownies, so they thank him for his effort (even if the result was sub-par)!

Conclusion

So, is strategy good? Strategy is good – when we do it well. We do strategy well when we wield the tool of strategy skilfully, with thorough theological integration, and with sensitivity to its strengths and limitations.

Let’s continue the conversation of what good strategy looks like, so that together we can diligently and humbly work together towards good goals, under our good God.

  1. The need to define good strategy is increasingly important amidst the proliferation of bad strategy in the world. For more on this, see Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters (2011). ↩︎
  2. For an introduction to corporate strategy, see Roger Martin’s video, ‘A Plan Is Not a Strategy’, on the Harvard Business Review YouTube channel. ↩︎
  3. For example, see Acts 7:22. Proverbs also assumes that wisdom can be gained from observing creation (e.g. Prov 30:24-31), and the book of Proverbs also appears to include some sayings that originated from Israel’s neighbouring nations. ↩︎