Practice? We talkin' practice?

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."  Yogi Berra

I got into one of those great discussions with a friend the other day.  It was about strategy vs. execution.  It was fun because we were in violent agreement with each other.  The consensus was that as important as strategy is, and there can be infinite debates on HOW important, it’s pretty worthless without proper execution.

The problem is strategy is fun.  Execution is tedious.  Strategy is blue sky, white clouds, crystal water, and sun-soaked beaches.  Execution is smoke-filled windowless rooms that are both too hot and too drafty.

Strategy is Saturday afternoon kickoff.  Execution is two months of two-a-day practices in 90 degree, 90 percent humidity weather.

Strategy is a 10K run.  Execution is the repeated 5:30AM runs to prepare for it.

OK, I’ll stop.  You get it.

The point is, too many people sell strategy.  We look for it in candidates to hire.  We sell it to potential employers.  Everyone wants everyone to be strategic.  Everyone wants everybody to think strategy, talk strategy and walk strategy.  Fine, but who’s going to put that strategy into practice.  Who’s going to make the inevitable changes to the strategy when low-and –behold the strategy doesn’t actually work in practice the way it was drawn up to work.

I was once talking to a highly successful business guy.  He told me that compared to many of his colleagues over the years that he came up with one good strategy to their 10 or 12.  The only difference was he executed nearly every one of his few while they seldom if ever executed even one of theirs.

So, to answer the question Allen Iverson famously posed to the media one day.  “Yeah, we talkin’ practice!