Switching between strategy and tactics is hard. If you don’t make a conscious shift, you end up struggling like the characters in Patrick Lencioni‘s leadership fable “Death By Meeting“.

For Strategy and Tactics, I think of the business as a 1980’s era 4×4 pickup truck: very capable if you set it up for what you’re doing. In your day-to-day of the business you drive on regular roads, going over a few smaller bumps, and putting on miles. When you work on strategy, you’re going to get muddy, go over challenging terrain and really need all four wheels engaged on the dirt if you want to get anywhere.

We are often called on to jump between the day-to-day operations of the business and that afternoon’s long term planning meeting. You can’t. You’re either scrubbing your front tires on the asphalt as you turn tight corners, or you’re spinning your rear wheels in the mud because you can’t get traction. Unless you take the time to switch to the right setup, you’re less effective and your truck will end up in the shop.

So give yourself time to pull over, get out of your truck, turn the locking hubs, get back in, shift into four wheel low, and then turn onto the trail. And extend the same courtesy to the people involved in that strategic thinking process. That way you’ll all be able to get to the top of the mountain and enjoy the view.