Trey Smith
Someone with a great overall strategy should not be pressed for a quick fix.This line has a bit of personal meaning for me. When I was involved with third party politics (Socialist Party and then the Green Party), I was one of those people who prided myself on developing overall strategies. I wanted to ensure that all facets of the party were working together toward the same goals.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
Of course, it's very rare for a group to adopt one person's vision in its totality. Different people hold different ideas about the direction, objectives and goals. Needless to say, none of my overall strategies ever were adopted. (It's probably just as well since each of us has blind spots.)
More often than not, as one of the party administrators, I often was tasked with developing short-term fixes. While I was very adept at developing overall strategies, I wasn't very good with singular ones. I thought my one-time strategies were excellent -- it's just that they rarely worked out as I had envisioned they would!
To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.
I think this passage has to do with having a long view of things. There are many overall strategies for solving problems in the world, but they probably will take decades to put into effect. But we expect a president or a corporate officer to fix it now, stop the war now, start universal health care now, all immediate, now. It's mistaking the tactic for the strategy, the band-aid for the cure.
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