We recently adopted a new puppy, 
adorable, energetic, and full of less-than-desirable puppy habits.

Her first week, the moment I would open her playpen,
she would bolt down the stairs,
ignoring every command or voice in her path,
laser-focused on getting outside.

Not surprisingly, when she got there, she found a closed door.
[What do you know – all the people with thumbs, still upstairs.]

She’d sit there, staring out the frosted glass,
waiting for, I assume, the door to open itself.

So I’d wait, walk downstairs, gently pick her up,
carry her back up the stairs,
and plop her in her playpen again,
doing my best to avoid her sullen glare.
[We actually have a sound effect for the “plop”, that’s how often it happened]

After a week of this, the pattern changed.
She learned to wait,
To pause until someone opened the door.

I bring this up because we, as strategists, do the same thing.

We get a request, a proposal, an idea.
Our playpen opens, and we sprint wildly down the stairs.
Same path, same momentum, same instinct,
Without scanning the environment.
Without understanding the situation.
Without checking the best way to open the door.

And when we get plopped back in the playpen,
we wonder what went wrong.

So before we rush into our strategies, remember to pause.
Survey the landscape, verify the data we’re working with,
Determine our opportunities and threats,
And who we might need to help open the door.
Otherwise, it shouldn’t be surprise 
when we end up staring through frosted glass,
waiting to go back to where we started.