Let's not get hung up on strategy

Every now and again I get accused, in the most vehement terms, of being a 'strategist' or worse still, a 'strategic consultant'.

It's odd that, since I don't actually believe in communication strategies.

Somehow, a communications strategy aggrandises organisational communication. As far as I'm concerned, successful organisations will have a clear, tangible, measurable and deliverable business strategy, and communication will be one of the tools - I'd say one of the top three tools - to deliver that strategy.

To have a separate communication strategy is to immediately put space between the business strategy and communication - when the latter should be at the heart of the former. All our communication objectives should be to deliver the business strategy and if our work is not enabling that delivery, then we probably shouldn't be doing it.

What gets me too is how often strategy gets bandied around when people are actually talking about the tactics they'll use - the channels, media and messages - to deliver a business objective.

So let's tread warily around strategies - especially one that are not 100% in line with business objectives, the whole area can get communications a bad name.