Values, Purpose, Strategy and Tactics
These are words that get batted around a lot. It’s easy to assume that people all mean the same thing when they use them, but in my experience, that’s not the case. Moreover, people often look at them separately, without considering how they fit together. Let me share my own simplified way of understanding them. It’s not particularly nuanced, but it helps me keep the pieces straight, and reminds me why they’re all important.
Values are the guiding principles that constrain how we want to act in the world. They are the rules we accept and uphold. They are how we want to be in the world,not just for now, but always.
Purpose is what we are trying to accomplish. This is our goal, our reason for doing the work, and our north star. This, too, stays constant over time.
Strategies are the goals we pursue in order to fulfill our purpose. These are the pieces we need to put in place to be successful. They should align with our values and they should directly support our purpose. They may shift over time, but only after careful consideration based on hard data.
Finally, tactics are the things we do to put the strategic pieces in place. Tactics are the actions we take to reach our strategic goals under the current conditions. We try them, and adjust them as needed. However, they still align with our values at all times.
So how do these pieces fit together? Consider a game of chess.
The values we accept and hold ourselves accountable to are the rules. We take turns. Our pawns will not move backward. Our knights can jump, but our rooks cannot. Once we make a move, we will not take it back.
Our purpose is to capture the opposing king and protect our own. Everything we do supports that goal.
Our strategies include capturing opposing pieces, protecting our own pieces, advancing pawns, dominating the center of the board, focusing our attack on a particular area, etc.
And finally, our tactics are our actual moves. We attack with our queen. We move our king out of danger. We take control of a key diagonal with our bishop. We force a trade of pawns.
Clearly, without all of these components, it’s hard to be successful at chess. The same can be said of any organization. Let’s apply the same concepts to healthcare.
Our values might be compassion, collaboration, fairness and excellence. Our purpose might be to provide a high quality, comprehensive medical home for a particular population. Some of our strategies might be to retain our best staff, to deliver great preventive care, to decrease billing inefficiencies and to expand access for our patients. And our tactics would be the actual initiatives and systems we put in place to accomplish those goals.
Too often, organizations get sidetracked putting out fires. They spend all their time devising short term tactics to address the challenges of the moment. It’s the organization that can rally all of its teams around shared values, a common purpose, and thoughtful strategies that ends up choosing tactics that lead to long term success.
