My bookshelf at work.
A few weeks months ago, a former colleague of mine reached out to ask if I had any advice on how to get her team to think more strategically.
It’s a good question—and one I wish I had a better answer to, seeing as a large part of my role is doing that for my team.
But it’s also a tough question with no easy answers. Since she reached out, I’ve been noodling on a longer blog post to summarize more accurately what I’ve done with my team, what I can do better, and advice I might have for my former colleague.
In the meantime, I promised to share with her a few resources that have helped my work, that I’ve enjoyed reading, or that I think other people in the strategy world might enjoy.
First of all, I love reading. I think that books are one of the most incredible things ever invented. With the magic of a few symbols recreated electronically or mechanically, someone can transport their innermost thoughts through space and time and have them appear within my own head. Absolute magic.
And so some of my first recommendations are for books. I’ve only recently started reading books about strategy, and about my career, and about my industry, but here are a few that I’ve really liked:
Strategy Books
Mark Pollard’s Strategy Is Your Words is “a 400-page journey into the words that help and hurt strategists.”
Bullet Proof Problem Solving isn’t specifically about communications strategy. What it does is provide readers with some tools they need to start to make recommendations that are based on real choices and sacrifice.
APG’s How Not To Plan is a book that I wish I’d read earlier in my career. Every chapter breaks down a concept in communications planning in simple terms, from research through to briefing and measurement and media planning, dispels myths or misconceptions, and provides a great little case study.
Everything I Know I Learned From Powerpoint is the book I regularly recommend to people as the single book that will make you better at your (office) job. It’s not so much about Powerpoint or slides as it is about being a better communicator, and nearly all strategy work is made better with stronger, more persuasive communication.
Richard Shotton’s Choice Factory is a great primer on how people make choices, and how we can start to use some of that in communications work.
What else?
Roger Martin’s “A Plan Is Not A Strategy” video is a really good primer on the distinction between the two and about how a good strategy will lead to a competitive advantage. His weekly email on strategy and choices is also excellent.
From The Account Planning Group:
A few years ago, my friend Penny and I put together a 10-part podcast about how to get into a strategy role at an agency. Each episode, we talked to someone different and heard about the journey they took to get to a planning or strategy role within an agency. It’s a bit specific in that regard, but I also think it provides more general advice about how to think about planning and strategy differently.
You can read the summary of what we learned from the guests on the show here
You can also check out the entire podcast series on Spotify here.
APG Canada also offers some great training courses. A few years ago I sent some of my team to take the Certificate In Effectiveness and noticed a big improvement in some of their work and they way they were able to think through client problems. You can check them all out on their site here.
Other Strategy Writing:
John Crowley has been writing some really well-considered blog posts about strategy, and they’re worth checking out. Specifically:
Towards A Unified Theory of Strategy is a really elegant summary of the different types of strategy and the mindsets and skills needed for different aspects of strategy.
Stop Doing Strategy Backwards is a reminder that frameworks aren’t strategy. They’re useful tools for explaining the strategy, but strategy is more than just filling out slides and boxes.
The Undercurrent’s Skills Maturity Matrix isn’t necessarily about strategy. However, many of the skills outlined there are immediately applicable to strategy roles. It’s a great way for someone junior to evaluate (with their manager) where they can improve or where they need support to grow.
Alex Morris’ Strat Scraps is one of my favourite newsletters out there. It’s casual and scrappy and esoteric and a real look inside the mind of someone truly doing strategy for a living.
Salmon Theory is also worth reading for Rob’s insightful look at the meaning of being a strategist “A newsletter about compassion, clarity, and creativity.”
The Chop Shop Theory Of Strategy & Planning is a beautiful scrapbook about what strategy is, how to to it, how to discover your own path…as well as a great collection of templates, images, quotes, and miscellany.
The JWT Planning Guide from 1974. A classic of the genre, and still incredibly relevant.
More on BlogCampaigning about Strategy:
I wrote a post about Narrative & Pitch decks that captured some of my thoughts about how to write and create a better presentation.
Related to that, I put together a list of resources for writing better presentations.
During my tenure at Major Tom I’ve been working on getting our entire team to think more strategically, and wrote a post about Building Strategy Into Agency Culture a few years ago.
Simply consuming all of the above won’t make someone more strategic or a better strategist (if it did, I would be significantly better at my job). I think, though, that they are a good starting point for thinking about how to get better.