Most teams are overloaded.
This is why any “change effort” or new set of Strategic Goals is often met with resistance. Many teams have annual projects on their “to do” list which don’t make much of a difference, but it is part of their job. When new, additional work shows up, it is no wonder that people push back
Strategic Leaders need to practice Strategic Subtraction. You need to “prune” some things away that deserve a proper burial.
Strategy guru, Michael Porter, once said “Strategy is about making choices.” This means choosing things you will do and things you will not do.
Here are some ways to identify candidates for Strategic Subtraction:
*Are you working on projects just because there was an upfront cost that you are still trying to justify? Call it a sunk cost and move on.
*Is this a project that was the “pet” of a former CEO who is gone? Was it a good idea in the first place?
*Start your expense budget from zero and justify every expenditure that you want to add to a new budget. Set equivalent impact criteria to judge every expense.
*Give every project you are working on a grade: A, B, C. Why are you working on anything that is not or cannot be an “A?”
*If you ask “Why are we doing this?” and the answer is “We have always done this,” then you have a good candidate for Strategic Subtraction.
It might be more fun to think of new things to do. But, it may actually be more impactful, to stop wasting time and energy on things you need to stop doing. And that is Strategic.
*Ideas for this blog taken from: The Power of Strategic Subtraction, Admired Leadership, October 31, 2026.
