Hope is Not a Strategy

Hope is not a strategy is the title of a popular sales-related book by Rick Page, originally published in 2001. Today’s article is not about that.

The phrase itself - “Hope is not a strategy” - is a nice pithy saying that I’ve heard bandied about for some time. It’s one of those business truisms that seems pretty obvious - you need to have an actual plan to achieve your goals, not just hope that you achieve them.

Fair enough. Short article.

Nah, I’m not letting you off that easily.

Hoping and trying

This topic occurred to me as I was listening to a podcast interviewing Dr Ellen Langer, a noted researcher and author, whose work is primarily around the topic of mindfulness. In this discussion she was talking about the power of language in the context of achieving goals.

She said that using the word hope - as in “I hope I can…” achieve a goal, lose some weight, etc., although it sounds positive, actually includes the expectation for failure. Our expectations are often fulfilled, so instead we should expect success, and most of the time we will create that reality for ourselves.

The same applies to using the word try. We’re all familiar with this particular quote:

“Do or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda

And try creates the same expectation of failure. As I’ve talked about previously, words are powerful, and they have more of an impact on us that we realize. This is why self-talk can be really helpful…or awful if you’re in a negative frame of mind.

So what we want to do is use hope as an idea, not as a verb.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel

When hope can be (part of) a strategy

Hope in itself isn’t a strategy - if you want to get something done you’re going to have to plan it and come up with some steps that’ll get you there. Hoping isn’t enough on it’s own.

But hope isn’t entirely useless - it can be a useful tool. If your team, organization, or business is struggling or going through tough times at the moment, it can be helpful to create some hope in the people, to give them a light at the end of the tunnel. This element of giving them something to look forward to can increase morale while you’re struggling.

“When you’re going through hell, keep going.” - Winston Churchill

So while hope as a verb and as an entire strategy might not be good for you, engendering hope in your people can be helpful. It can be part of your vision for a better future.

What should you do?

Design a clear and inspiring vision - if your team or business is in a tough place, think about including a hopeful element for your team to rally behind. I’ve written about this before.

Build a strategy to reach that vision. This is where you shouldn’t try or hope. Here you need to have a series of goals or objectives that will help you get there. From here you can build plans and actions to reach those goals.

Make sure you have indicators that show whether you’re on track or not - ideally lead indicators. These are metrics that are likely to show the future state, as opposed to lag indicators which will show the current or past state.

So stop trying and hoping. Start doing.

When you're ready, I offer 1:1 coaching for leaders who are looking to take their life and career to the next level. Send me an email and we'll set up a time to have a chat.

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