I was talking to a member of our Learning Community. They had asked a question about an aspect of developing their marketing, and I answered with this caveat: “Okay, so this is what I know of strategy [followed by my explanation]… if you have strong guidance, go with your guidance, instead of the strategy I outlined. However, you may find that the guidance doesn’t completely contradict the strategy, but rather tweaks it.”
What did I mean?
For some heart-centered folks, strategy has come to mean cold and machine-like. That if you’re being strategic, you are disconnected from the relationships that you care about.
I tell new clients this when we start: “If I’m giving you advice, I will let you know whether I’m getting a spiritual hit or download, or if I’m coming from my strategic knowledge. Or if it’s a combination.”
I often find myself telling clients, “Okay, so the strategy I would ordinarily suggest is X. However, when I say that, it doesn’t feel completely appropriate in your situation. Let’s listen more deeply.”
Maybe it would be helpful if I defined what I mean by strategy.
Most people define strategy this way: a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a goal.
I want to expand that. This is what I mean by strategy:
“Strategy is an expression of accumulated wisdom and experience from interacting with this Divinely-sourced world.”
For instance, we have learned that tomato plants fruit really well with support, and they need less water later in the season. So, part of the strategy for growing tomatoes is to use cages, and to back off on watering once the tomatoes start to develop.
There is a tremendous amount of wisdom and experience in how people interact with each other, how and why people respond to certain things, like your business’ messaging, as well as how businesses develop in general.
So I think of strategy as this larger river that we are in, a current of movement that we’re held within, and is absolutely important to pay attention to.
What, then, is guidance?
Guidance is not just a whim of spiritual insight, although sometimes it can feel that way, and even function that way. If you’re in a river, the larger current is flowing downstream in a fairly predictable way, but there’s a rock or a log in your path, creating swirls and eddies that send you in other directions, even upstream for short periods.
Your heart guidance can function that way.
I define guidance this way: The heart insight that helps to mediate our relationship with the larger flow of strategy, based on where we are, and how the Divine wants to move us.
Why is this important?
There is toxic business advice, which tells us to do things in ways that actively harm others. Not ever good.
However, I’ve seen folks who, because they’ve encountered toxic business advice, become reactive to anything strategic, and automatically give priority to any thoughts, feelings or flashes of guidance that goes against strategy.
I’d prefer for you to be more resourced and resilient than that. I want you to lean into the larger accumulated wisdom and experience of the collective, to understand the overall flow of the river, when developing your business.
Examples
So, for instance, a member of the Learning Community wasn’t feeling great about the strategic idea of speaking to the problem or challenge that their client was facing. They would have rather used more inspirational language.
The reaction was to ditch all the advice about the concrete language, and speak to dreams and inspiration. Unfortunately, no one responded to that language.
Listening more deeply, embracing the strategic wisdom that people want to be witnessed for what they are going through, but also listening to their own guidance, our member realized that they just wanted to avoid speaking to extreme despair and collapse. That it actually felt okay in the heart to witness some of the challenges, but didn’t want to speak to people who had absolutely no hope and were completely collapsed. That wasn’t something they had the skill or desire to care for.
So, they could bring in some hopeful language, for sure, and still witness some of the challenges. And that was WAY more effective in getting people’s attention and having them respond.
Guidance and Strategy don’t have to be at odds with each other.
It doesn’t help to be in a constant upstream struggle with the river. But, it can help to be aware of both the river, and your own particular context. Listening deeply within the context of understanding strategy helps you navigate with a lot more precision.
This may be a big question, but I’m curious if you’re aware of the larger wisdom of strategy in an area of your business, and if you have examples of guidance you’ve received that tweaks your relationship with that strategy without making you try to swim upstream?
with love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
Where we integrate guidance and strategy.
This is the kind of work we do in our Learning Community. It’s profound, but it’s also very simple and accessible. It’s deeply nourishing, and deeply practical.
You won’t be left alone to struggle, and you won’t be pushed to do things your business doesn’t need.
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