A headline caught my eye the other day. I don’t remember where or what it said. All I remember is that it contained the phrase “actionable strategy.” And it has bothered me ever since.

So what could “actionable strategy” possibly mean? Perhaps more importantly, what does it mean to have a strategy that is not actionable?

First of all, a strategy is not a plan. A plan is comprised of actions, assignments, and dates. Plans are actionable. A strategy is not. Not until it is translated into plans.

This is not a trivial point, however, because too often people confuse strategizing with planning. The term “strategic planning” is a big part of that confusion. The consequence of this confusion is that executives get lost in planning before they’ve developed a strategy. That’s like trying to pack for a trip before you’ve decided where you are going. The strategy has to come first. Planning without a strategy to guide your decisions results in exhaustive wishlists competing for limited resources. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed this situation. I sincerely hope the term “actionable strategy” doesn’t catch on and make matters worse! Goodbye, strategy. Hello, random action.

But let’s set that confusion between strategy and plans aside and consider what it means to have a strategy that isn’t actionable. Here are the five scenarios that I see most often, all of which are disastrous:

100% Blue Sky

Excessive blue sky thinking produces nothing but black holes. Black holes that suck up resources with no clear end in sight. A strategy must be tethered to reality.

• How are market needs, customer expectations, technology, demographics, and the economy shifting, and what does that mean for your workforce, products, services, sales channels, and production and delivery methods?
• What do your existing customers want or need that they aren’t getting today?
• How can you leverage your current products, capabilities, and/or channels to reach new markets?

We Are The Champions

Of the world! Cue the music. “We are sought out as the world-class leader in our industry.” We are the greatest, or at least, intend to be the greatest. Never mind that we have no new ideas. Never mind that our vision is blah and sounds just like every other company on the street. And never mind that we don’t know how to change. That we keep doing the same things year after year, despite wishing for more, talking big, and telling everyone to work smarter, not harder. But we are the champions. We believe it because we repeat it often.

A Meaningless Exercise

The executives can recite the mission, vision, values, strategy, and top initiatives in unison! From memory! Everyone else has plastic cards for quick reference. The content is recreated on a regular schedule whether needed or not. Of course, no one knows if it is needed, because no one knows what they are trying to accomplish. This is strategic planning as a meaningless exercise that rolls around with the calendar. New cards are issued at a pep fest. Pomp and Circumstance. All sizzle. And then everyone gets back to work. There is no steak. Nothing changes.

Zero Commitment

The strategy is a booklet. Nothing more. The organization paid big bucks to an out-of-town consulting firm to produce the colorful, glossy booklet. It glorifies the process used to produce the strategy in order to justify the price tag and convince the executives that buy-in exists because everyone and his brother, sister, mother, father, and in-laws participated. Not that anyone knows what is in the booklet. The consultants produced it. Buried in all their marketing materials are some conclusions and recommendations. Not the organization’s conclusions. Not recommendations anyone inside the organization believes. Just consultant opinions. In a pretty dust catcher.

Flavor of the Month

This is a strategy the leadership team supports. They love it. Or at least they say they do. They are the only ones. Everyone else recognizes the best-selling book flavoring this month’s strategy. Good to Great. Big hairy audacious goals. Lean. Blue Ocean Strategy. This is the answer!

“Let’s do it! You are empowered!”

“To do what?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? You might need to work weekends for awhile to get things going, but it won’t take long.”

The employees aren’t that stupid. They sit tight. This too shall pass. Long before any significant changes can occur, the next flavor of the month will pop up and the course will shift once again.

Don’t Fall For “Actionable Strategy”

There are plenty of reasons organizations fail in creating and implementing strategies. Making your strategy more actionable isn’t the solution. You need to:

1. Be realistic. No matter how ambitious you are, you need to provide value for which customers are willing to pay and which you can deliver profitably.
2. Get beyond the banal platitudes. Wishful thinking doesn’t cut it. A strategy is a framework of decisions that determine how you are going to play the game of business. A good strategy guides every decision in the company.
3. Don’t treat strategy as a cyclical event to be checked off your list. If you don’t know what you are doing, get outside help.
4. Don’t outsource your strategy. The outcome you need is not a printed deliverable containing someone else’s opinion. The outcome you need is a firm commitment to the key decisions that will drive all your planning.
5. Seek real commitment. Yes, you need commitment. A clear, compelling strategy invites commitment, but that isn’t enough. Top management must exemplify the new priorities with their talk, time, investment, and support.

A clear, compelling strategy increases productivity, profits, performance, and engagement. Try it! You’ll like it!

Ann Latham is an expert on the transformative power of strategic clarity and author of The Clarity Papers. Download a free copy of The Clarity Quiz Collection from her website.

This article first appeared on Forbes, May 13th, 2018