My business management training came an eon ago at Texas Instruments. TI called its management system "Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics" (OST). An example of an Objective is to improve profitability. An example of a supporting Strategy is to focus on high growth markets. An example of a Tactic is a specific product development initiative. TI aligns its corporate goals with day-to-day operations throughout the company with a process called Policy Deployment.
In Policy Deployment, the corporate OSTs are deployed to divisions, becoming objectives for the division. Divisions develop their own OSTs in support of the corporate OSTs deployed to them. Division OSTs are deployed to departments, etc., all the way down to individual assignments. In theory, each individual can take their daily assignments and follow the chain upwards to understand just how their own assignments help the company achieve its objectives. In theory, of course. In practice, many times that chain can become broken and people find themselves doing useless or even counter-productive things. But TI has been a profitable company for almost a century, so its management system must have served it well.
The City of Richardson's City Council spends a day at the beginning of each term developing its own version of what TI calls OST. This year it happened in a long Saturday worksession on July 26, 2025. In the agenda slide, the City Council called what they were working on MVGSOT ("Mission, Vision, Goals, Strategies, Objectives, Tactics"). That's six words. That's three too many. There's even a term of art for this: The Rule of Three. In art it brings rhythm, balance and impact. In business it brings clarity, focus, and accountability. Examples: "Veni, vidi, vici." "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." "Federal, state, local." "Objectives, Strategies and Tactics." In another place in the City Council's agenda, even another word was added: Values. It's now up to seven words. I would challenge the City Councilmembers to name all seven words without looking, in order. If the City Council wants to get anything done, it really should stick with three. It's not only all you need. It's really all most human brains can easily handle.
In future posts, I'm going to focus on the City Council's Goals, Strategies, and Tactics. I'm going to ignore its Mission and Vision and Values. Those tend to be too wispy, intangible, and unmeasurable to be actionable anyway. (See what I did there?)
End of Part 1.
"Rome wasn’t confused.
'Veni, vidi, vici.'
That’s how work gets done."
—h/t ChatGPT
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