Overcast, and How Strategy Happens: A Framework
January 21, 2023
I’m a day late in sending my newsletter here. The reason is that I wanted to publish my latest blog post beforehand. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but is worth a read/listen.
Top News
There's a new way to listen to Danny Rehr's Blog on iOS. Overcast is an Apple App Store Editors' Choice Award-winning podcast player with a whopping 4.7 out of 5 stars rating as of today (34k votes). What I love about the app beyond its ease of use, layout and simplicity is that one man, Marco Arment, “run Overcast with no other employees, no VC funding, and [provides him with] a sustainable work-life balance (hopefully) so [he] can spend enough time with [his] family.”1 Pretty cool. I’ll support Mr. Arment and his product. Maybe you will too!
Latest Post, a 3-for-1
I published only once this week, but I wrote three posts. Fight Mediocrity and What’s Fundamental? were incorporated into my release earlier today, How Strategy Happens: A Framework. The onus of the blog post asks and answers
Why is the link between strategy and frameworks important to the individual employee? Answer: the workplace experience.
My hope is that the reader gets an education on strategy, and the difference between strategy and organizational frameworks. In fact strategy is itself a framework. There is yet another layer atop strategy that is a framework in which all employees operate. Integrated with the business’s strategy, this ‘secondary’ framework has tremendous impact upon the workplace experience.
Supporting the Ambitions of Others
January is my birthday month. I’ve asked my family for a Parker Safety Razor. So why not combine my wishlist with supporting the ambitions of others? This entire month I will feature Parker Safety Razor (their facebook page).
Money Doesn’t Equal Happiness
This topic has trended this past week. I’ve had numerous discussions revolving around the idea of chasing dollars versus their deteriorated value in terms of work experience. In whispers, this same matter made its way into my latest blog post. How does money play a role in your work experience?
What I Learned This Week
Explaining Stuff
I kept in mind this idea of being a better explainer throughout the week. Doing so makes me work harder to produce a better blog post. I think I succeeded in many ways with How Strategy Happens: A Framework, an admittedly difficult piece to craft. Next week will be the same.
My Own Confidence
I have the same self-confidence issues that you read about in the news. Yep, I’m human, too. Reminders this week weren’t of how I should question my confidence, but rather that I should believe in a lot of what I do. And, I do a lot - support others in many ways that don’t make it into this newsletter, and share my knowledge of business and strategy, to say the least. I hope this little section makes a difference for others. You provide value, too!
Other News & Updates
Runs In the Family
My brother told me that he’s been named the new Mentor Program Lead for the New Jersey Chapter of the Project Management Institute! He’s excited about the post. Already, he has some great ideas. Is there any question that supporting the ambitions of others to meet promise and potential runs in the family?!
Quotes From My Latest Post
This idea powered the entire post:
When in the workplace, the business’s strategy should drive all activity and decisions. It may not be top of mind to the individual; to that end allegiance to the business strategy may be practically idealistic. ‘Thing is, strategy happens whether by design or otherwise.
Differentiating strategy and organizational framework brought the ideas down from the abstract to a workplace level:
A business’s framework is the organization’s structural alignment to enact its strategy, and express its potential value.
The grand example I used to describe frameworks was the U.S. Constitution:
The United States Constitution is the foundational framework to enact the country’s strategy, or make equality, human rights and freedom go, if you will. Incidentally, we refer to those who wrote the United States Constitution as the country’s Framers.
Arment, Marco. “Overcast.” Overcast.fm | Contact, Overcast Radio, LLC, https://overcast.fm/contact. Accessed 14 Jan. 2023.