Everyone talks about strategy, but few people agree on what it actually is. Depending on the context, strategy might mean a plan, a vision, a competitive advantage, or a list of priorities. When leaders blur these meanings together, strategy becomes either too vague to execute or too rigid to adapt.
In my work with entrepreneurs and leadership teams, I’ve found that much of this confusion disappears when we make one simple distinction. There are two valid, but fundamentally different, meanings of strategy. One is narrative. The other is insight.
Understanding how these two modes work, and how they complement each other, allows leaders to act with clarity and build businesses that actually move forward.
In the first sense, strategy is a narrative design for how a situation will evolve over time. It is not just a list of tasks. It is a sequence of situations that must be produced in order to reach a desired outcome.
This view of strategy emphasizes interim situations. Ultimate outcomes like growth, impact, or freedom are never achieved directly. They are produced through a cascading series of intermediate steps, each requiring care, coordination, and action.
A strong narrative strategy answers a different question than most plans. It asks: what situation must exist next for this future to become possible, and what actions will reliably produce it?
Developing narrative strategy involves:
This creates alignment without coercion. People can act independently while still moving in the same direction. Strategy becomes choreography, not control.
The second meaning of strategy is strategic insight. This is the choice of how you intend to win.
Strategic insight is about pattern recognition. It explains why your approach should work, where your leverage comes from, and how you will create advantage relative to others. It is less about sequence and more about position.
Developing strategic insight typically involves:
If narrative strategy is the choreography, strategic insight is the concept behind the dance. One without the other is incomplete.
Strategic insight depends on the ability to read the world. This skill is rarely taught, yet it is foundational.
People generate different insights because they want different things, notice different aspects of reality, and interpret trends through different lenses. Strategy always reflects the observer behind it.
Several factors shape how insight is formed:
Your most important asset is not just skill or capital. It is your superpower as an observer. What you see before others do, and therefore what you can move on early.
A strategy that contradicts how you naturally see and act is rarely sustainable.
The strongest businesses integrate both modes of strategy.
They choose a clear way to win through strategic insight. And they design a narrative that shows how to bring that insight to life through coordinated action over time.
Insight without narrative is clever but inert. Narrative without insight is aligned but potentially irrelevant. Together, they create momentum.
For entrepreneurs, this integration is critical. Without hierarchy or institutional momentum, progress depends on clarity, conviction, and coordination. That requires both a sharp point of view and a believable path forward.
Business strategy becomes powerful when you understand its two distinct modes. Narrative strategy designs how a situation will evolve through coordinated action, while strategic insight clarifies how you intend to win. Entrepreneurs who integrate both gain strategic clarity, align their teams, and stop spinning in place. If you want to deepen your ability to design effective strategy and clarify ambition, explore the 13 Permanent Domains of Human Concern. They offer a practical framework for understanding what people care about and how meaningful futures are built. This lens strengthens both strategic insight and narrative design by grounding strategy in what actually motivates human beings.