For years now I've heard people use the adjectives strategic and tactical. In most cases I believe that people who use these terms are unclear about what they mean. I'm certainly unclear too. Often they are used interchangeably. First, let's look at what the Random House Dictionary says:
stra-te-gic
1. pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of strategy: strategic movements.
2. important in or essential to strategy.
3. (of an action, as a military operation or a move in a game) forming an integral part of a stratagem: a strategic move in a game of chess.
4. Military.
a. intended to render the enemy incapable of making war, as by the destruction of materials, factories, etc.: a strategic bombing mission.
b. essential to the conduct of a war: Copper is a strategic material.
tac-ti-cal
1. of or pertaining to tactics, esp. military or naval tactics.
2. characterized by skillful tactics or adroit maneuvering or procedure: tactical movements.
3. of or pertaining to a maneuver or plan of action designed as an expedient toward gaining a desired end or temporary advantage.
4. expedient; calculated.
5. prudent; politic.
So they are different? Right?
Not so fast! Just for fun, I checked the definitions of the corresponding nouns:
strat-e-gy
1. a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result: a strategy for getting ahead in the world.
tac-tic
1. a plan, procedure, or expedient for promoting a desired end or result.
The nouns are so close in meaning that I can easily see my source of confusion. One has to do with obtaining a specific result and the other has to do with promoting a desired result.
So what?
For me tactics are short term and strategies are long term. I think of a line with tactics at the start and strategies at the other end. Everything we do is somewhere on that line but very little of what we do is at one end or the other. To put that another way, everything we do is somewhat tactical and somewhat strategic.
Do you have any thoughts on the matter? Care to share? Could be an interesting discussion...
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