This Business Strategy Tool Helps You Make Sense Of The Past And Take Charge Of Your Future

Sometimes, you do your best thinking when there's no alternative except to do your best thinking. The Strategy Circle—the business strategy tool behind everything I’ve created at Strategic Coach—came out of a situation where I had absolutely nothing prepared, and that's not a coincidence.

In July of 1982, I found myself in real trouble. I’d been asked to present writing and artwork for a project I was creating for the federal government in Ottawa. But on the day of the presentation, I had nothing ready to show the cabinet minister.

I walked down the hall to the meeting where the cabinet minister and four or five members of his team were waiting for me. And I told them that, instead of talking about the project, I wondered if I could share an idea I had.

Entrepreneurs can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the obstacles between them and their vision for the future. Hear Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the origin of The Strategy Circle and explain how the tool that started it all helps them think through difficult situations.

I addressed the fact that there was an enormous amount of complexity in what the cabinet minister did, and I asked him, “What are some of the things you want to have accomplished while you’re here? What would make you feel great about all of the work you’ve done?”

A strategic thinking framework.

I wrote down his answers and then asked, “If we were going to prioritize these, what would that look like?” It was the beginning of a business strategy tool I could see taking shape as we talked.

We arranged the list of accomplishments in order of priority. I explained that the next steps were to identify all the obstacles currently standing in the way of those goals, and then to work through each one until it was transformed into a strategy for achieving them.

The minister said this was a fascinating process I had taken him through, and asked what I called it. I drew a circle around the goals, obstacles, and strategies and decided then and there to call it The Strategy Circle. He said he wished I’d been there on his first day in office.

I realized as I left that meeting that my whole life, including all the projects and experiments I’d done in the marketplace, had just clicked. I now had a structure that could work for anything.

Harnessing the power of negative thinking.

The great thing about the structure was that it required no homework on my part. When I felt trapped, I now had a business strategy tool that would get me unstuck. I could simply set up The Strategy Circle, and I would never get trapped like I’d gotten trapped in that presentation situation.

It wasn’t just that I had solved the problem of that particular incident—it seemed that a door to the future had opened for me, and I now had a simple way of approaching the rest of my life. And I could see how it would be useful for motivating entrepreneurs who needed a simple structure that turns pressure into forward motion.

I suddenly realized that whenever I felt trapped, I could use my imagination to create an immediate, liberating framework for taking action.

A tool for strategic thinking that pushes you to play a bigger game.

Before that meeting with the cabinet minister, I was coaching, but only in one-off situations. I didn’t have a process or a structure.

In that hour, I felt that I’d done the best work I’d ever done, and it was going in the direction that I really wanted to go in my coaching life.

The cabinet minister had mentioned that day, after we’d made the list of priorities, that it was easy to get lost in complications and complexity. The Strategy Circle was a way to cut through all that, and I saw it could work for anyone, in any situation.

In any circumstance and at any time, with The Strategy Circle, you always have the capability to create a new, more successful, satisfying, and significant way of operating in the immediate future. That’s what a business strategy tool should do: help you make a clear choice and move.

You never have to be in the position of not knowing what to do.

A new way of thinking for entrepreneurs.

Simply by using your brain in a way you already have the capacity to do, you can now experience your entire life in a transformative way.

At its core, The Strategy Circle is a framework for entrepreneur goal setting, and the first step when using this business strategy tool is choosing a future result you want to accomplish and setting a deadline for it, making it a measurable goal.

The next step is to identify and write down all the obstacles currently preventing you from achieving that desired future result, then put them in order of priority.

Finally, you consider each obstacle and transform it into the action required to achieve your goal.

A proven entrepreneur problem-solving process.

You may have spent years searching outside of yourself for your best opportunities and solutions, but with this process, you’ll always have everything available to you that you need to grow.

It’s a totally self-contained growth process: you simply take advantage of what you already aspire to in the future and use it as the starting point. Then you identify everything that stands in the way of that vision of the future, and by allowing the opposition to be stated, you legitimize negativity.

A lot of people try to bypass negativity by not looking at the obstacles they face. But the obstacles to your goal are unique to your vision and extremely useful. They’re there for you to use as the raw material for creating solutions and growing as you move toward your goal.

A four-step process for entrepreneur problem solving.

I believe that everything that works in the world works by using the four-stage system of The Strategy Circle: vision, opposition, transformation, and action (or VOTA).

When you’re conscious of it working this way, it’s very powerful, because everything you think, talk about, and work through in your mind is completely real and specific in relation to the vision you want for yourself.

The creation of The Strategy Circle was really the birth of Strategic Coach, because every concept we’ve created, starting when I was a one-on-one coach through to today, comes from this one basic concept.

This is the birthplace of all the thinking we’ve done in Strategic Coach, and it can be the foundation for your own future breakthroughs.

FAQs about how to strategize as an entrepreneur.

Besides The Strategy Circle, are there any other business strategy tool options that help entrepreneurs?

What separates the extremely successful entrepreneurs from the rest is one key differentiator: they know how to get unstuck faster. Some of the tools for strategy that they use include the Strategic Coach Entrepreneurial Time System, The ABC Model, and The Impact Filter.

Learn more about popular tools for getting unstuck in business →

What is a strategic thinking framework, and why do entrepreneurs need one?

A strategic thinking framework is a structured way of thinking through any situation so you always know what to do next.

At Strategic Coach, the foundational framework is called VOTA, which stands for Vision, Opposition, Transformation, and Action. You start by envisioning a desired result, identify everything that stands in the way, and finally transform each obstacle into an action. All those things that seem to oppose our goals are actually the raw material for achieving them.

Entrepreneurs need this kind of framework because, unlike people in corporate or institutional settings, they don't have a guaranteed income. They only have the opportunities they create for themselves. A repeatable strategic thinking framework gives them the capability to create clarity in any situation, no matter how complex.

Download a free copy of Your Life As A Strategy Circle ebook →

How do you strategize as an entrepreneur when everything feels overwhelming?

The first thing to understand is that it’s easy to get lost in complications and complexity. But those feelings usually mean you haven't yet given your brain a structure for working through the situation.

The Strategy Circle was designed as a business strategy tool for exactly this kind of moment. You choose a single future result you want to accomplish, put a deadline on it to make it a measurable goal, and then write down every obstacle in the way. Once your obstacles are listed and prioritized, you transform each one into an action.

Discover how to cut through complexity and simplify your entrepreneurial life →

Can business strategy tools work for personal goals too?

The Strategy Circle was designed to work in any area of your life, not just business. It’s a totally self-contained growth process where you simply take advantage of what you already aspire to in the future and use that as the starting point.

It’s a simple four-step process that will help you work through any problem or strategize any goal in every aspect of your life, wherever you choose to use it. The reason it crosses over so naturally is that the underlying strategic thinking framework (vision, opposition, transformation, action) works the same way whether the goal is a revenue target, a health milestone, or a relationship you want to improve.

You already have the capacity to use your brain this way. This essential tool just gives you a structure for doing it consistently.

See how entrepreneurs use this tool to get crystal clear on all their goals →

What makes Strategic Coach’s tools for strategic planning different?

Most tools for strategic planning focus on external analysis: market forces, competitive positioning, and organizational charts. Strategic Coach’s tools are designed to work from the inside out, starting with how the entrepreneur thinks. They provide “an operating system for the mind of the entrepreneur.”

Find out why Strategic Coach’s tools for entrepreneurs are considered timeless →

Make your future bigger than your past.

The Strategy Circle is the foundation, backbone, and source code of the entire Strategic Coach Program. It gives entrepreneurs the framework to think through a difficult situation by envisioning a desired outcome and then becoming immediately aware of everything that stands in the way of their goal.

And that’s what makes it so powerful. All those things that seem to oppose our goals are actually the raw material for achieving them. When you fully engage with a goal in this way, you grow in overall intelligence, creativity, and capability. And that's the real transformation. You don't just achieve your goal. You actually become the goal.

This is why you can play the game of entrepreneurship as long as you're motivated to keep expanding your thinking.

Try using The Strategy Circle.

This simple four-step process will help you work through any problem or strategize any goal in every aspect of your life, wherever you choose to use it.

Download The Strategy Circle and see for yourself how it can make a difference →

A thinking program for entrepreneurs.

For over 35 years, Strategic Coach has helped successful entrepreneurs gain what they need to achieve their next level of growth in business and in life.

If you’re an ambitious entrepreneur who wants access to the thinking tools, proven frameworks, and entrepreneur community that will help you multiply your results while simplifying your life, our coaching program was built for you.

When you’re ready to take a step back from the daily business grind, try something different, and explore new boundaries in entrepreneurship, we’re here.