Strategic Dissonance

One-line definition: Grove’s term for a company “saying one thing and doing another” while coping with a Strategic Inflection Point — the divergence between a company’s stated strategy and its actual actions. — Only the Paranoid Survive

How sources describe it

• “I have seen many companies fall into the same trap of saying one thing and doing another while they are in the midst of coping with a strategic inflection point. I call this divergence between actions and statements strategic dissonance. It is one of the surest indications that a company is struggling with a strategic inflection point.” (Only the Paranoid Survive)
• Grove says resolution doesn’t come as a sudden insight but through experimentation: loosening organizational control, letting people try different techniques, products, and channels — “let chaos reign.”

Where it shows up

• Only the Paranoid Survive — presented as one of the surest diagnostic signs that a company is mid-inflection-point.

Related concepts

• Strategic Inflection Point — the underlying change that produces strategic dissonance.
• Disagree and Commit — the discipline strategic dissonance represents a failure of.