Many leaders make the mistake of putting all their focus on the solution, their big idea:   their WHAT. If you are not crystal clear about  the problem you are solving, your WHY, you risk your team and partners getting  confused, working based on different priorities, and unclear how to make decisions  when they run into bumps down the road. 

Don't stumble answering the one question people will ask you when you launch your new strategy.  Whether it is clients, funders, supporters, partners, or employees, people need to know what you bring uniquely to tackle this problem. If they are unclear about WHY YOU, they will take longer to make decisions, and you can spend a lot of energy without moving people forward. 

Driving impact in the world is a team sport. Don't  underestimate what it will take for people to be able to take action.  Without clarity about  who needs  to take what action,  and what they need to believe or understand  to be able to act,  your initiative will risk getting stalled. Build a plan to anticipate a diversity of people and diversity of thinking. Proactively align to be able to innovate as a team. 

In a fast-changing environment, you need to adapt and  pivot to accomplish your mission. Your solution will need to evolve. But as you do, you  risk making changes that can disrupt other aspects of your business model. Thinking through the implications upfront can avoid wasted cost, missed targets and frustration. 

You may have developed the perfect strategy.  But once you execute, you will likely run into bumps down the road, or shifts that represent windows of opportunity you don't want to miss. A systematic plan to regularly think through your assumptions and risks, and how you would handle them, can keep you and your  team alert, focused  and able to act quickly and adapt when the time comes, instead of feeling worried or blindsided. 

Identifying risk and assumptions is just the  first step. But stewarding  risk requires being intentional.  It requires an open culture of communication about risk and  how you are addressing it. It also requires leadership. Optimizing to lead and manage risk  enables you to sustain the impact you are striving to achieve.