A target is not a strategy

The most dangerous sentence in budget season: "We need 30% more — and we're cutting your budget."

A big number goes up on the wall. The resources to reach it go down. Everyone is expected to find the gap somewhere, usually through longer hours and quiet heroics. It might even work for a quarter. But the experiments stop, because nobody has time to try anything, and you buy this year's number with next year's future.

A target is a destination. Strategy is the route — and the route only exists once someone has done the hard thinking about what's possible, what has to change, and what you'll stop doing to make room. Without that, a goal is a wish. Put a few in a deck and you've got a hope list.

The tell is one question: what are we going to stop doing to get there? A clear answer, and you might have a strategy. A pause, and you've got a number plucked from the air.