Ever feel like your brain is juggling too many strategic balls—market trends, performance metrics, stakeholder expectations—all at once? Managing a business strategy involves processing vast amounts of information. Relying solely on memory or scattered documents can lead to oversights and inefficiencies. Enter the concept of a 'second brain'—a trusted system to capture, organise, and make sense of complex strategic data. Discover how StratNavApp serves as the ultimate second brain for all your strategic planning needs.
Why you need a second brain for strategy
Strategy can be complex. It relies on vast amounts of information about
- markets,
- competitors,
- stakeholders,
- operating models and operational performance,
- goals,
- targets,
- initiatives,
- action plans,
- status updates and
- approval processes.
And it relies on understanding the relationships between all of this information on a real-time basis.
In a small organisation, a skilled strategist might keep all of this in his or her head.
In most other situations, this is not possible.
If you try, things will quickly fall between the cracks. Strategies will become corrupted and inconsistent. Confusion and chaos will lead to underperformance.
That's why we write down our strategies and the information, analysis and logic they're based on.
What is a second brain?
Tiago Forte popularised the idea of a second brain as:
"a way of ensuring that the ludicrous amount of information we have to deal with day-to-day stops bouncing around our heads and is recorded somewhere where we can make sense of it in the long term”.
A second brain frees your first brain to focus on the higher-order problem-solving and decision-making required in business strategy without losing the benefits of evidence and analysis. (You can find out more at buildingasecondbrain.com.)
The second brain concept even appears in Harry Potter! Dumbledore explains how the Pensieve works: "One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form."
StratNavApp.com is the ideal second brain for strategy
StratNavApp.com is your second brain for business strategy development and execution.
Tiago Forte says that a second brain needs to be:
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Capable of storing all the information you need. Our rich text editors allow you to include free-format text, including graphics, tables, lists, hyperlinks and highlighting. Our file vault allows you to link to external documents. And our web clipper allows you to easily clip and reference content you find on the web.
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Scalable, so you can capture and preserve a virtually unlimited amount of information. Our cloud-based SaaS solution grows with your needs without you needing to buy more servers.
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Capable of storing and organising data in various formats, from images to videos to chunks of code.
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Portable, to permit quick capture and editing of information.
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Searchable, so you can easily pull up the knowledge you need when you need it.
StratNavApp.com meets all of those criteria.
I would add that a second brain for business strategy should also be:
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shareable: with other people.
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contextual: the GTD system highlights the importance of context, so the information attaches to the places where you need it.
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active: actively reminds you when information needs attention
Again, StratNavApp.com meets those criteria.
Strategy requires more than storing and retrieving data. It requires us to tease out the patterns and relationships - especially hypotheses of cause and effect from the data. It is that which we need a second brain to help us store and recall, rather than the underlying data itself. This approach aligns with the concept of 'progressive summarisation,' where information is layered and distilled over time, enhancing clarity and recall.
Our brains are amazing at absorbing information and drawing conclusions. These come out in the form of 'intuition'. But intuition is fallible and prone to cognitive biases. We need to distil and externalise the implicit reasoning behind our intuition in order to be able to test, validate, share and improve it. A second brain needs to assist us in that process.
StratNavApp incorporates various strategic planning tools that facilitate the development and execution of effective strategies.
So, the question is, are you still using word processing or presentation software like Microsoft's Word and PowerPoint for your business strategy, or have you moved on?
A quick example
I was recently sitting in on a client strategy call. The Head of IT was presenting a solution to a problem they'd encountered in executing their strategy. It was clever and efficient.
"But wait", I interjected. "Before we decide, let's remind ourselves of why you're doing this in the first place." We quickly went to that organisation's Goals page on StratNavApp.com and reviewed their overall strategic goals. From there, we could easily trace back to the strategic insights on which those goals were founded.
And from there it quickly became evident that although the proposal was an efficient solution to the immediate problem, it took the organisation further away from rather than closer towards its strategic goals.
This is a great reminder of how important it is to keep all the information about a strategy in mind when making any decision. And why have a second brain, like StratNavApp.com, makes it easier to do so.
StratNavApp doesn’t just store your strategy. It actively helps you shape it—with AI-powered insights, structure, and sense-making.
Let StratNavApp.com be your second brain for business strategy development and execution.
Ready to transform your strategic planning? Try StratNavApp for free and experience the power of a second brain tailored for business strategy.
See also:
- How does StratNavApp aid strategic planning and execution?
- Mastering Strategic Thinking: The Key to Long-Term Business Success
- Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide
