Map out your strategy using strategy maps! This tool is a visual illustration of an organization's strategy that emphasizes the causal relationships of various strategic components. I really like this tool because it forces leaders to really think about how they will create value for their customers in a way that challenges their assumptions. Whether you're a company or a business unit within a company, a strategy map can help you formulate your strategy if you don't have one, or validate your strategy if you do. By laying out the various components from capital to core business processes, a strategy map can help you visualize and test your hypothesis in manner that can be as holistic or granular as you want it to be. A strategy map can be used in developing business proposals, incorporated into annual operating plans, designing performance improvement projects, and many other documents used for planning and communicating strategy.