I have been reading Playing to win: How strategy really works by A G Lafley and Roger L Martin recently as part of some business planning for FY14 that I have been doing at work. I have found the central methodology really resonating with me and, whilst the book is specifically focused on strategy in business, I think the central themes in the book are equally as applicable to life as they are in the business world.

For the initiated, A G Lafley is a former CEO of Proctor & Gamble whose strategic house was such that under his watch Proctor & Gamble doubled its sales and quadrupled its profits. Roger Martin was Lafley’s strategic adviser in the Proctor & Gamble days and is now the dean of Rotman School of Business in Toronto.

Lafley and Martin’s process of developing and implementing a successful strategy hinges on what they describe as the Five Choices. These choices are integrated and as the authors explain in the book:

These choices and the relationship between them can be understood as a reinforcing cascade, with the choices at the top of the cascade setting the context for the choices below, and the choices at the bottom influencing and refining the choices above.

The five choices are:

1. What is our winning aspiration? This choice, in effect, refers to the purpose of the enterprise for which the strategy is being created.

2. Where will we play? This choice identifies specifically where the product or company will compete.

3. How will we win? This question must be answered with a clear value proposition and a path to competitive advantage.

4. What capabilities must be in place? The question here is to define the activities and competencies that support the where-to-play and how-to-win choices.

5. What management systems are required? The question here is which systems, structures and measures need to be put in place to support the choices made in the previous four questions.

As I noted above I consider this to be an excellent tool for consider strategic imperatives in business. However, I also think that these questions, with some obvious amendments to the nomenclature, create a structure worth following when one considers strategies in life.

When you think about it, with everything that we do in life having a strategy or a plan of action makes the completion of a life task all the more easy. The five choices can be used to give a framework for the reaching of life goals just as much they can for the determining of business strategy.

I challenge you to try the five choices process the next time you are setting yourself a personal goal and let me know if it works. I seems to be working for me.