Strategic planning

Strategic thinking, questions, dialogue, and stories

Strategy as the primary driver of management control processes

“Strategy as Inquiry” [1] -- an integral part of a holistic, knowledge and community-based “Sense and Respond System”

Attempts to predict the future and build everything around this prediction

“You can’t predict the future, but you can be ready for whatever it brings.” [2]
”The only kind of strategy that makes sense in the face of unpredictable change is a strategy to become adaptive.... Planned responses do not work.” [3]

Annual, linear process

Ongoing, iterative process

Planning is done by a select group of leaders and “experts” within a rigid, hierarchical organization

Living Strategy emerges from and supports the organization’s stakeholder community.  This community includes anyone who may have a stake in the outcomes of the organization, even if they don’t yet know they may have a stake (such as potential new customers or members).   

Strategic planning is highly political, controlled by a few key players attempting to maintain the status quo or jockey for more power, prestige, and resources.

“The law of requisite variety” – If a system is to be able to adapt to its external environment, it must incorporate as much or more variety than its environment. [4]  
The diversity, intelligence, and passion of the entire community is put to work as part of an ongoing Sense and Respond System that gives each diverse group an important, interdependent role to play in the success of the whole community.  The community creatively seizes or makes opportunities to co-create its own future, rather than waiting to let it happen to them.

Strategic planning is primarily a means to ensure the economic growth and well-being of the organization

The organization is viewed in a larger global context, where every organization has economic, social, and environmental responsibilities that extend beyond its traditional stakeholders to include sustainable, ethical business practices and stewardship of the earth and all its inhabitants.  The increasingly popular “triple bottom line” approach is fully complementary to Living Strategy, if it’s viewed in its broader context, beyond just being a different way to measure organizational performance.

Inputs as one-way “data dumps” of current facts and collected data

Collective knowledge and intelligence gathering capabilities of the entire community are available “just-in-time” to be used for critical reflection and interactive inquiry

Mechanistic, component thinking –
Only by understanding the parts can we make sense of the whole, like “cogs in the machine”

Organic, systems thinking – ”The elements of a living system can be understood only in relationship to the dynamics of the whole.” [5]

The environment is predictable enough to be able to use a linear, cause/effect process to accurately plan and control how we operate in it.

In the non-linear, dynamic system in which we exist, we can only anticipate what is most likely to happen through continuous feedback, inquiry, and learning, and thus be prepared to respond collaboratively, quickly and intelligently to whatever emerges from the system.

Produces static text documents consisting of hierarchical components prescribing a plan for the future, moving from a big picture, long range plan down to near term, tactical actions.

Evolves dynamic, multi-modal vignettes, images, and dialogue ‑ a living story of aspirations and possibilities that excites the passion and imagination of the people living it, and engages them in co-creating the emerging story and their shared future.

After a few face-to-face group interactions, a small number of individuals develop the strategic plan

Living Strategy continuously evolves out of ongoing, seamlessly interwoven:

§     individual reflection and work and

§     group face-to-face and virtual interactions and collaborations

Strategic planning (and all other organizational activities, for that matter) leaves little time for meaningful conversations, since they’re inefficient time wasters that don’t produce the needed outputs.  It moves as quickly as possible to solutions and actions.

Conversation as a core business process -
the organization is seen as a living network of connected conversations around questions that matter.  The organization is skilled at knowing when to “stay in the question”, thinking and dialoging about the most meaningful issues, and when it’s time to act quickly and decisively.

Strategic planning is mainly an academic exercise with little relevance to the daily work of the organization, as people must refer to a “cheat-sheet,” wall chart, or web page to even remember this year’s plan.

Everyone associated with the organization lives strategy as a natural part of their work and relationship with the organization.  Each person has a deep understanding of Living Strategy, in their own words but with the same shared meaning.  They keep “one foot in the present and one foot in the future.” 

Additional strategic initiatives and activities keep getting added to an already overloaded workforce and schedule, with little regard for priority or capacity, often due to political pressures.

Ongoing, organized abandonment of projects and activities is part of living strategy.  “The first policy – and the foundation for all others – is to abandon yesterday.” [6] Tangible and intangible value to the community, not politics, keeps the organization focused on what matters most to its stakeholder community. 

Assumes that strategy needs to be newly developed, deployed, and implemented each year.

Acknowledges that, in a sense, the organization is already living in the future.  The seeds are already there, expressed in existing behaviors and activities that exemplify what the organization wants to become.  You just need to find, harvest, spread, and cultivate these seeds. [7]