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Strategy Work - a practical method for achieving decision integrity

STRATEGY WORK IS DIFFERENT FROM STRATEGIC PLANNING

A skilled facilitator is able to take people through a strategy process that they have not previously practiced and also, in the midst of doing that, inculcate many of the skills that are needed. This is because the best way of learning these cognitive skills is through active engagement. The skilled facilitator will not only run a scenario to strategy process but do it in a way that makes the methodology transparent and, as far as possible, devolved to the participants. We shall define this as strategy work.

This is distinguished from strategic planning and analysis in that it refers to the non-delegatable work that executive decision makers need to do if they are to be the active progenitors of strategy rather than the passive receivers of proposals from strategy experts. Strategy work is characterised by a combination of factors:

· It is carried out by the responsible executive team

· It is a design process not to be confused with operational management

· It functions at the level of developing fresh perceptions and mental models in contrast to business as usual thinking

· It is facilitated by the timely introduction of strategy frameworks based on good research but depicted in a form such that the decision maker’s experience can be mapped onto it and new insights gained

· It requires a progressive build up of new thinking over a time period of weeks rather than days, giving time for absorption and reflection (see Schwartz interview)

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