Innovations in Strategy Crafting

By Robert Brodnick, Ph.D.

Innovations in Strategy Crafting is a provocative work for strategists and executives as well as innovators, planners, implementers, and students of strategy and innovation across any industry. Robert Brodnick, Ph.D., a recognized thought leader in the field, draws on his strengths in strategy, innovation, facilitation, design thinking, and organizational development and change to help today’s organizations thrive in a time of uncertainty and complexity. Each chapter contains applicable tools and detailed graphics that the author has used in his work with organizations across industries, at the university level, as the co-founder of Sierra Learning Solutions, and with his collaborators. The author—with help from collaborators—explores the fundamental patterns that compose the world in which we live, how we can apply both the arts and mathematics to strategy, how turbulence can be used constructively when crafting strategy, and what he believes may be the next innovations in strategy crafting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Dec 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483492124

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Ph.D.

Copyright © 2018 Robert Brodnick, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9214-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9213-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9212-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018912032

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 10/25/2018

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PREFACE

Whether we are crafting strategy, crafting a poem, or crafting a roll-top desk in our garage workshop, we are fashioning by hand something that was once mere idea and giving it form, purposeful form, so it can carry power and take its place in the world. Our crafting of the work is a curious blend of virtues and skills: two parts sheer dedication and persistence, two parts dexterity and skilled artistry, and one part pure imagination. This is a book about crafting strategy using tools from the world of innovation and design thinking in combination with traditional planning tools.

In 1987, Henry Mintzberg published an article in the Harvard Business Review entitled Crafting Strategy. This was more than a decade and a half ahead of the design thinking movement of the early 2000s that would firmly place the word crafting in a different context. Mintzberg advocates for viewing strategy as intertwined thought and action, which is very similar to the design process. The concept of emergent strategy is a process of learning. Strategy crafting is an exploration of organizational capacities, potential futures, and the design and retooling of action in pursuit of a vision. Effective strategies show up in the strangest places and develop through the most unexpected means. There is no one best way to make strategy. (Mintzberg, 1987, p. 69). Thus strategy crafting best lends itself to design thinking methods blended with the tools of innovation.

Mintzberg anticipates a larger role for innovation and design thinking in the strategy creation process and even begins to explore, albeit not fully, the roles of creativity, convergence, and divergence. He also mentions experience, involvement with the material, the personal touch, mastery of detail, a sense of harmony, and integration as aspects of strategy crafting. Where traditional strategy planning is actually a method to program a strategy already created, strategy crafting is a method for innovation, a process of synthesis that is organic and generative, a blending of the art and science of creating. It requires that emergent patterns be detected and collective effort be organized to bring them to full life, to manifest the future. Life is lived forward but understood backward. Crafting strategy requires a natural synthesis of the future, present, and past.

Between 2000 and 2009, I entered a deep study of three seemingly independent disciplines: strategy creation, design thinking, and innovation. What emerged for me after my decade of theory and practice was an insight that connected back to the 1987 ideas that Mintzberg began to form. I found traditional strategic planning tools and methods lacking. And when in 2007 as Tom Friedman noted, the great acceleration began, the world gave evidence for my belief that we were indeed entering a new age where the old tools would surely fail. I set to work, blending together toolsets with a new mindset. What resulted were the 14 chapters of this book.

The first three chapters set the stage for the innovations in strategy crafting. Chapter 1, Common Paths to Strategy Creation, explores the attributes and limitations of the four major steps to strategic planning that exist across the many approaches and variants of strategy creation. Chapter 2, Core Components of the Strategic Plan, expands on the foundational elements of the process, discusses strategic context, outlines the possible components of strategy, reviews some of the important decisions that need to be made along the way, and concludes with a discussion of the difficult transition from planning to implementing strategy. Chapter 3, Strategy’s Horizons and Boundaries, includes contributions from my collaborator Steve Rothstein. The chapter explores the implications of strategy’s horizons and boundaries on strategy crafting. I unpack an organizational perspective on strategy and delve deeper into strategy’s scope and process. To better understand the broader extent of these horizons and boundaries, and more importantly, how and why the realm of strategy differs from that of planning or operations, I first examine the concept of strategy through two interrelated lenses: strategy’s perspective and strategy’s scope. Thereafter, I look at what these broader views prescribe in terms of organizational processes across the realms of operations, planning, and strategy.

The strategy creation process has had substantial impact on organizations, governments, militaries, and other collective efforts and multiple approaches have evolved over the past 60 years that generally meet organizations’ needs. The four universal steps to strategic planning have been augmented in several ways, but I concluded that the discipline of strategic planning is incomplete. The coming decades will present organizations with more challenges than they have witnessed in the last century as our world accelerates. It is quite likely that even the newer approaches to strategy creation that have managed to work for the last two decades will fail us in the near future. It is time to create new methods that add value in new ways. In the rest of the book, I argue for further innovations in strategy crafting.

The central seven chapters depict the driving innovation of the book, what I call the design approach. Chapter 4, The Designer’s Approach to Strategy Crafting, focuses on design thinking applications to strategy crafting using methods I’ve extracted from my work in innovation and design. This is a major focus of the book and it demonstrates a collection of innovations in strategy crafting. In these chapters, I discuss how a designer would approach strategy crafting then follow with deeper dives on divergence, convergence, and prototyping in the chapters that follow. This first chapter is about design thinking and the traits of designers. I lean on experts and colleagues to help me answer these questions. Chapter 5, Futuring, is written with my consulting partner Don Norris and discusses futuring, a simple-to-use framework to plan from the future backward in a variety of settings and applications. Chapter 6, Ideation and Divergence Techniques, includes multiple tools adapted from design thinking tailored to produce strong, viable strategies with inherent buy-in from stakeholders. Chapter 7, Convergence and Selection Techniques, covers a robust set of techniques to make choices, especially when the stakes are high. I explain and define convergence generally, give a broadly applicable model for making choices following ideation, and outline a handful (or more) of different techniques. Chapter 8, Prototyping, reveals a special kind of convergence process that serves to make ideas real, test them in simulation or real-world situations, and prepare them for implementation. I give definition to the prototyping process and go on to explore considerations for practice, describe the anatomy of a prototype, and explore a variety of approaches for prototyping. Chapter 9, Expedition Mapping, introduces expedition mapping, a strategic planning and execution methodology that helps ensure success at reaching difficult organizational destinations. Expedition mapping is a new method for strategic implementation that blends together storytelling, action planning, resource analysis, and adaptive, ongoing environmental scanning – and it is delivered in a mix of face-to-face and online collaborative activities. The final chapter of the central theme, Chapter 10, explores User Experience Journey Mapping with my partner Julie Webb. User Experience (UX) journey mapping is a research and design approach that organizations can use to gain insight into the needs and wants of their target audience or customer. The user experience is just that, an in depth look into how an organization’s end users experience its delivery of products or services over a period of time.

The last 4 chapters offer a collection of perspectives that help inform the innovation and strategy crafting processes and enhance the design approach. Chapter 11, Curves that Matter, tackles a number of fundamental patterns that compose the world in which we live in the form of the curves they produce and explores how they all matter to Innovations in Strategy Crafting. I explore different curves and give insight to a few applications of each for those crafting strategies and working with organizational change. Chapter 12, The Role of the Arts in Strategy Crafting, is co-written with my longtime collaborator John Cimino. Whether we are crafting strategy, a poem or a roll-top desk in our garage workshop, we are fashioning by hand something that was once mere idea and giving it form, purposeful form, so it can carry power and take its place in the world. Our crafting of the work is a curious blend of virtues and skills: two parts sheer dedication and persistence, two parts dexterity and skilled artistry, and one part pure imagination. In this chapter I explore the role of the arts in strategy crafting, considering how the arts can serve as a fundamental catalyst for new thinking, eventually leading to strategy. Yet more insight is to be gained in Chapter 13 where I collaborate with colleague and mentor Stan Gryskiewicz on the topic of Positive Turbulence. Stan literally wrote the book on Positive Turbulence and we apply the concepts he established to the practice of strategy crafting. We review the concept of Positive Turbulence and discuss the assumptions and context important to understanding the concept as applied to organizations. We then move on to explore how you can create Positive Turbulence and use it to help drive strategy and organizational change with specific applications of Positive Turbulence to strategy crafting. The final Chapter 14, Looking Forward, discusses what I believe to be future innovations in strategy crafting.

And a big thank you to my collaborators who provided inspiration and helped shape five important chapters. Here are short bios for each:

Steve Rothstein (Chapter 3: Strategy Horizons and Boundaries)

Steve is an expert in moving organizations strategically, finding and leveraging opportunities, monitoring and managing risk, and impacting long-term results. He focused on entrepreneurial leadership, strategic planning and execution, cross-cultural effectiveness, collaborative relationship building, new venture creation and management, change agent. Steve conceived, launched, and led an entrepreneurial non-profit corporate enterprise to develop a $50M, state-of-the-art science and technology museum for Downtown Colorado Springs.

Don Norris (Chapter 5: Futuring)

An internationally recognized thought leader and management consultant, Don specializes in positioning enterprises for success in the global knowledge economy. He provides developmental consulting services that create vision and active strategy; build leadership, organizational capacity and technology and analytics infrastructure; and lead and navigate change. Don is an expert in strategic planning and strategy execution as well as a prolific author and speaker.

Julie Webb (Chapter 10: User Experience Journey Mapping)

Julie is a consultant, educator, and national presenter with two decades of experience working with diverse audiences. She is a skilled facilitator and coach who regularly designs and delivers professional growth initiatives for school districts, institutions of higher education, non-profits along with organizations in other sectors. Her work includes helping organizations help themselves by generating innovative solutions using design thinking practices, collaborative facilitation techniques, and systems thinking approaches. Her facilitation and strategy expertise helps clients realize their priorities and articulate their objectives to take strategic actions. Julie designs and executes professional learning experiences that focus on content area expertise, teaching demonstrations, professional development, and transformational change. She is also a renowned expert in literacy and language instructional practices and strategies.

John Cimino (Chapter 12: The Role of the Arts in Strategy Crafting)

John is president and CEO of Creative Leaps International and founder and president of the Renaissance Center for Knowledge Integration, Interdisciplinary Thinking and Advanced Applications of Imagination. He has brought his Concerts of Ideas and other educational inventions into projects of the White House, the United Nations, the Aspen Institute, the Center for Creative Leadership, and the Council for Excellence in Government; to the leadership training programs of such companies as GE, IBM, Pfizer, McDonnell Douglas, and the SC Johnson Company; and to numerous universities and professional associations on five continents. Educated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (biology & physics), the State University of New York at Albany (learning theory), and the Manhattan and Juilliard Schools of Music (music & vocal studies), John holds a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective and works across multiple disciplines dedicated to learning and human development. He is also an accomplished composer and award-winning operatic and concert performer.

Stan Gryskiewicz (Chapter 13: Positive Turbulence)

Stan is a consultant and an international authority in leadership, creativity, innovation, and change management. An author, a keynote speaker, and a researcher, he has explored these topics domestically and globally. He had been at the Center for Creative Leadership for 35 years since its inception in 1970. In his last position as Vice President of Global Initiatives, he advised CCL on trends and best practices in the field of global leadership development and innovation. In 1993, he was named Senior Fellow, Creativity and Innovation, a special position of honor granted by the Center for Creative Leadership for distinguished service and international recognition in a designated field. He is currently Board Chair of the organization he founded in 1981 entitled the Association for Managers of Innovation (AMI), which is a network of professionals who manage the innovation process. His Ph.D. is in Organizational Psychology from the University of London.

CHAPTER 1

Common Paths to Strategy Creation

Even though strategy can exert substantial impact on organizations, governments, militaries, and other collective efforts – strategy creation is not rocket science. In fact, few truly novel ways to generate strategy have been invented in the last 200 years. This chapter explains four universal steps to strategic planning that exist across the many approaches and variants of strategy creation. Then the spotlight moves on to depict, compare, and contrast five distinct variants of strategy generation popular over the last four decades. Finally, the exploration probes the insights and limitations of each of the approaches and goes on to establish the argument for innovation in strategy crafting, upon which the remainder of this book will focus.

A Typical Path and Steps

Traditional strategic planning rose to prominence in modern organizations in the 1960s and continues as a core aspect of leading and guiding organizations today. Overall, the process results in direction setting, choices for action and decisions, and implications for resource allocation and management. Strategic planning is often a facilitated process, led by specialized strategic planners, organizational leaders, and a variety of analysts and participants.

There are four universal steps that many have used to generate strategy with traditional strategic planning techniques. Initially the need arises and is recognized to engage in the generation effort. This is followed by an assembly of facts about the environments both internal and external to the organization. Then the actions are organized into a short list of things to do and priorities are selected. The chosen strategies and goals are often organized into a hierarchy. Finally, an attempt is made to add enough details to guide action and monitor progress. Sounds simple, but there is more to it.

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Figure 1.1 - The four stages in the traditional strategic planning process.

Recognize the Need. Organizations come to the strategic planning process in many ways. For those with a history of planning, a common signal is the approaching expiration of the current strategic plan. Often a year or so ahead of this date, a planning period is launched. The process can also be triggered by other events such as a new executive taking the helm, significant changes in the organization’s environment, changes in organizational purpose or mission, or demands of an outside entity or agency such as a regulator, accreditor, or new owner or major partner. Whatever the initial driver, once the leadership team realizes the time is right, significant preparation is needed to be ready for strategy creation. Key activities of this stage include discovering and putting form to the existing strategic issues, updating and evaluating progress on prior plans and efforts, inventorying any significant changes within the organization or its environment, and generating an early draft of the key planning assumptions that will guide the effort.

Gather Facts. The second stage of the traditional strategic planning process is generalized by the gathering, organizing, and synthesizing of facts. There are a variety of tools and techniques that include traditional research, secondary research (examining data others have collected), surveying the external landscape and environmental scanning, and forecasting. Many traditional planners recommend SWOT analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), where internal and external forces and factors are identified and sorted based on the kinds of effects they are having or could have on the organization, its customers and partners, and its industry broadly. SWOT analyses may be inclusive of or augmented by internal organizational assessments to diagnose strengths and weaknesses. Other traditional strategic planners conduct deep environmental scans often using the PESTE framework (political, economic, social, technological, environmental). Many also include competitor analyses during fact gathering. Relatively newer tools give planners the ability to develop sophisticated forecasts and foresight which is useful in more dynamic markets where change is occurring rapidly. Key activities during this stage include selecting the tools and techniques to be used to gather and organize data, collecting and analyzing data, and holding a series of conversations aimed at making sense of all of the information.

Organize and Prioritize. The key outcome of this stage is the formulation of strategy and setting of goals that form the heart of a strategic plan. While the environment is changing dynamically, the organization needs to envision its future, identify the opportunities, formulate specific strategies and goals, and prioritize their importance. The idea of generating SMART goals during strategic planning has been traditionally recommended. SMART goals are Specific – they target a specific area for improvement; Measurable – they quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress; Assignable – they specify who will do it; Realistic – they state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources; and Time-related – they specify when the results can be achieved. Key activities of this stage include harvesting insight, uncovering gaps, formulating strategy, building a plan, and setting reasonable goals.

Act and Monitor Progress. The final stage of traditional strategic planning goes beyond making plans to taking action. The strategies and goals formulated in the strategic plan need to be operationalized in such a way they can be understood and achieved. Often, strategic plans include specific recommendations for actions, or they may be augmented by detailed action plans created