Acting Strategically and Taking Strategic Action (cont)
In this series of articles on Strategic Leadership, I have discussed strategic leadership in general and have also explored the nature of strategic thinking. I have also begun a discussion on Strategic Acting by considering how we might more effectively reward appropriate risk-taking. In this article, we will explore Strategic Acting further.
Another important aspect of strategic acting is the ability to make strategy a learning process. After all, the business’s strategy is just its theory of what it takes to be successful – and this needs to be tested with some courageous experimentation. In fact, this is something of a chicken and egg thing – learning can take place if strategic thinking precedes strategic action; but learning also takes place when strategic action occurs before strategic thinking.
Consequently, tactics have the dual purpose of both execution and learning. However, there is a strong tendency to completely overlook the latter. And in doing so organisations miss a huge opportunity – after all, “tactics are not only about implementing today’s strategy, but also about discovering tomorrow’s strategy” (Campbell and Alexander, 1997). Tactics provide feedback loops that speak of current performance as well as our future capability.
Think of it as conducting business experiments. Try this:
3.2 Brainstorm what would happen if you made this change.
3.3 Now go back and change another aspect and brainstorm the scenario.
3.4 Once you have worked through each individual aspect, go back and change combinations until you have scenarios for each changed combination
of aspects.
4. What lessons have you learned from this exercise?
5. Of all the scenarios you have brainstormed, which one would teach you most if it succeeded?
6. Of all the scenarios, which one would teach you most if it failed?
7. What data do you need to collect in order to decide which would be the scenario most likely to succeed and validate your experiment?
This kind of thinking occurs before taking action, but we also need to learn from our actions. It is vital to review the impact of our tactics. We need to ask the following questions:
Then we need to take the action and tell others what we have learned.
You might like to consider some business experiments you could conduct in order to learn. It might also be interesting to do a review of some of your more recent strategic actions to see what can be learned from them.
The following article contains the final word on acting strategically, and taking strategic action.
Recommended Reads
If you are interested in reading more about strategic leadership we recommend:
“Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (ISBN 0-7879-6867-6).
“Leading Strategic Change – Breaking Through the Brain Barrier” by J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen (ISBN 0-13-046108-3)
“The New Strategic Thinking” by Michael Robert (ISBN 0-07-146224-4
“Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan (ISBN 0609610570)
Consequently, tactics have the dual purpose of both execution and learning. However, there is a strong tendency to completely overlook the latter. And in doing so organisations miss a huge opportunity – after all, “tactics are not only about implementing today’s strategy, but also about discovering tomorrow’s strategy” (Campbell and Alexander, 1997). Tactics provide feedback loops that speak of current performance as well as our future capability.
Think of it as conducting business experiments. Try this:
- Identify a strategic initiative that might enable your business to capitalize on changing conditions in the market place.
- Brainstorm this with your team and get really creative with the detail.
- Now consider this as a business experiment:
3.2 Brainstorm what would happen if you made this change.
3.3 Now go back and change another aspect and brainstorm the scenario.
3.4 Once you have worked through each individual aspect, go back and change combinations until you have scenarios for each changed combination
of aspects.
4. What lessons have you learned from this exercise?
5. Of all the scenarios you have brainstormed, which one would teach you most if it succeeded?
6. Of all the scenarios, which one would teach you most if it failed?
7. What data do you need to collect in order to decide which would be the scenario most likely to succeed and validate your experiment?
This kind of thinking occurs before taking action, but we also need to learn from our actions. It is vital to review the impact of our tactics. We need to ask the following questions:
- What were we intending to achieve?
- What actually happened?
- What worked well?
- What did not work so well?
- What can be learned from this?
- What do we need to do now?
Then we need to take the action and tell others what we have learned.
You might like to consider some business experiments you could conduct in order to learn. It might also be interesting to do a review of some of your more recent strategic actions to see what can be learned from them.
The following article contains the final word on acting strategically, and taking strategic action.
Recommended Reads
If you are interested in reading more about strategic leadership we recommend:
“Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (ISBN 0-7879-6867-6).
“Leading Strategic Change – Breaking Through the Brain Barrier” by J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen (ISBN 0-13-046108-3)
“The New Strategic Thinking” by Michael Robert (ISBN 0-07-146224-4
“Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan (ISBN 0609610570)
