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Blogging Innovation » 36 Awesome Quotes on Time

Shifting From Strategic Planning to Strategic Agility

 


Submitted by Blogging Innovation on January 21, 2011 – 12:05 am

by Holly G. Green



At the end of last year, I wrote about the need to put the old strategic planning model out to pasture and embrace a new method that focuses on developing strategic agility.

Here’s why this is so critical.

At its core, strategic planning involves a process of analysis. You do some research into what is and what isn’t possible. You define a goal, break that goal down into manageable steps, and determine how to implement them while identifying the expected consequences of each step. It’s a logical, straightforward process designed to sequentially move the organization from where you are now to where you want to go.

The huge flaw in this process is the assumption that the world is reasonably stable and somewhat predictable. Maybe a few generations ago. But anyone who has been paying attention the last few years knows that today’s world is neither.

The traditional planning model also assumes that products and markets move through their life cycles in a sequential, orderly manner. Again, maybe a few generations ago, but certainly not any more. When you can’t forecast what your market will look like in a year or even six months, engaging in a lengthy planning process only wastes time and resources. Worse, it gives competitors who have already embraced strategic thinking a distinct advantage.

What’s the difference between strategic planning and strategic thinking?

Strategic planning is a seemingly logical, linear, step-by-step process that focuses on analysis. Strategic thinking engages other parts of our brain in synthesizing in addition to analyzing. It uses intuition, creativity and “what if?” questioning to pull together an integrated perspective from a wide variety of data sources and creates a vision of where the organization needs to go.

Strategic planning has a beginning and an end. It is typically conducted by senior management, and usually results in a formal written plan. Strategic thinking never ends. It becomes an integral part of how the organization conducts its business, and needs to be practiced by employees at all levels.

To develop the skill of strategic thinking in your organization:

1. Focus on a target. Start by getting very clear on what winning looks like for your organization (division, team, project, etc.). Then communicate your picture of winning over and over until everyone gets it.
2. Ask the right questions. When you can’t have all the data, the only alternative is to ask the right questions. Good questions get people to look at the same data differently, so that you get many different perspectives on any given issue. They also shift the energy so that people look to find what will instead of what won’t.
3. Balance the big picture and the details along the way. Here’s where strategic thinking really diverges from strategic planning. With strategic planning, you set a firm course and stick to it as much as possible, making some allowances for deviation from the plan. Strategic thinking remains focused on the target (big picture) while staying open and flexible to changing what it takes to get there (the details).
4. Explore new channels. Strategic thinking also requires broadening your horizons and expanding your data gathering efforts beyond traditional sources. What’s happening beyond the walls of your business and your industry? Where else can you look to learn? How can you develop new ways of communicating and connecting with key stakeholders?
5. Teach strategic thinking skills. Teach people at all levels to anticipate opportunities and threats while managing their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. Give them the training, coaching, and mentoring to become more responsive to changing customer needs. Develop their creative problem solving skills, and help them understand how their decisions and actions impact the business in the future as well as today.
6. Stage your field of vision. Most of all, strategic thinking requires a daily focus on your vision of winning. How will you keep the right things in front of you to direct your attention, energy, and thoughts on winning? How can you get them in front of others? How will you stay clear on winning when major challenges and obstacles arise?

Strategic thinking requires a delicate balancing act between holding fast to your vision of winning while adjusting to the constant upheavals in the world around us. It also requires the development of new skills and ways of thinking. The ultimate goal is to develop strategic agility, or the ability to respond quickly to changing market conditions without losing focus on your vision of winning.

If you’re still doing strategic planning the old way, when the next big change hits your market or industry, don’t be surprised to find that you’re the one who gets left behind.

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Holly is the CEO of THE HUMAN FACTOR, Inc. (www.TheHumanFactor.biz) and is a highly sought after and acclaimed speaker, business consultant, and author. Her unique approach to creating strategic agility, helping others go slow to go fast, will change your thinking.

http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/wordpress/2011/01/shifting-from-strategic-planning-to-strategic-agility

01.20.11 | Word and Spirit..

4:58 am by len

Yesterday I noted that Alan closes The Forgotten Ways with a plea that we rely more on the power of the Holy Spirit in mission. I found this intriguing, because as he begins to works out mDNA through the book (in particular the diagram on page 25), he places Jesus is Lord at the center without mention of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, mDNA seems to be founded on a confession and an understanding around Jesus more than on a dynamic and a power. Yet as Alan develops his thesis he is focused on the spiritual dynamics of missional movements. There is this juxtaposition and contrast that is never worked out (altho his description of the implications of the Shema on pp 86 and following is highly relevant in our dualistic culture).

In the context of a settled Christendom movement, one could offer that the Church in the west has majored on Christology at the same time as it became entrenched, formal, and mired in debates about leadership and worship while neglecting its mission. A recovery of Christology, then, is likely not what is needed. A more likely argument could be made, especially in light of Luke-Acts, that we need a recovery.. and a renewed experience.. of the Holy Spirit.

The theological solution is Trinitarian, and Irenaeus offered us a clue long, long ago with his dictum: “the Word and the Spirit as the two hands of the Father.”� Interesting.. this little dictum sits in the background of at least one passionate cry: the need to recover an incarnational-missional ecclesiology and practice. It was the Word who was incarnate, with all the implications for our theology and practice. He was incarnate because He was sent into the world to redeem it – sent on mission. The Word was incarnate by the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit for mission.

The issue gets just a bit sharper with the release of Steve Addison’s little book, “Movements That Change the World.” Steve all but explicitly notes the importance of holding the Word and the Spirit together (107-108) when he notes the need to balance creativity and design, chaos and structure. But he rightly prefers the Spirit in mission. How could anyone not prejudice the Spirit in mission in view of the book of Acts?

All this to say that mDNA is Trinitarian, or it is not missional-incarnational. As Newbigin,

“The concern for mission is nothing less than this: the kingdom of God, the sovereign rule of the Father of Jesus over all humankind and over all creation. Mission.. is the proclamation of the kingdom, the presence of the kingdom and the prevenience of the kingdom. By proclaiming the reign of God over all things the church acts out its faith that the Father of Jesus is indeed ruler of all. The church, by inviting all humankind to share in the mystery of the presence of the kingdom hidden in its life through its union with the crucified and risen life of Jesus, acts out the love of Jesus that took him to the cross. By obediently following where the Spirit leads, often in ways neither planned, known, nor understood, the church acts out the hope that it is given by the presence of the Spirit who is the living foretaste of the kingdom.”� (The Open Secret, 64)

But there is one more aspect of this, related to leadership and in particular to APEPT.

APEPT is a plural and apostolic leadership framework, as revealed by Paul in Eph. 4. What is striking to me about conceiving of mDNA with Jesus at the center is this does not support a plural leadership imagination, but would more closely echo the sola pastora frame that anchored a settled church in modernity. The Trinitarian frame – communal, mutually submissive, collaborative and diverse — more readily echoes the function of adaptive leadership that we currently need.

Furthermore, it is precisely in Jesus leaving that the Spirit is sent, and the victory of Jesus ascension is the opportunity for the King to distribute gifts to humankind. Again, this seems to move against a frame of mDNA with Jesus at the center. If we had to choose one member of the Trinity here, at least from the perspective of mission, it ought to be the Spirit.

Well, all these quibbles are toward clarity. Alan closes the book on the right note, bringing through the back door what was lacking at the front. And rumor has it that a coming book will take another look at the Trinity in relation to recovering a missional ecclesiology.

I woke this morning with the kingdom prayer in mind, wondering why there is no mention of the Spirit. We close the prayer with, “Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory…” And I remembered that there is an early manuscript of the gospel of Matthew that has a variant: instead of “Thy kingdom come” it reads, “The Spirit come.”

The Spirit is the power of the age to come. When we ask for God’s kingdom to come, we are asking for His Spirit to come and make all things new..

http://nextreformation.com/?p=5373

Addressing Your Greatest Growth Challenge - Will Mancini

The foundational assumption of my vision work is that the greatest growth challenge in the local church is the  redemptive passion of the congregation. Are people emotionally engaged with the mission of Jesus?
Therefore, in the process of discerning vision, I want to stoke the redemptive passion of the vision team itself.
Here is an exercise I used today. I asked each vision team member to share a person or experience that grew their awareness of Christ. Some stories were dramatic than others. But every answer contained a name and an act of initiative. In the process of hearing their stories, I secretly recorded their exact words for the acts of intentionality from the people who impacted them.  When they were finished sharing, I put the words on the whiteboard. Speaking of the people that touched them, they shared:

• “They took responsibility for me”
• “He adopted me”
• “She came along side of me”
• “He wouldn’t leave me alone”

The sharing was very meaningful. We discussed how our lives today reflect patterns of this kind of initiative.  One observation that surfaces is that some people experience impact through long-term relationships with quiet presence while others through moments of bold, verbal initiative.
In order to stimulate movement toward boldness, I drew a diagram relating the time availability of a relationship (family is long-term presence, co-worker is mid-term presence, and a stranger is momentary).  The big idea of the chart is to show that if you have a short window of time, like an airplane ride, bold, verbal initiative is more important. The graph helps people appreciate the need for boldness and stimulates great conversation about missional living and evangelism strategy.

http://www.willmancini.com/2011/01/whiteboard-wednesday-a-tool-for-addressing-your-greatest-growth-challenge.html