Developing an Agile Strategy
An intelligent strategy is an agile strategy. One that can adapt quickly to environmental changes and evolve over time in order to maintain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing business environment while remaining true to it's purpose and core principles.
Developing an agile strategy starts by focusing less on the plan and more on the planning. It's the planning process that provides the most value. Every plan, no matter how competitive today, will one day become outdated. The plan that is advancing your organization today will hold it back tomorrow. That's the value of focusing on the planning rather than the plan. An effective planning process will develop a culture of strategic thinking, problem solving, and continuous improvement. A strategic plan is like a fixed map. A culture of strategic thinking is like a navigator always looking for the best route as travel conditions change.
Ultimately, the goal of strategic planning is not the strategic plan itself, although it seems that's as far as many organization get. The goal of strategic planning is the realization of strategic objectives. So if the plan is not the ultimate goal, why are our efforts so focused on it? We stress out about how it should be formatted, edited, distributed, etc. We're putting or focus and energy into the wrong aspects of strategic planning.
Conduct your strategic planning with your focus on developing a culture of strategic thinking and continuous improvement. This requires that the members of your organization know it's ok to try something new. Reinvent the wheel, experiment, shoot for the moon, shake things up, and at times even blow things up. Even if it doesn't work out. Allow your employees to have some psychological responsibility for the success of the organization rather than just being an expendable tool to be used by the organization. This is the type of strategic agility that will drive your organization forward rather than just playing it safe by anchoring in the harbor. The anchored ships may not be tossed by the waves as often but they're also not really going anywhere at all.
A strategy that isn't agile enough to inspire your organization to excercise some innovative adaptation to environmental changes will ultimately hold your organization back until it has lost it's value altogether.
Focus less on developing a strategic plan and more on developing a culture of strategic thinking and continuous improvement.
“An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage” ~Jack Welch
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Additional Reading:
Independent Design Professional
5 年I think they covered this idea on every episode of 'Pinkie and the Brain'. It can be quite humbling when you come to understand it in hindsight.
Technology Professional, Innovator and Teacher
5 年It seems to be an irresistible temptation to create a masterful plan and then fully expect that events will be dictated by the plan. Why? The ability to anticipate and then adapt to changing conditions always wins. All that's needed to support this thought is to look at history and current events that will be interpreted by history.
Senior Project Manager | Mott MacDonald | Project Management Professional
5 年Brilliant and articulate, The point which many organizations miss while setting out the strategic plan.
?? I coach business owners to lead with confidence so that they can maximize the performance of themselves, their team and their business?? Podcast Host ?? Foster Parent ??Co-Host LinkedinLocal Central Coast
5 年Thank you for sharing Joshua Plenert, MBA, MS, PE. The approach I know works best is monthly strategic meetings (and adhoc as required) combined with quarterly offsite strategic reviews. All of this must be around determining the organization’s single biggest priority for X period of time along with discussions/analysis around critical issues affecting long-term success, industry trends, competitive landscape, key personnel, team development. If this is done well it keeps he business Agile in their strategic thinking and decision making....which aligns with your article. Great job. ??
Senior Engineering Manager @ Podme (currently on parental leave)
5 年Culture indeed eats strategy for breakfast Joshua Plenert, MBA, MS, PE. I fully agree with you that the plan is only a mean to an end. I learned this the hard way when I had to keep replanning the plan for 9 months out of the 12 of the project's life cycle. Once we have a plan, we tend to think that it is fixed and that now we're almost done. When I talk with fellow leaders about it, my viewpoint these days is that the plan is there for us to know what we are deviating from and why. During the planning process, as you mention, we uncover many factors that together with the plan and its deviations are invaluable.