From Stuck to Sprinting: How Agile Strategy Can Revive Your Company's Growth

I want to share with you today a blueprint for breaking out of an impasse when building a strategy. With over 20 years of experience as a strategy advisor, I've developed a lean strategy method that could help you work in 4-week cycles instead of a long, unstructured process.

Agile principles have been making waves in business functions like product development, marketing, and sales, but unfortunately, strategy hasn't kept up. That's why I've proposed a new approach.

I had a client who approached me to help them with their growth strategy. Despite going through years of turnarounds, downsizing, and divestitures, they still weren't experiencing any growth. After several months of discussion, the management team still wasn't able to make any crucial decisions or progress. That's when I suggested an agile sprint-based approach to making and executing strategy.

The traditional approach to strategy is outdated, and many experts agree with me. It's reached its limits in an increasing number of organizations and contexts. There are lots of voices of criticism about the way strategic management functions in companies today, and the traditional approaches to strategy. The criticism is mainly in three areas: content, process, and tools.

So, what can you do instead? You can craft the strategy. "Crafting strategy" is about combining planning with emergent strategy. It's a strategy design and strategy execution occurring at the same time. Spending too much time on thorough analysis will not yield any benefits in complex situations. That's where the Lean Strategy System comes in.

Each month, we review the outcomes and results of the sprint, update the backlog as needed, pick the items to work on during the next sprint of 4 weeks, and plan out each item in detail. We define who is responsible, what the deliverables at the end of the sprint are, and plan out activities for each week.

The Lean Strategy System has four stages: Orientation, Strategy Framework Development, Experimentation, and Execution. It's a process that is iterative, allowing you to adapt and adjust your strategy based on the outcomes of each sprint.

If you want to learn more about how the Lean Strategy System works and how it can benefit your organization, I invite you to watch my video. You'll get a chance to see how the system works in action and discover the benefits it can offer to your organization.