Growing the Soulful Strategy Community

Soulful strategy is strategy that connects and unites. It inspires, moves, and helps us grow, individually and collectively. To make this happen at scale, wouldn’t it be great to have a global community of like-minded individuals? A community where we connect and unite to change (and improve!) the way strategy is done? Wouldn’t you like to be part of such a community?

After having been living with these questions for years, it’s finally there: a global meeting and learning space for like-minded strategists: The Strategy Circle.

Who Should Join

In this brand-new community, we bring together a group of like-minded people across the globe that?

1. share a passion for strategy and look for something different than the beaten path,
2. aim to develop themselves and embark on a journey of continuous learning, and?
3. are looking for practical insights, tools and information that they can apply today.

Rank, nationality, gender and all other personal attributes are irrelevant. What matters is that we are peers sharing the three characteristics above. If you recognize yourself, this community is yours as well.??

Why The Strategy Circle

In The Strategy Circle, we bring fresh life into the old concept of strategy. This is urgently needed because failure rates have been high for decades and today’s world asks for novel, non-traditional approaches to strategy and implementation. To this end, we embrace and share a deeply human-centered view on strategy that puts people and practice center stage.

Our purpose is to guide people and organizations toward strategy that inspires and moves.

Soulful Strategy Is Human-Centered Strategy

In order to inspire and move, strategy needs to be human-centered. Not merely profit-centered or business-centered, but human-centered first. We need strategy with soul—Soulful Strategy. As explained before in this newsletter, Soulful strategy means the following five things to me:

1. Strategy that Matters. Soulful Strategy goes beyond growth, profit, or shareholder value. It stands for strategy with purpose, strategy that makes a difference and that is meaningful to people and our planet.
2. Whole-Person Strategy. Soulful Strategy counter-balances the overly rational-analytical left-brain activity that traditional strategy has become. It embraces and leverages people’s imagination, opinions and emotions.?
3. The Social Side of Strategy. Developing and implementing strategy changes people’s mindset, positions and relationships. Soulful Strategy therefore puts the social aspects of strategy front-row.?
4. Strategy that Inspires and Moves. Soulful Strategy touches people’s hearts and passions and moves and drives them to use their talents and skills in the best possible way—for themselves, the organization, and the world at large.?
5. Inclusive Strategy. Strategy is not just for gray suits and board rooms. It is for everyone, at every organizational level and it goes beyond just for-profit companies. Soulful Strategy is a way of thinking, acting and living that crosses all boundaries.?

Altogether, these five aspects outline an approach to strategy that deviates quite radically from the traditional approach that many of us (including me) have learned at the university and from the textbooks. Here’s some key differences:

• Less analytical, more personal
• Less model-based, more judgment-based
• Less ivory-tower, more engaged
• Less economic, more social
• Less profit-driven, more purpose-driven
• Less imposed, more co-created
• Less exclusive, more inclusive

How to Join

If you are also convinced these are the changes we need, then you are not alone. You’ll be a great match for this community of like-minded strategic minds.

Joining is easy: go to thestrategycircle.mn.co, click “Join” and add your name and email address (no credit card required). That’ll automatically get you into the free part of The Strategy Circle. This includes a basic strategy survival kit, regular informative articles, and the ability to connect to all members in the community (750 in less than two weeks and counting!)

To join us live, you need to do one more thing: RSVP our global launch event on June 4, 2024, 4pm CEST / 10am EDT. During this launch event we all meet live for the first time and we’ll tell you all about our paid plan, The Inner Circle, including a one-time-only extravagant discount.

In short: The Inner Circle provides unlimited access to tools, instructions and templates, as well as courses and podcasts that help you develop strategic insight into your own professional and personal situation—and change it in the direction you want.??

Join us now by registering on thestrategycircle.mn.co and let’s reinvent strategy together! Hope to see you there as part of this fast-growing community.?

For Further Reading:

• Ten Skills Every Strategy and Implementation Consultant Needs
• The Four Qualities of Great Strategic Leaders
• The Strategic Leadership Toolkit
• The Forgotten Social Side of Strategy
• Strategy that Deeply Matters