Phil Phillips, Contributing Editor03.31.17
Conclusions... operations managers hate the strategic planning annual ritual...it consumes enormous amounts of management time... it has very little impact on company actions... it does not produce novel results... it does perpetuates the status quo.
Can strategic planning and scientific methods be like-minded enough to bring forth a more dynamic strategy? The answer is YES but with a large caveat... to do so one must first recognize that conservative strategic planning is NOT in reality, scientific.
The bridge that supports a combination of the two is key and the underpinning is...unique novel hypotheses and custom made to order tests of these hypotheses. These two basics are missing from conventional strategic planning.
Issues vs Possibilities
Conservative planning centers on the calendar and is driven by issues. Resolving issues is certainly important but by first exploring and testing possible solutions, one has the opportunity to resolve the issues while opening up other options.
Possibilities-based (versus issue-based) choices provides an enormous array of options while an issue-based strategic mind-set narrows options dramatically.
As we have invited our clients to use this methodology... the Seven Steps to Strategy-Making as detailed in their September, 2012 article “BRINGING SCIENCE TO THE ART OF STRATEGY”, HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, Lafley, Martin, Rivkin & Siggelkow have convinced me and many others that it really works in freeing up latent strategic creativity.
In Part 2 we will provide examples and illustrations of the Seven Steps to Strategy-Making.
Can strategic planning and scientific methods be like-minded enough to bring forth a more dynamic strategy? The answer is YES but with a large caveat... to do so one must first recognize that conservative strategic planning is NOT in reality, scientific.
The bridge that supports a combination of the two is key and the underpinning is...unique novel hypotheses and custom made to order tests of these hypotheses. These two basics are missing from conventional strategic planning.
Issues vs Possibilities
Conservative planning centers on the calendar and is driven by issues. Resolving issues is certainly important but by first exploring and testing possible solutions, one has the opportunity to resolve the issues while opening up other options.
Possibilities-based (versus issue-based) choices provides an enormous array of options while an issue-based strategic mind-set narrows options dramatically.
As we have invited our clients to use this methodology... the Seven Steps to Strategy-Making as detailed in their September, 2012 article “BRINGING SCIENCE TO THE ART OF STRATEGY”, HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, Lafley, Martin, Rivkin & Siggelkow have convinced me and many others that it really works in freeing up latent strategic creativity.
In Part 2 we will provide examples and illustrations of the Seven Steps to Strategy-Making.