LDR 660 - Formulating Strategies

Bryson, 2011

LDR 660 – Formulating StrategySiena Heights - Wallace

Bryson, 2011

Issue Clarification

• What is the real issue, conflict or dilemma?• Why is it an issue? What aspect causes the issue?• Who says its an issue?• What are the consequences of inaction?• Can we do something about it?• Can issues be eliminated or combined?• Does an issue need to be separated into two or more

issues?• One department or across departments? • What are we missing?

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Strategy Patterns

“A strategy may be thought of as a pattern of purposes, policies, programs, actions, decisions, and/or resource allocations that defines what an organization is, what it does and why it does it. Strategy therefore is an extension of the organization’s (or community’s) mission, forming a bridge between the organization and its environment.” -- Bryson, 2011, p. 219.

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Mintzberg

“Strategic planning is not strategic thinking. One is analysis and the other is synthesis… Real strategic change requires inventing new categories, not rearranging old ones.”

Mintzberg, HBR 1994

Graphic source: Carpenter, et al. 2009.

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Mintzberg (1994)• Pattern• Position

– Dominant player, low-cost provider, service provider of choice, etc.

• Perspective– David Osborne and Peter Plastrik’s “Five

Strategies”• Core; Consequences; Customer; Control; and

Culture.

• Plan– The plan is the strategy

• Posture or Ploy– Strategy as stratagem, ruse, gaming device, etc.

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Focusing

1. Addressing the new (rules, design, concepts, changes, technologies).

2. Creating processes

3. Controlling strategy delivery

4. Developing future capabilities.

5. Maintaining and enhancing stakeholder relations.

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Strategy Levels

1. Whole organization

2. Subunits (departments)

3. Programs, service or process strategies.

4. Functional (operations).

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Purpose

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1 Underst and soci alneeds and

st akehol ders andt hei r i nt erest s

2 Engage i nst rat egi c l eadershi p

3 Pursue meani ngf ulmi ssi on and f ul f i l l

mandat es

4 Bui l d and draw oncore and di st i nct i ve

compet enci es

5 Pursue compet i t i veand col l aborat i ve

advant ages

6 Empl oy coherentand ef f ect i ve

st rat egi es andoperat i ons

7 Produce desi rabl eresul t s

8 Secure neededresources

9 Cul t i vat e supportand l egi t i macy

Generic Enterprise Scheme

Livelihood Scheme in circle

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5 Key ?????

1. What are the practical alternatives, dreams or visions we might pursue to address this issue and achieve this goal?

2. What are the barriers to realizing these alternatives, dreams or visions?

3. What major proposals might we pursue to achieve these visions or to overcome the barriers?

4. What major actions (within existing staff job descriptions) must be taken to implement the proposals?

5. What specific steps must be taken in the next six months?

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Focusing

1. What’s really reasonable?

2. Where can we combine proposals, actions and specific steps?

3. Do any proposals, actions or specific steps contradict each other, and if so, what do we do about it?

4. What (including resources) are we or key implementers really willing to commit to in the next year?

5. What are the specific next steps that would have to occur in the next six months for this strategy to work?

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Strategy Mapping

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Strategy Mapping

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Strategy Mapping

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Learning Organization

Senge (1990) defines the learning organization as an organization that possesses not only an adaptive capacity but the ability to create alternative futures through five disciplines. • Team learning• Shared visions• Mental models• Personal mastery• System thinking

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Watkins & Marsick, (1993, 1996)When a learning organization becomes operational as an intentional part of the business strategy: – People are aligned around a common

vision. – They generate new knowledge with three

key components: • Systems-level continuous learning that is

created in order to • Create and manage knowledge outcomes • Which lead to improvement in the

organization’s performance and value.

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• Developing a hierarchy of ideas from more abstract (i.e., values and mission) to more concrete (i.e., strategies and actions)

• Understanding an idea’s placement within the hierarchy (i.e., what is attended to and why)

• Understanding the connection between values and assertions (two often unarticulated keys to real learning)

• Using strategic planning as a component of a “learning organization”

LearningOrganization

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Miles & Snow (1978)• Prospectors – “continually search for

market opportunities, and . . . Regularly experiment with potential responses to emerging environmental trends”

• Defenders – “devote primary attention to improving the efficiency of their current operations”

• Reactors – “seldom makes adjustment of any sort until forced to do so by environmental pressures”

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2

3

4

5

Issues

Goals

Options

Assertions

Values1

Validate

Which Creates

Which exist in a context of possible

Supported by

© Fran Ackermann, 1989 and Realizations, Inc., 1998

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2

3 Strategic Issues

Goals

Options

Assertions

Values1

Decide on

Explore

Discuss

© Fran Ackermann, 1989 and Realizations, Inc., 1998

Agree on

ContextContentOptionsActionsAssertions

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2

3

4

5

Strategies

Goals

Actions

Assertions

Values1

Served by

Achieved by

Through agreed upon

Supported by

© Fran Ackermann, 1989 and Realizations, Inc., 1998

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Where we are

Strategic Planning Process

Where we want to be

Continually Measured and Revised

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Process Variation

• Remember that strategic thinking, acting and learning are more important than a particular approach.

• Evaluate alternatives prior to implementation. Are they:– Politically acceptable– Administratively and technically

workable– Results oriented– Legally, ethically and morally

defensible?

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Resources

John M. Bryson, Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 4th Edition (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011)

Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Random House.

Watkins, K. E., & Marsick, V. J. (1993). Sculpting the learning organization: Lessons in the art and science of systemic change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Watkins, K. E., & Marsick, V. J. (1996). In action: Creating the learning organization. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development. Baiyin