Strategic thinking suffers from a focus on outputs over inputs
In our work, we are often asked to improve the strategic thinking capabilities of a company’s leaders. Defining what a client means by ‘more strategic’ can be an intriguing and revealing exercise, because the variations between definitions say a lot about the assumptions and biases people bring to strategy.
Finally, we can proceed to the Opportunity Cycle, which involves envisioning the possible while we investigate the actual. Envisioning continues the work we started in reframing by encouraging us to generate new possibilities or scenarios. Investigating may include prototyping a new process or business as a way of learning our way forward into the new strategy. The options we identify through envisioning raise questions about near term choices. Investigating allows us to conduct experiments that will stretch our understanding of our options. We will be more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment through persistent investigating.
[This article has been reprinted, with permission, from Rotman Management, the magazine of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management]