Strategy lenses

1. Strategy lenses Ways of looking at strategy

2. The strategy lenses Strategy can be seen as: • Design • Experience • Variety / ideas • Discourse

3. Strategy as design Strategy as design • Strategy can be designed in advance and a detailed plan conceived by strategists • This approach is rational and objective • Little attention is paid to unpredictable aspects of strategy, cultural, political • The design lens is systematic, analytical and logical.

4. Strategy as experience Strategy as experience • Strategy is influenced by the experience of managers • The organisation’s culture and the taken-for-granted assumptions and ways of doing things are key drivers of strategy • Strategy is likely to build on and continue what has gone before • Sometimes leading to self complacency.

5. Strategy as “variety” / ideas Strategy as variety • Strategy ‘emerges’ from an uncertain and changing environment • Strategy comes from a variety of initiatives • New ideas ‘bubble up’ from unpredictable sources and not just the top • Organisations need to encourage diversity and look for initiatives at the bottom or the periphery of the organisation.

6. Strategy as discourse • Attention is focused on the way managers engage in creative argumentation • use language to frame strategic problems, make strategy proposals, debate issues and communicate strategic decisions • It is a dialectical process integrating diverse views • Managers bring in their cognitive resources • The way they ‘talk’ about strategy matters – participants, supportive environment • Creativity occurs through a dialectic negotiation and creative synthesis. • But it may also bring in the personal interests and ‘politicking’ of managers.

7. Strategy lenses: Design, Experience, Ideas, Discourse New ideas High Innovation Ideas Design Discourse Experiences Conformity Low Innovation High Rationality Low Rationality