Jabit

I recently had a conversation with a client who wished to develop a strategy for her team. She manages a creative team of people who she felt were looking for more direction. During the conversation we discusses strategy as a pattern  in which "strategy is consistency in behaviour, whether or not intended" (Henry Mintzberg, California Management Review, Fall 1987) and emerging strategies in which the "strategy can evolve in response to an evolving situation" (Henry Mintzberg, Harvard Business Review, July-August 1987). In essence, the pattern of actions her team performs defines their strategic direction. This approach to strategy definition suited the creative nature of her team and the constantly changing environment in which they work. So how was she to address their need for direction? Some team members were happy to work in an environment that was guided by high level goals yet others wanted more specific direction.

One approach we discussed was for her to essentially ask her team members what actions they feel the team should be pursuing and then to identify patterns in those actions and infer the strategic objectives. A problem she had with this approach was that it didn’t address the needs of the team members who wanted direction as she was the one who was asking for direction. In the end we settled on the following approach:

1. She would reflect on and document the current, and past, activities the team is pursuing
2. She would complement this list of activities with activities she felt the team should be pursuing
3. She would identify patterns in the list of activities and infer strategic objectives from them
4. She would present her strategic objectives and ‘action’ plan to the team for discussion
5. She would incorporate feedback into the strategic objectives and plan
6. She would "sanitise" the strategy by conducting an environmental analysis and a competitive analysis
7. She would identify the core competencies and capabilities of the team
8. She would document, as best she could, what it is the customer values
9. Together with the team, she would refocus the strategy and plan based on her findings from steps 6, 7 & 8
10. She would identify key performance indicators, measure performance using those indicators and regularly communicate back these performance results to the team
11. She would use the regular meetings she has with each team member to capture new emerging strategies