The ability to impose one’s will on reality has long been considered the hallmark of strategic genius. But in today’s more complex business environments this feat is almost impossible for most leaders to achieve.
So many leaders focus on what they can control instead: launching numerous new initiatives, adopting the very latest technologies, or making detailed plans to execute — choices that feel concrete and measurable.
Yet value is created outside the organisation by competing against rivals for customer attention. And our customers don’t care what we do. They only care about what we can do for them.
Turning missions to action
Creating value in an ever-changing environment requires harmony — aligning the various lines of action we take with the wider unfolding situation — grounding our actions in reality..
Many of us turn to hard data to work out what to do next. But data is always from the past. When we apply it to the future it becomes soft data — an unreliable forecast we should be wary of believing in too much.
For the future is always a foreign land, wrapped in the uncertainty of the unknown. Over-reliance on inputs from a previous time and place distracts us, and decreases our ability to adapt to new situations.
Seek the truth of the current situation
Facing a complex and bewildering world, some leaders attempt to shrink it to their level of comprehension — forcing it to fit neat and tidy models, so they can deal with the world the way they wished it was.
Others seek to expand their awareness so they can deal with the world as it really is — learning what’s changing, where the new sources of value are, and how they can shape the landscape to their advantage.
This requires forward-looking logic — not backward-looking data. And this resides in the talent spread out across our organisations, whose combined industry experience can often be measured in centuries.
Democratising strategy
Logically, collective intelligence is always greater than any individual intelligence within it. It provides multiple perspectives and natural human abilities for navigating highly-uncertain situations — honed over millennia.
Democratising strategy isn’t asking people to vote on what to do. It’s about tapping into diverse perspectives to scan the horizon further, anticipate change earlier, and discover where new sources of value are emerging.
It’s also about making sure that talent — those responsible for taking action — can see the whole situation clearly so they can contribute more effectively when the time comes for them to act.
This creates situational awareness — the practice of looking before you leap.
Quick test
Ask yourself: In the last 12 months, did anything surprise you in your market?
Did you see this early enough and respond in time, or were you forced to react too late?
If you were forced to react you may be relying on the wrong sort of intelligence for decision-making.
What next?
In the next post, we’ll explore how to develop situational awareness with the strategist’s most powerful tool — a map!.
To follow this series join the Telegram channel (t.me/wardleymapping) or subscribe to the blog (https://powermaps.net/blog).
If you found this post useful consider sharing it with others.
So many leaders focus on what they can control instead: launching numerous new initiatives, adopting the very latest technologies, or making detailed plans to execute — choices that feel concrete and measurable.
Yet value is created outside the organisation by competing against rivals for customer attention. And our customers don’t care what we do. They only care about what we can do for them.
Turning missions to action
Creating value in an ever-changing environment requires harmony — aligning the various lines of action we take with the wider unfolding situation — grounding our actions in reality..
Many of us turn to hard data to work out what to do next. But data is always from the past. When we apply it to the future it becomes soft data — an unreliable forecast we should be wary of believing in too much.
For the future is always a foreign land, wrapped in the uncertainty of the unknown. Over-reliance on inputs from a previous time and place distracts us, and decreases our ability to adapt to new situations.
Seek the truth of the current situation
Facing a complex and bewildering world, some leaders attempt to shrink it to their level of comprehension — forcing it to fit neat and tidy models, so they can deal with the world the way they wished it was.
Others seek to expand their awareness so they can deal with the world as it really is — learning what’s changing, where the new sources of value are, and how they can shape the landscape to their advantage.
This requires forward-looking logic — not backward-looking data. And this resides in the talent spread out across our organisations, whose combined industry experience can often be measured in centuries.
Democratising strategy
Logically, collective intelligence is always greater than any individual intelligence within it. It provides multiple perspectives and natural human abilities for navigating highly-uncertain situations — honed over millennia.
Democratising strategy isn’t asking people to vote on what to do. It’s about tapping into diverse perspectives to scan the horizon further, anticipate change earlier, and discover where new sources of value are emerging.
It’s also about making sure that talent — those responsible for taking action — can see the whole situation clearly so they can contribute more effectively when the time comes for them to act.
This creates situational awareness — the practice of looking before you leap.
Quick test
Ask yourself: In the last 12 months, did anything surprise you in your market?
Did you see this early enough and respond in time, or were you forced to react too late?
If you were forced to react you may be relying on the wrong sort of intelligence for decision-making.
What next?
In the next post, we’ll explore how to develop situational awareness with the strategist’s most powerful tool — a map!.
To follow this series join the Telegram channel (t.me/wardleymapping) or subscribe to the blog (https://powermaps.net/blog).
If you found this post useful consider sharing it with others.
