First things first. The highly overrated and beaten to death word ‘strategy’ is actually relevant and it oozes back into conversations every now and then.
‘Strategy is not about outcomes but about people deriving outcomes’ said Colin Eden during the discussions. The process of ‘making strategy’ is more of an eye-opener to many than they accept and show. Of course, the process and content matters, that decides if the experience and outcomes are ‘inclusive’ or not.
A comprehensive ‘Deriving Strategy’ process can be broadly classified into two environments – Transaction and Contextual.
Transaction environment would comprise of assessing uncertainties in the outside environment in which the team does business – political, economical, societal, technological, environmental and legal (or other forms of macro-environmental factors scanning) factors that affect the business in an agreed time-frame (say next 5 years). The process requires equal participation and deliberation of voicing issues from all members, called ‘Procedural Rationality’. This part of making strategy is probably, (forgive my limited knowledge of Indian MNCs) found completely missing in the Indian big hot-shot organisations.
Contextual environment scanning comprises of participants ‘calling out loud’ their companies assets and competencies. Followed by categorizing them into distinctive assets and competencies and deriving a common understanding of what the business is all about (leading to your mission, vision statements). In the process, identifying hurdles, bad assumptions and real problems.
For small teams, making strategy is much more simpler. Making strategy is actually a very individualistic process – every individual voices own opinion and the collective decisions are made based on consensus (they should be if they are not). This does not implicate that the final outcome will be in-line with everyone’s aspirations or personal understanding. If every member shows respect and compassion, essential for a little bit of compromise on personal ego, the outcomes can be life changing.
Going a bit more realistic, think trekking with your fiancee (as an amateur). When you begin at the foot of that hill at say, 9 am, the objective is to reach the top. 10 mins into the climb, you start to feel nausea and you realize that you had too much to eat at the breakfast buffet – while she ate light and had warned you to eat light as well. She has to slow down every now and then because of you as she wants to stick together as a team. You eventually recover and pick pace but now the sun is too hot as you lost time with slowness. Sticking to the objective, you both still continue uphill. At every crossroad, you both suggest different routes to climb up – one of you wins the path-finder battle and both take the same path, eventually reaching the hilltop together. The agenda is that climbing that hill is a very personal, individual achievement at every step – your breath, your energy, your back, your feet. But the joy, for you, is in doing it together. In achieving the success with the team.
The most important facet of strategy is ‘communication’ and the way its exercised. Individuals matter. A ‘buy-in’ matters.