(Written by Allie Sturm Vecchiet*) In Bringing Strategy Back Jeffrey Sampler presents four “strategic shock absorbers” that enable leaders to build resilient organizations that can withstand even the most unexpected turbulence and change. More often than not, strategic change occurs exclusively in reaction mode. Sampler explains that the challenge is to make strategic planning proactive and preemptive as a matter of course.
How can companies and departments move quickly and fluidly even amid massive turbulence? Sampler offers managers four tools that he calls, “strategic shock absorbers.”
- Accuracy – delivers on-target forecasting; enables granularity and specificity
- Agility – delivers speed and flexibility in terms of strategic options
- Momentum – delivers continuity and minimizes disruption to the organization
- Foresight – delivers capability for sense making and scanning the external environment
Tools to Develop Accuracy: Creating Order and Transparency
- Useful in complex, chaotic environments where decisions must be made quickly without a lot of discussion
- Put a clear stake in the ground in terms of creating a strategy that is simple and powerful so people throughout a department or organization can make decisions that align with broad objectives
- Most salient benefit is the efficiency it creates to enable people t understand what matters most to their organization?
- Majlis system
- Type of decision-making process not unlike an informal town hall meeting
- Creates transparency
- Weekly meetings, anyone at any level can attend
- The purpose is to structure unstructured strategic planning – make implicit priorities explicit
- Strategic wedge
- Strategic wedge opportunities are low-cost, low-risk strategies that help managers learn about consequences
- Pilots of projects or new services
Tools to Develop Agility: Seizing and Repeating Opportunities
- Frequent planning cycles
- Do not set goal that are months or years away or you run the risk of creating tunnel vision
- Set up at least monthly strategic planning checks-ins with front-line staff
- Commit to making strategy a bottom-up process
- Instead of presenting “a solid strategic plan” to your staff, present your strategic plan with the sentiment: “We know this strategy is about 90% correct, we need your feedback to make it 100% correct.”
Tools to Develop Momentum: Speeding Past Shocks and Surprises
- Master the end versus means
- Common in the technology space
- Hone in on the result or objective to success because the best way to get there will continually change, but the overarching end goal needs to be the guiding light
- Focus on intellectual buffers, not physical buffers
- Leverage your staff to encourage management innovation, creative ideation, more effective communication
- Start active think tanks to work in tandem with your regular management meetings – invite people from both senior and junior ranks to discuss potential consequences and suggest responses to disruption before anything actually occurs
Tools to Develop Foresight: Getting Ahead of Change and Chaos
- Identify strategic assumptions
- Preserve the original assumptions so you can determine whether a strategic plan is applicable months or years later
- Scan the periphery for alternate strategies
- There are physical, domain, and concept adjacencies
- Physical adjacencies: change to adapt an existing idea for a different location
- Domain adjacencies: lift an idea from one domain and transfer it into another (e.g., using manufacturing principles to deliver health care)
- Concept adjacencies: incrementally new ideas designed to suit your existing market
Strategic Planning Gap Analysis: Reflection Questions
- What is your department or organization’s current approach to strategic planning? Is it only an annual process?
- How confident are you in the accuracy of your strategic planning process? What are some examples of pilots or “strategic wedges” that your organization has trialed lately?
- How agile is your organization or department? As a manager, how do you commit to the bottom-up approach? What types of frequent planning cycles do you offer?
- How does your organization ensure it keeps momentum despite setbacks and external changes? As a manager or leader, do you foster intellectual buffers?
- How confident are you in your organization’s foresight? Are the assumptions that are a part of your strategic plan clearly outlined?
*Allie Sturm Vecchiet, PharmD PGY1/PGY2
Health-System Pharmacy Administration Resident
Nationwide Children's Hospital
M.S. Health-System Pharmacy Administration Candidate 2016
The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy
Email: Sturm.42@osu.edu
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