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Week 4 Post 4.5

Read the learning notes below for Week 4 of the course. Once you read the materials below complete Post 4.5. Follow the instructions for the learning activity to gain understanding and interact with the related material for greater understanding of the Week 4 Strategic Leadership principles outlined.

Uncertainty and Change

Regardless the choices you make in any strategic approach you face uncertainty and change. Nothing is solid gold, unalterable or guaranteed. Working with people requires you to determine risk over reward. Measuring the cost of investment over return; every time. In the equation uncertainty will be a factor. Change will be a force to assess and adjust to through the process.

If you want to engage strategically without uncertainty and change, then play video games. The outcome does not affect the lives of the people in your organization and any changes you don’t like can be offset by turning the power off. Strategic planning and implementation requires risk. Strategic planning and implementation results in change. The challenge is using the resources around you to ensure both uncertainty and change are positive outcomes of the effort and energy expended.

Strategic Issue Levels

In the context of a Strengths, Weaknesses. Opportunities and Threat Analysis (SWOT), Opportunities and Threats represent the strategic issues facing the organization. Strengths and Weaknesses identify observable conclusions by the organization, whereas opportunities and threats identify the strategies related to addressing the realities this represents.

Strategic issue levels related to Opportunities, outline how the organization will strategically address the opportunities they see and capitalize on them to maximize the opportunities presented. The strategies coming from this discussion and developed by various organizational teams, provides the framework and the strategic issue levels the organization will address.

One of the simpler approaches is to take your established SWOT and break off into teams to review the strategic issues represented in your identified opportunities and threats. The process below describes an option for addressing strategic issues.

  1. Place the list of Opportunities and Threats in front of you.

  2. Review each opportunity and each threat. List them one by one under each heading.

  3. Describe each opportunity and each threat in detail as it relates to the organization’s future. Write down a summary for each.

  4. Ask the team what the best possible outcome is for each opportunity and each threat. Write it down.

  5. Ask the team what could possibly go wrong in the opportunity and threat strategies listed. Discuss and make a summary of your discussion.

  6.  Review the opportunities and threats again.

  7. Ask the team what your team will do if the strategic process fails in solving issues related to the opportunities and threat strategies.

  8. Make plans to address the issues you foresee.

  9. If the plans do not address the issue, start at number 1 and repeat until the strategic issues are resolved and addressed.

Evaluating strategic plans

William R. King (1978) in his thorough observation of strategic plans outlines several important facets for evaluating strategic planning activities. He suggests:

  1. Any strategic planning requires attention to the organizational mission.
  2. It must stay true to the organization’s strategic directives (chosen organizational direction to achieve its goals).
  3. Take into account miscellaneous categories of engagement that may not be outlined in the main mission and organizational strategic objectives (taking a fluid look at all issues affecting planning).

He goes on to outline how to evaluate system objectives in the evaluation process to determine the specific focus for the organization and define objectives in more concise and clearer language. (p. 30) He also takes a clear view toward systemic constraints and design strategies, to assist in the development and progression of the strategic plan and design. (pp. 30, 31) Outlining important evaluative processes to ensure the strategic planning organizations engage provides the best result possible for the organization and the future strategic plans it envisions.

While King’s article does not deal with every eventuality effectively, it does ‘provide a basis for explicating individual systems in a fashion which facilitates choice and priority setting.’ (p. 37) The message overall however, is the importance to evaluate strategic plans before, during and after implementation to ensure the trajectory of the plan, the pathway taken and the outcomes align with organizational objectives and to better ensure the success of the strategic plans envisioned, enacted and engaged.

Post 4.5

Issues, Leaders, Approaches, and Questions 

Unit Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of Post 4.5 learners will be able to:

  1. Understand the effect of uncertainty and change on corporate decisions.
  2. Identify the various address various strategic issue levels affecting/effecting an organization and how to evaluate them.

Reflective Questions and Activity.

Create a new post on your blog and respond to the following questions:

Evaluate

  1. How would you evaluate your organizational strategic plans?
  2. Does your organization have a process of evaluation to ensure the plan is effective? Momentum is established and maintained? the objectives remain intact after the plan begins? Why do you say so? Why not?
  3. Review your most recent strategic plan and evaluate its overall effectiveness using the few questions cited above.
  4. What was your outcome?

Categories for this post:

  • ldrs501
  • post 4.5

References

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Blanding, M. (2012). Strategic intelligence: adapt or die. Working Knowledge. Boston MA: Harvard. Retrieved from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/strategic-intelligence-adapt-or-die

Complexity Labs. (September 8, 2016). Subjective Thinking. Complexity Labs. Barcelona: Complexity Labs. Retrieved from http://complexitylabs.io/subjective-thinking/

Dalkir, K. (2016). Editorial: Why do organizations need to increase their strategic intelligence quotient (IQ)? Information Science.  45 (3). Brasilia BR: Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology. Retrieved from http://revista.ibict.br/ciinf/article/viewFile/4065/3562

Doyle, A. (updated January 23, 2018). Learn why employers value deductive reasoning, and how you can show it. New York: The Balance. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/deductive-reasoning-definition-with-examples-2063749

—– (updated September 22, 2017). Inductive reasoning in the workplace. New York: The Balance. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/inductive-reasoning-definition-with-examples-2059683

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Higson, P., and Sturgess, A. (1999). Intuition and Decision Making. The Happy Manager. London: Apex Leadership. Retrieved from http://the-happy-manager.com/articles/intuition-and-decision-making/

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Justice Institute of BC. (April 8, 2013). Subjective vs. objective. School of Community and Social Justice. Vancouver BC: Centre for Leadership. Retrieved from  http://www.jibc.ca/sites/default/files/community_social_justice/pdf/cl/Objective_vs._Subjective.pdf

Kaufman, R. (2014). Characteristics of Useful and Practical Organizational Strategic Plans. Educational Technology, 54(1), 37-39. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44430235

King, W. R. (March 1978). Strategic planning for management information systems. MIS Quarterly. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3e9d/c86eec51d0e3444be59f2887c384e2ff0258.pdf

Llopis, G. (January 27, 2011). How distrust, indifference and lack of integrity will destroy your business. Forbes. Jersey City NJ: Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2011/01/17/how-distrust-indifference-and-lack-of-integrity-will-destroy-your-business/#2e50b7a36a42

Milgram, J. (January 3, 2018). Left and right brain—the surprising truth [INFOGRAPHIC]. London: Custom Writing. Retrieved from https://custom-writing.org/blog/left-vs-right-brain

OnStrategy. (2018). About us. Retrieved from https://onstrategyhq.com/about-us/

Perkins, K. (2018). The top 10 strategic planning best practices. Reno NV: OnStrategy. Retrieved from https://onstrategyhq.com/resources/the-top-10-strategic-planning-best-practices/

Project Implicit. (2018) Implicit Association Test. Boston MA: Harvard University. Retrieved from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Canada/

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