Week 4 Supplementary Reading
Read the learning notes below for Week 4 of the course. Once you read the materials below complete the supplementary reading to gain understanding and interact with the related material for the Week 4 Strategic Leadership principles outlined.
Best Practice Questions
Kim Perkins, Client Engagement Manager for OnStrategy, lists a good best practices list for strategic planning initiatives. OnStrategy is a strategic planning consulting organization who ‘believe strategic planning is more than simply achieving business goals. It creates confidence in the future.’ (https://onstrategyhq.com/about-us/)
Follow the link to review Perkins Top 10 Strategic Planning Best Practices.
Strategic IQ
‘Strategic intelligence is the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances, as opposed to blindly continuing on a path when all the signals in your competitive environment suggest you need to change course.’ – John R. Wells
Wells, in an interview with Michael Blanding (2012), suggests Strategic IQ is established in an organization when ‘the people in a company are intrinsically motivated to develop and execute good strategy.’
Wells outlines ways of developing Strategic IQ, as well as critical success factors required for companies to excel in their strategies. The first, and in many instances the most important critical success factor, is ‘the capacity to tolerate and learn from failure.’ (Dalkir, 2016) The second critical success factor is ‘the need to constantly adapt to the changing competitive environment.’ (Dalkir)
For the one, it’s all about learning through our success and failure in the process and gleaning lessons form both. Not gloating over what we’ve accomplished to the detriment of others. Not punishing failure as if it is not allowed in the process. Both bring learning and both bring wisdom and both add to our strategic IQ as we increase our knowledge over time and through the various and varying circumstances we face. (Dalkir)
For the second, it means understanding and learning what’s happening around us. Predicting and facing the challenges as they come. Forecasting situations that unfold in the process to help with decision-making. Analyzing the past to inform the future to prevent the repeat of past errors. (Dalkir)
Increasing Strategic IQ ensures ‘accurate and valid means of assessing your success.’ (Dalkir) By evaluating returns on investments (ROI), benefits can be measured ‘from strategic and business intelligence processes as well as technologies.’ (Dalkir) You also need to ‘need to assess the value and effectiveness of organizational learning processes. ‘ (Dalkir) Taking into consideration the need for regular review of strategic processes to ensure an even and consistent forward progression at a level consistent with progress and never satisfied with settling for what you get, but pushing forward to the best possible outcomes the strategies devised and implemented will bring the organization.
Other Strategy Research
One final resource to recommend for researching strategies for a variety of organizations is a resource found in our own library. The book by Baum and Lampel outlines a variety of strategy research to give you a well rounded understanding of the diversity represented in researching various strategies around the world. This is a small volume by comparison and is only mentioned for your benefit, should you choose to follow through with reading the material. It is not required for the course.
Baum, J. C., & Lampel, J. (2010). The Globalization Of Strategy Research. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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Week 4 Learning Activities References
Baum, J. C., & Lampel, J. (2010). The Globalization Of Strategy Research. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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
Fitzgerald, F. S. (Spring 1936). The crack up. Esquire. New York: Hearst.
Galbraith, J. (1974). Organization design: an information processing view. The Institute of Management Sciences. Vol. 4, pp. 28-36. Catonsville MD: INFORMS.
Gilakjani, A. P. (2012). Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic learning styles and
their impacts on English language teaching. Journal of Studies in Education. 2(1). Macrothink Institute: Las Vegas, NV.
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/
Johnson, D., and Levin, S. (December 10, 2009). The tragedy of cognition: psychological biases and environmental inaction. Current Science. 97(11). Bangalore, India: Current Science Association. Retrieved from http://dominicdpjohnson.com/publications/pdf/2009JohnsonLevinTheTragedyOfCognition.pdf
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/