Do strategy better

There’s a bit of a resurgence in strategy these days. Maybe it’s the shock of having to face so much uncertainty and turbulence, and maybe it’s because so many huge issues have come to land on every boardroom table. Whatever the reason, the strategy agenda is full and people are actively looking for better ways of thinking and of getting strategic choices into action effectively.

We’re delighted to see it. Philippa Hardman and I have worked in the strategy facilitation field for more years than we care to recall, and issues that we have been trying to draw boardroom attention to for years are now firmly looming into focus. About time too!

We’ve decided to make 2022 a year of focus around a central call to “Do strategy better”.

This year we will be writing regularly and sharing widely on this topic, and holding a series of our familiar GameShift pop-up events. We will be teaming up with some excellent friends too, bringing both academic insight and boardroom grit.

Here’s a hint about some of the topics we’ll be covering in the series ….

• Why strategy fails
• Beyond VUCA
• There’s nothing new under the sun
• Is Open Strategy another fad?
• How to address human need as a strategic focus
• Strategy as relationship – the four-sided triangle
• Strategy and the living world
• It’s not a democracy, is it?
• A field guide to getting lost
• Who really does digital strategy round here?

And many more ….

We want to build a working community interested in these questions, people who will pitch in on pop-up events with a view to having their thinking and assumptions challenged and enriched, and in doing so help to lift the strategic practice of the whole community.

We’ll be sharing our latest work along the way, including research into widening the strategy lens, into Dynamic Strategy (how to handle all those “spinning plates”), and how to handle unconscious patterns in strategy work. Lots of juicy things to come…

If you’d like to be part of this please sign up with the form below and we will make sure that you are invited to our events and that you get links to all the new writing as soon as it’s up.

Looking forward to having you join us.

Chris Nichols and Philippa Hardman

GameShift