Where does strategy fit it?

We often find that strategy - be that in the form of some kind of thinking framework, or ideas and words in a nice document - tends to float around an organisation without having any kind of tangible purpose.

Strategy workshops (in the various guises) are held once a year; and then everyone goes away and does real work - generally completely ignoring whatever was uncovered and discussed in the long-forgotten session.

The problem is that strategy's true power can only be tapped when it is nested within an ongoing operating system.

The Innovation Operating System

Think of it in practicality like this...

Strategy itself is just one component of a bigger cycle of continuous organisational learning that is best operated in 12-week sprints.

Within the 12-week sprint there would also need to be a commitment to a phase of: data analysis, customer research, horizon scanning and competitor analysis.

Then a process of sense making needs to be undertaken, involving various tools and methodologies, as well as a significant amount of facilitated systems and futures thinking.

From this, a strategy is developed, which is then transferred to operational units as a development pathway. This roadmap is used as guidance for marketing and product development from which new feedback data can be incorporated to start the whole 12-week cycle from the beginning again.

When strategy is nested within this broader super cycle of forward momentum, it acts as an organisational power amplifier.

Without it, power is diffused and ineffective. With it, it's like bringing a gun to a knife fight.

A focus on strategy alone will not enable the full potential of its power, but when nested within this iterative Innovation Operating System, its true value is realised.