This week’s SP video lecture covered the topic of strategies and strategic plans.

Week nine VODcast

• There are many different ways of thinking about strategies.
  • You can think about strategy as a pattern, can also think about strategy as a way that your organization chooses to position itself
  • Can also be thought of as a perspective , way of going about thinking of the core of your strategy
  • Some think of the plan as a strategy. Not a good way to go about it. A plan embodies strategies, but a lot more goes into it.
  • Some think of strategy as a sales job, purpose is to convince others of the merits of the strategy
  • Sometimes strategy can be a ploy, not really embracing the strategy but a way to convince others that you’re doing something. Not going to address that type of thinking here.
• Generally think of strategies as a pattern that define in practice what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it
• Every organization has a strategy, may not be a good pattern but there’s something there
• Strategy is the bridge that links an organization in a mission-driven, purpose-driven way to its environment
• In order to pursue a mission and mandates, you need to be able to draw upon competencies
• Competencies need to draw upon the org’s comparative advantages. Doing so requires employing coherent and effective strategies
• Getting a pattern together and keeping it together requires learning (“Learning organization” concept)
• Organizations spend most of their time implementing strategies, not formulating strategies
• Challenge of strategic planning is to make the connection between the day-to-day business and the higher level direction and goals
• Vision statements tend to be at the top and the very bottom - they embody both values and assertions. Strategizing typically takes place in between those two.
• If all you have is a plan, you don’t have much. You have to do well in the other areas engaging and convincing others of its value.
• As you work through the process you get to a point where there’s widespread appreciation of and commitment to the plan.