Preparing the Groundwork for Stratnav^©

Here are three steps that NELA uses to initiate stratnav^©:

1. Reviewing the current Strategic Approach

First, in collaboration with key organization personnel, we identify the organization's strategic processes and assess which steps are working well and which not serve the purposes for which they were intended. Stratnav uses as much of the current system as possible, making only those changes required.  Our aim is to create a customized stratnav^© approach that best suits the organization’s particular needs and is least likely to provoke resistance.

2. Generating a Moving Vision

Second, we help you to build a Moving Vision of the organization.  A moving vision is a vivid description and energizing images of the way the organization wants to operate in the next 18 to 36 months as it strives toward its goals - e.g. how it can make itself quicker, smarter, more effective.  A Moving Vision is not a static portrait of what the organization should look like in 5 years.  

For example, Microsoft's early vision of a computer on every desk and in every home was updated to reflect the increasing role of the Internet in our lives.  The recent company vision called “seamless computing” focuses on offering people and businesses the ability to be connected and empowered any time, anywhere, and on any device.  A flexible and broad approach to vision gives room for more than one specific position or target to emerge.  A vision that is robust enough will also allow the organization to adapt and learn as the unexpected occurs. 

3. Implementing SPPATA

SPPATA^© (Scan, Pick, Plan, Act, Track and Adjust) is an ongoing operating system of stratnav^© that is practiced seamlessly and continuously inside and outside the organization.  

The first step in setting the groundwork is to select the people who will perform the SPPATA^© functions. In staffing the SPPATA^© process people are both chosen and self-selected through a screening process to help ensure optimal input and acceptance from the organization.  When choosing consider skills and character traits of key people in their internal and external relationships, i.e. energy, process savvy and personal power to take responsibility, risk and influence others; and the ability to periodically depart from conventional/habitual assumptions and perspectives.

SPPATA^© System

Once the groundwork for stratnav^© has been prepared it is time to implement the SPPATA^© functions that wire people’s talents and skills together.

Scan

In the first stage those assigned this function scan for and gather data, information and knowledge that will be used to make strategic choices later on.  Guided by the moving vision, scanners identify themes relevant to the unique status, role and value the organization gives and receives from its environment.  For example, the University of Phoenix may take note of how Microsoft certifies people online, and Harvard Medical School will keep an eye on cutting edge techniques used by military medics.  It is important to recognize that the function of the scanners is not to decide upon a specific decision for this tends to both slow down and put boundaries on their actions.  These themes are kept as open as possible, while at the same time kept narrow enough to take action.  Now is the time to keep moving forward.

Pick

Here pickers (usually a core of top management) select a limited number of opportunities identified by the scanners for the organization to concentrate its attention, resources and energy. 

Plan

In an integrated collaboration with the "pickers", planners design and arrange the steps to implement the themes chosen by the pickers.  Planners answer the questions of who, how, where, what and when are required to implement and to ensure availability of financial and human resources.

Act

Now that the strategic choices have been considered and the best alternatives have emerged, those responsible for this step will converge upon and take the appropriate action.  (People whose job it is to carry out the action will typically have been brought into the SPPATA system fairly early to help assure continuity.) 

Track

Trackers track the action and measure and assess how well it is going.  They also spot problems and opportunities for improvement, and suggest corrections when needed. 

Adjust

As the trackers communicate their findings, those responsible for implementation adjust their relevant processes and targets in order to make mid-course corrections rapidly and effectively as a strategy for continuous improvement, flexibility and adaptability.

Navigating the waves

Much like a sailor and surfer navigating the waves, the demands of the networked economy requires dynamic strategic thinking and action in organizations in order to maintain the agility and adaptability required to survive and thrive. 

Until the present time we have traditionally and in a deep cultural sense, made the assumption that equilibrium and stability in organizations were the rule, and turbulence and discontinuity were the dysfunctional exceptions.  But, in this new era, those assumptions do not seem to apply.  The networked economy model would seem better described in the metaphor of a surfer: "Catch the wave, ride it, catch another one." As Gates puts it, "Punctuated chaos" rather than "punctuated equilibrium" is now the rule.

Author: Patrick Ahern*

*Stanley M. Herman (the creator of stratnav^©) was a major contributor to this article.

For more on this article contact

Patrick Ahern

Patrick@NewEdgeLeadership.com