Is your strategy progressive or defensive?

I have helped a number of organisations over the years and from the passage of time and experience of different organisations and cultures have seen top-down command and control, management by objectives, and the shift towards vision and values with more bottom-up agile focus on leveraging capability.

I am currently reading Ray Dalio’s book and reminding myself of the many ways organisations structure and align their people, culture, objectives and goals. I am really enjoying the book, but perhaps more so because it is my current read. There are thousands out there on the same subject and I have probably read a hundred over the course of 25 years of consulting.

It is always interesting to apply theory to experience. I recollect a time when I looked at a list of “strategic projects” and decided to categorise them as follows…

1. DEFENSIVE: Tasks, Projects or Goals that are seeking to defend or protect the organisation. These suggest that the organisation is under attack

2. HYGIENE : Tasks, Projects or Goals that re “keeping the lights on” for example renewing assets, updating people, process and technology and generally aimed at maintaining the status quo albeit with necessary updates to continue business as usual.

3. PROGRESSIVE: Tasks, Projects or Goals that are seeking to revolutionise, evolve or fundamentally advance the organisation in a new way.

In this scenario this was an organisation and context I was unfamiliar with so I didn’t know what logic lay behind these choices. In this situation observing the strategy categories was like looking at an effect and wondering what the cause was.

When thinking about these three categories it is important to consider context. The PESTLE factors, SWOT factors or maybe the product lifecycle and BOSTON MATRIX (otherwise known as the Growth Share Matrix) or competitive environment PORTERS 5 FORCES.

The reason my ignorance might be interesting is that often strategy isn’t what you say but what you do, it isn’t what is written down but how you behave.

If your list of 50 projects reveals 90% of them are DEFENSIVE or HYGIENE that tells you something! To be sure I would not expect the spread to be 33% each, but it is thought provoking to consider what the ratios might mean.

So the choices on the list of Tasks, Projects or Goals tell me much more about the organisation than the management by objectives or vision and values because the choices and time spent in pursuit of Tasks, Projects or Goals is much more telling than the Business Plan or Strategy.


REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis
https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/bcg-matrix-growth-share.html
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_08.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio
https://www.principles.com/

About the book Principles

Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021

FURTHER READING
https://thefutureshapers.com/defensive-vs-progressive-transformations/

Feedback and comments always welcome

@TimHJRogers +447797762051
https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/
MBA (Management Consulting) Projects & Change Practitioner,
TEDx & Jersey Policy Forum, Public Accounts Committee,
http://www.timhjrogers.com