Strategy is usually viewed as an annual exercise at best, an event that creates a ‘product,' and not a process to be used to actually run the business

1. Managing Strategic Momentum

2. Making Strategy Work
• Strategy is usually
viewed as an annual
exercise at best, an
event that creates a
‘product,' and not a
process to be used to
actually run the
business
• Disconnect between
Strategy and Tactics

3. Achieve the organization’s goals
Managing the strategy to
achieve the strategic goals
of the organization
•Eyes on the Prize

4. Maintain the Momentum
• the actual work to
accomplish specific
objectives,
• concerns decision-making
processes and their
consequences,
• provides the style and
culture,
• evaluates strategy
performance,
• is a learning process, and
• relies on and initiates new
strategic thinking and new
periodic strategic planning
• Iterative

5. The Epic Fail
If the strategy is not
actively managed, it will
not happen.

6. Henry Mintzberg
A key to managing
strategy is the ability to
detect emerging patterns
and help them take shape.

7. Unrealized Strategy
Rational strategies do not
always work out as
planned..

8. Emergent Strategy
An organization may end
up with a strategy that
was quite unexpected as a
result of having been
“swept away by events”
(an emergent strategy)
•Be Opportunistic
•Carpe Diem

9. Learning
Leadership, vision, and
“feeling our way along”
(learning)
•Groping

10. Reformulating and Groping
• There is a reformulation of the
strategy during implementation as
the organization gains new
information and feeds that
information back to the formulation
process, thus modifying intentions en
route.
• The external environment is in a
period of flux and strategists are
unable to accurately predict
conditions; the organization may
therefore find itself unable to
respond appropriately to a powerful
external momentum.
• Organizations in the external
environment implementing their own
strategies may block a strategic
initiative, forcing the activation of a
contingency strategy or a period of
“groping.”

11. “Leaders are obligated to provide and
maintain momentum”
• Max DePree
The only legitimate work in
an organization is work
that contributes to the
accomplishment of the
strategic plan.
It takes the orchestration of
management as well as
leadership to perpetuate
these capabilities into the
future.

12. Thank You
John Cousins
jjcousins@gmail.com