STRATEGIC DOING: THE ART AND PRACTICE OF STRATEGIC ACTION IN OPEN NETWORKSA pre-publication draft currently undergoing peer review.Where can I learn more about strategic doing?You can contact Peggy Hosea or Ed Morrison at the Purdue Center for Regional Development. In addition, you might be interested in watching some videos on strategic doing here: http://vimeo.com/channels/strategicdoingPurdue Center for Regional DevelopmentPC4RDEd MorrisonAuthor - Economic Policy AdviserLeadersStrategic Doing and Regional Leadership ... strategic doing requires a different kind of leader, someone who understands the importance of distributing responsibility and decision making widely. With strategic doing, leaders understand that a big part of the job involves helping others to learn.Leaders lead by helping others find and follow their passions. Effective leadersunderstand that creativity and innovation is not the product of a single mind but the blending of diverse perspectives.Leaders skilled in strategic doing understand when they must lead from thefront and when to lead from the rear. They are comfortable doing both.Regional LeadersRegional leaders can play a range of roles. The following [are] key [New Network Leader] roles. As we move toward new models of strategic doing, these roles will evolve.ConvenersMaintain the civic spacesConnectorsLink people, networks and assetsCivic Entrepreneurs See new opportunitiesGuides/MentorsMap a complex processStrategistsReveal larger patternsKnowledge KeepersDistill face-to-face conversations into key points and patternsWeb 2.0 MavensApply Web 2.0 power toolsTo establish a set of principles, practices and disciplines for implementing strategy in a network.LearningA continuous commitment to learning and sharing also distinguishes the process of strategic doing from traditional strategic planning. SharingFocused ConversationIn the traditional approaches to strategy, decisions rest in the hands of a few. With strategic doing, decisions continuously emerge through focused conversation and consensus. Opposing ViewsWe listen to opposing views and reach new in sights by integrating new perspectives. New PerspectivesActionThen, we move toward action. Shared UnderstandingConsensus emerges from a shared understanding that talking has its limits. If we are going to transform, it’s less important what we do, and it is more important that we do something.ConsensusConsensus does not mean unanimity. It does, however, mean open participation in the process of choosing among alternatives. Open ParticipationNot everyone needs to agree, but everyone who wishes to participate needs to be heard. We need full open and full debate of our strategic alternatives.LeadershipManaging these conversations, guiding consensus, and movingtoward action quickly requires leadership direction. So, open participation needs to be balanced with leadership: The ability to see patterns, restate issues, integrate diverse perspectives, and move ahead.Good leaders give voice to new insights. They move us toward shared outcomes, and they see the tensions that inevitably emerge as newopportunities for creativity and innovation.Creativity InnovationTransparencyOne last point: Throughout the strategic doing process, transparency becomes a critical component of successful collaborations. As trust builds within a community or network, gaining consensus becomes faster. Transparency has other benefits. Not everyone can be everywhere. TrustEngagementFor people who must momentarily step outside the process -- or for latecomers to a strategic doing process -- transparency helps people engage more quickly. They can quickly make up for what they have missed.CombinationsDetermine how assets could be combined in new and different ways.1What could we do together? Strategic doing starts with our assets. Asset mapping is a critical first step, but it is not enough to list our assets. We need to probe. We need to ask questions about how our assets -- our strengths -- could be combined in new and different ways. This step calls us to creativity. We need to see new patterns in our assets, new connections that we could form , new collaborations that align our interests and help us achieve somemutually beneficial outcomes.During this first step, we gain some insights about the importance of purposeful conversation.ListeningListen.1.1First, we learn that the key to deep conversation is not speaking, it’s listening.(Another Yogi Berra quote comes to mind: “It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.”)FocusingFocus on assets.1.2We also learn another important lesson: Our thinking follows the direction of our conversation. That’s why focusing on our assets is so important. Linking, Leveraging & AlignmentLink, leverage and align assets.1.3Our future prosperity will flow from the opportunities we see by linking, leveraging and aligning our assets.Every person, every organization has an infinite list of deficiencies: things we do not have or cannot do. At the same time, every individual, organization, possesses some clear and unique attributes, a set of assets that define who you are, what you can do, and how you live your life.To understand the power of linking assets, follow a small thought experiment. Consider a group of three people: you and two of your friends. The combination of your attributes your skills, your experiences, your intelligences -- is unique on the planet. No group has quite the same mix. How can you combine your assets to create something new? Only your friends and you can answer that question, of course. And you’ll need some deep, engaging conversation to do it.NetworksConsider the potential of networks of people.1.4Now add another dimension: your networks. Each one of you has a group of trusted people in your networks. One of your friends might have a small network, ten people or so. Another might have a network that is considerably larger, fifty people or more. In any case, these networks are also assets on which you can call for an important purpose.Now, we are not talking just about three unique individuals. We are all of the sudden engaging a network twenty to thirty times as large.Our thought experiment started with a small group of three people. Now let’s go back and consider what would happen if we started with a community group of twenty, fifty or two hundred. You can begin to see the possibilities that open networks create.PrioritiesChoose one two or three things to do together.2What should we do together? Once we start focusing on our assets and how we can combine them in new and different ways, we inevitably come up with a lot of different ideas about how we could collaborate. We have all been in brainstorming sessions in which we have covered the wall with new ideas. Then reality hits. None of us has the time to pursue all of these ideas. We need to decide. We need to choose one two or three things that we can dotogether.OutcomesDefine outcomes. 2.1Simply choosing is not enough. We also need to focus on defining clear outcomes. We need to distill and integrate our thinking. We need to be clear about where we are heading. We need practical, tangible outcomes. Visions can be vague. Outcomes are not.There’s an important reason to focus on practical outcomes. If we want others to follow our leadership, we will need to explain our outcomes concretely. Most people are intensely practical. They will only spend their time on projects they think can succeed. Our verbal picture of a strategic outcome needs to be specific enough to move people. We need to give people the opportunity to experience our outcomes in their mind’s eye. They need to picture in concrete terms how things will be different. Clear, concise strategic outcomes have another benefit. Clarity points us to the metrics we need to measure our progress. For example, if we have a strategic outcome of teaching every third grader to read and comprehend well, we will clearly measure our progress by following third grade reading scores.Action PlansTranslate ideas into action.3What will we do together?Now comes the step of translating ideas into action. To move forward, we need to make mutual commitments. We need to come up with an action plan of who does what, when. Action plans map our path ahead. They are also critical if we are going to enlist the support of others.Comfort & InvestmentStep outside comfort zones and make emotional investments in strategic outcomes.3.1By definition, transformation requires us to step outside our comfort zones, outside the familiar patterns of how we lead our lives. People will not move ina new direction without a clear strategic outcome. They need to feel an emotional investment in a strategic outcome.Practicality & ConfidenceSpecify practical paths and develop confidence in achievement of outcomes.3.2Yet, that is not enough. Before they begin altering old patterns,people also need confidence that there is a practical path to get to ouroutcome.Risk & CommitmentUnderstand risks and make decisions about whether to personally commit to moving ahead.3.3People -- rightfully -- see some risk if they are asked to abandon old patterns, old habits, in favor of something new. What if the new path leads nowhere? What if we fail? What if I fail? These are all legitimate concerns. A clear, concise action plan helps us understand the magnitude of the risks we face and make a decision about whether we will personally commit to moving ahead.Learning LoopChart out a process for learning together.4When will we get back together?An action plan and even executing an action plan is not enough. We need to chart out a process for learning together; we need to create a “learning loop”. No one is clear what works. What we learn, we learn by doing. So the last question of strategic doing is probably the most important: “How will we learn together?”In practical terms, this comes down to answering two questions.Information SharingLeverage the Internet to share information and experiences.4.1First, how we will leverage the Internet to share information and experiences before we meet again?Progress GatheringsDetermine how and when to come together to assess progress.4.2Second, how and when will we come together to assess our progress? To be aneffective discipline, we must map a process by which we will reconnect -- both in person and on-line – to continue our learning and the strategic doing cycle.CollaborationCollaborate across organizational and political boundaries.5Developing New Civic Spaces with Strategic Doing -- To promote innovation,we need new habits to think and act together. In region after region, the central challenge involves moving people out of old patterns of thought and behavior. The best way to move past these old traps is to form new collaborations acrossorganizational and political boundaries.The irony is, of course, that these boundaries are, for the most part, no longerboundaries at all. In a world of global competition and the Internet, traditionalboundaries -- boundaries often drawn decades ago -- simply limit our thinking of what is possible. When you think about it, submitting our thinking to these boundaries doesn’t make much sense. It’s a little like driving your car by looking in the rear view mirror.In crossing our traditional organizational and political boundaries, we face some very practical problems, though. Again, it may sound simple, but it is not easy. As a first matter, we often do not have a habit of coming together on a regular basis to explore the big opportunities of transformation. A trusted convener may be hard to find. Or, simply locating a place where people feel comfortable poses problems. More typically, though, we often do not know how to act. We do not behave toward each other in ways that build trust and mutual respect.Incivility emerges in a wide range of behaviors. People withhold information from each other. People may shout at each other. People may simply ignore each other. Recall a time when you left a civic or public meeting angry or frustrated. Now think about the behaviors (not the people) that gave rise to your frustration. Chances are, at the core, someone’s incivility pushed you over the edge.The irony, of course, is that we do not have to put up with incivility. We can agree to behave toward each other in ways that build trust and mutual respect. We can agree to follow some simple rules. It’s not hard. Libraries do it every day.Web 2.0Leverage the collaborative power of Web 2.0.6Leveraging the Collaborative Power of Web 2.0 -- Strategic doing is not an event. It’s a process. Indeed, with strategic doing, the process is the product. By connecting assets to our emerging opportunities, defining clear outcomes, setting action plans, and committing to learning, we are strengthening the habits we need to build networks and the trust that powers them. The collaborative tools of Web 2.0 -- blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and others -- energize strategic doing. These tools enable us to collaborate remotely.Web 2.0 unleashes the true power of the Internet – its interactivity. Web 2.0 tools make the two way flow of information easy. We can now communicate “one-to-one”, “one-to-many” and “many-to-one”. We can embed or stream video and audio files, so that people can be “in the room”. We can share files and co-author documents. All this power is now in the hands of everyone. These tools are now simple enough for anyone who can type.This interactivity creates profound implications.Information is freely available, and we can locate just what we need quickly. We can filter vast amounts of information and receive only what we want.Continuous learning is open to anyone with a connection to the Internet. People with similar interests can now find each other easily.Equally important, these tools enable on-line communities to thrive. They facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing among members of a community. Strategic doing quickly leads to the formation of new communities. Web 2.0 tools empower these communities to continue their collaborations.2010-02-282013-10-03http://www.pcrd.purdue.edu/What_We_Do/SD/wp.pdfOwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net