Tutorial 3: Reinventing Strategic Planning

In this chapter we seek to find the balance between the two opposing views of deliberate (planning) strategy formation and the adoption of emergent strategy; the continued evaluation and revaluation of strategy content, practices and outputs. A systems based approach to evaluation in a context which enables us to “seek to achieve a balance between instrumental action (methods deployed) and experiential action (lessons learned))” (Flood, 1999)*. In its application we refer to the former as Strategy Evaluation, Shaping; the act of evaluating strategic options that are derivatives of tools and techniques (e.g. scenario analysis, market share analysis) deployed to make informed decisions when formulating strategy. We refer to the latter as Strategy Evaluation, Reviewing. This is the act of evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy system and the accumulation of lessons learned.