We have always built our company, our Gaia, on some fundamental beliefs: our trust in the inherent power and ability of people, together with our conviction that successful organisations are created by people who make use of more of their potential. From this, our core has developed and expanded. With the certainty that strong results and sustainable development require an integration of the part and the whole. And that is where both people and business can grow.
When we look around the world today, in an increasingly difficult-to-navigate landscape, with rising complexity, rapid and unpredictable changes, and mutual interdependencies, we see that what we believe in and stand for has never been more important. How do we unleash the power in our organisations? Can we create both development and growth while strengthening the focus on sustainable value? How can we lead and steer today’s and tomorrow’s organisations to meet the ever-accelerating pace of change? How do we build resilient organisations created and developed by thriving people?
In a series of blogs, we have described the part of Gaia Mindset that concerns the thriving individual. We suggest that you start there: Gaia Mindset, Holistic Perspective, Learning, Co-Creation, and A New Approach to Leadership.
In this blog, we explore how to work with strategy in an increasingly uncertain and complex world.
Gaia Mindset: Strategy in a More Uncertain and Complex World
What is strategy, and how is strategic work conducted in a more uncertain and complex world?
In today’s business landscape, it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to rethink strategy and planning. The classical, linear, logical waterfall models no longer help us. The problem with the old way of working with planning and strategy is that it takes too long, and we pretend that we can predict the future in detail. This means that we put a lot of energy into details that become obsolete shortly after they are written down. Additionally, individuals and teams are often reduced to passive recipients of a preconceived plan.
So how should we think? Does this mean that strategies are obsolete and that we should stop creating them? We believe that having a strategy is a crucial component, but to build a resilient organisation, it is just as important—if not more important—how we develop it. With this both-and perspective, we see the importance of being more conscious in how we work. What is the purpose of the strategy, and what is the purpose of the strategic process? With this, we mean that the clear starting point of strategic work needs to be understanding the intention behind the strategy and the strategic process. For example: How do we drive the process so that it reflects the organisation’s purpose and the culture we want to create?
We believe that the purpose of a strategy should be to create a clear but overarching direction towards the organisation’s desired future. Furthermore, we see that the purpose of the strategic process should be to create understanding and energy for, as well as a strong connection to, the organisation’s overarching direction. A strategy that only holds intellectual height is not strong enough – there must be ownership among the people who will execute and create progress. This is because real change comes from within.
How Do We Build a Strategy Worthy of the Resilient Organisation?
With this as a starting point, how do we then build a strategy worthy of the resilient organisation? We will use the classical concepts: our overarching WHY, our crucial WHAT, and our most important HOW. By WHY, we mean the organisation’s purpose, vision, and strategic goals – that is, why we exist and what we want to achieve in the long term. Our WHAT is a concretisation of our WHY and aims to describe the path towards our vision and long-term goals. Our HOW is simply the important initiatives we need to succeed with the change the strategy entails.
Even though the thoughts and input of the entire organisation should be used, we see the strength in the board and management deciding on the overarching formulations about the organisation’s WHY. However, to create a strategy that truly lives in the organisation and where there is ownership all the way through, a similar process needs to take place at every level. So even though we believe that senior management needs to take responsibility for pointing out the direction, it needs to be followed by a process where a WHY—based on and in line with the overarching direction—is identified at the level below management, and where thereafter WHAT and HOW are developed. This is how the work progresses throughout the organisation. An important aim here is to create an iterative process where a strong idea within the organisation can actually influence the entire organisation’s strategy.
This means that even though the initial impulse occurs top-down, the subsequent process becomes bottom-up. The purpose is, of course, to create ownership and participation, but equally important is the fact that it enables many people’s ideas, perspectives, experiences, and engagement to be used to solve the challenging questions that the organisation faces. Ownership enhances the organisation’s ability to meet what cannot be planned for or create strategies around – the unexpected that requires a willingness to think anew and openness to revise parts of what has already been thought.
Matching the Whole and the Part
We believe that this is about creating a matching process between what the whole wants to achieve and each part’s—each individual’s—responsibility and engagement in that journey. Each person needs to have her own story about what the whole wants to succeed with and what she is passionate about and wants to take responsibility for. The sum of each individual’s driving forces then becomes the organisation’s strategy, and a match arises between what the part wants to achieve and the long-term intention of the whole, preferably at all levels of the organisation.
And of course, this is not the end of the process. The strategic work needs to continue continuously with a focus on learning and development—and adjustments along the way. It is a both-and: having a clear direction and strategy, AND at the same time the resilience to adapt based on changing conditions and new insights and learnings.
What we propose can be summarized as follows: An approach where you start from and identify with the whole you are part of. A focus on your own and others’ learning. Co-creation with your surroundings to build sustainable value. Seeing yourself and those around you as leaders.
You can read more about Gaia Mindset here. In a series of blogs, we present different aspects of Gaia Mindset. They address both the perspective of the thriving individual and the resilient organisation.
You can find the earlier blogs by looking here for posts containing the words Gaia Mindset. Follow us on LinkedIn, where we continuously engage in dialogue about Gaia Mindset.