4 of 6: Crafting my personal strategy ∙ Strategy
You can read each of the other articles in the series here:
- 1 of 6: Environment
- 2 of 6: Radar
- 3 of 6: Capabilities
- 5 of 6: Projects
- 6 of 6: Day to Day
Or you can read the whole story in one go here.
Ok, so how would all these insights translate into figuring out my way forward, in 2021?
Next, I looked into the Strategy area of the Sense & Change model.
When developing a strategy, it’s useful to consider multiple strategic options before committing to an approach and set of priorities going forward.
Because I focused on crafting a personal strategy for my professional life, I used the 6 value-generating activities mentioned earlier to generate some strategic options. Arrow emojis indicate relative investments compared to 2020:
After laying out these options, I invited Raluca, my wife, to a conversation to explore them in detail, along with their implications. I’m in the fortunate situation of being able to work with her for the most complex challenges of our client organizations and also to publish together the OrgDev newsletter.
She had done a similar reflection about the Environment, Radar and her own Capabilities plus brainstormed some strategic options as well. This was a point when we helped each other think things through better, before each of us chose a personal strategy for 2021.
The main things that we explored for each of the options are:
- What’s the value added to others by pursuing that specific option? Would I serve the same beneficiaries or not?
- What are the financial assumptions behind each option? Would pursuing that option be viable from a financial standpoint?
- What are the risks associated with pursuing each option? How big is the impact & probability of the risks becoming reality?
- How ready am I to invest in these new things? How much of my current capabilities support this option?
- Who would I become If I prioritize those specific things for my working life?
Thanks to this conversation, I decided with more confidence that I’ll pursue this strategic option, which will become my personal strategy for 2021:
My personal strategy for 2021 is to monetize new knowledge products that I create, and the main trade-off is pursuing less client work.
In terms of priorities and investments, this means that:
- I will invest significantly more in creating knowledge that is easy to understand and to put into practice
- I will invest significantly more in bringing the knowledge products that I create (practical guides)
- I will invest more in study and discovering new knowledge that’s valuable to others and to myself
- I will invest more in extending my network
- I will continue the current investment in curating useful resources
- I will invest less in Strategy & Organization projects, which translates in finding each time the highest leverage contributions I can support my client organizations with
After gaining this clarity, the final thing that I did was to look at the Projects and Day to Day areas.
Want to read the whole story in one go?
