strategy engine for better alignment and decision making

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Improved Organizational Alignment and Strategic Decision Making

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Complex Decision Making is Difficult

• The numbers aren’t always clear• Biases cloud decision making skills• System dynamics create unintended outcomes• Multiple actors often have conflicting interests• Time pressures motivate premature action• Geographic distribution of key employees

50% all Business Decisions FAIL− Paul Nutt, Author of Why Decisions Fail



Complexities Motivate Ineffective Processes

• Failing to develop and explore multiple options• Failing to include the right people• Failing to identify potential positive and

negative outcomes from proposed actions• Failing to identify interests of competing actors • Using economic analysis to inform, but not

control, the choices• Failing to engage the debate needed to build a

shared foundation for action



Tackling Wicked Problems

Strategy Engine is an online collaboration platform that improves the outcomes of complex decisions by guiding organizations through proven problem-solving processes.

Unlike ad-hoc decision making, Strategy Engine frames choices and builds the foundation for collective action through distributed team engagement.

Examples• Corporate Strategy• Change Management• Sustainability• Mergers & Acquisitions• Labor Negotiations• Community and Urban

Planning



Wicked vs. Technical Problems

TECHNICAL PROBLEMSTend to be well-defined, quantifiable, divisible, and strongly informed by economic analysis. Examples:

Prioritizing a project portfolio or features for release Developing a product roadmap Understanding customer needs Process improvement

WICKED PROBLEMSTend to be ill-defined, with no “optimal” solution and replete with unintended consequences across many actors. Economic analysis still matters, but is far more complex.

Build, Partner or Acquire needed technology Persevere, Pivot or Punt


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One option is a distinctly novel approach.

Two of the options are “similar” but “opposite”.

Evaluating Strategies

Strategy 1: Persevere Strategy 2: Punt Strategy 3 & 4: Pivot

Continue to operate under the same top level product objectives. We should, however, make changes that would relieve organizational pain points quickly.

The time and money required to make fundamental changes to our offerings will deplete our cash supply. While painful, we should stop operations.

Let’s consider both a Customer Segment Pivot and a Channel Pivot as a way to improve our chances for success.

Strategy Engine enables organizations to examine multiple strategies to solve a wicked problem…


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Actions & Drawbacks

Strategy: Perform a Customer Segment Pivot

Re train the sales force to target restaurant owners instead of store owners

X Retraining the sales force could take months

X If we begin this strategy without proper training, we could mishandle first connections that we cannot redo

Action:

Drawbacks:

For each Strategy, actions and drawbacks describe individual tactics for implementation. While actions may be straightforward, the drawbacks test stakeholders’ limits for risk.



Strategy Sessions with the Right People

VP of SalesChicago

VP of ProductLA

VP of MarketingNew York

VP of AccountingDurham

VP of InnovationSan Francisco

VP of HRAtlanta

VP of LearningLondon

VP of LegalWashington DC

Strategy Sessions enable 5-10 participants to thoroughly evaluate each Strategy, its Actions and their Drawbacks.

The result is a visualization of where the group believes there is a foundation for action.



Real Collaboration at Scale

…

We aggregate results of multiple sessions to measure organizational alignment.

Items near the center denote consistently supported actions, while those near the edges were consistently opposed



What does this process change?

Current State Strategy Engine

Advanced data analytics

Access to your organization’s global wisdom

Holistic evaluation criteria builds foundation for action

Better decision making

Economic decision making model leads to analysis paralysis

Biases negatively influence decisions

Error-prone based on valuing speed over careful research



Foundation for Action

1. Visual representation of your organization’s Knowledge, opinions and alignment on the topic.

3. Chat logs provide deep insights into whystakeholders think the way they think.

2. A report organizing results with recommendations and key insights.

Strategy Engine projects generate:



Next Steps

Contact Conteneo, Inc. to discuss how Strategy Engine can help you solve your most challenging organizational problems.

Laura [email protected]

415-265-2200


strategy engine for better alignment and decision making

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