"Actual" Strategy: Shaping Digital Strategy by Letting Go of Control

The pace of technology is changing at a growing rate and the complexity of planning for the future is becoming more difficult. Where once we would have had a decade-long plan, IT organizations can no longer plan years into the... [ view full abstract ]

The pace of technology is changing at a growing rate and the complexity of planning for the future is becoming more difficult. Where once we would have had a decade-long plan, IT organizations can no longer plan years into the future with any certainty.

Typically, conducting strategy creation is a directed waterfall of planning linked to an annual budgeting process. The back-and-forth negotiation that's common during the planning cycles often results in a set of activities that fit an idealized plan of action rather than flexible strategy (or what you actually want to achieve).It ends up being completely removed from the context of those who actually need to execute it. This hurts morale and makes the strategy fall flat with no buy-in and no belief.

To get strategies that are connected to execution, and are able to adapt to the complexity of change, you need a different approach to strategy: one that is continuous, transparent, and connects to all levels of the organization.

This is about the approach, tools, techniques and learnings that we have used in a Higher Education Technology Group.