Everyday Strategic Preparedness

This book examines the practice of strategic management and more specifically “serious play” as a particular mode of practice that can enhance strategic management as it is practiced in organizations.

In a world characterized by increased complexity and uncertainty, organizations today struggle to be strategically prepared for unexpected change. Of course, the strategist’s job has traditionally involved an attempt to anticipate changes in the environment and to develop capabilities that will allow the organization to continue to thrive under new and different circumstances. But what if change cannot be anticipated with any degree of certainty? And what if change is so complex that its effects and implications can never be fully understood, much less anticipated? What, if anything, can organizations do to become more strategically prepared for unexpected change? This book explores the overall response to these difficult questions and argues that people in organizations become more strategically prepared for the unexpected when they cultivate practical wisdom.

MATT STATLER is Associate Director of the International Center for Enterprise Preparedness (InterCEP), New York University. JOHAN ROOS is Director of The Imagination Lab Foundation, Switzerland, and Professor at Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.

Background and Motivation * Strategy and Unexpected Change * An Ontological Shift * Defining the Problem * The Problem in Practice * Dealing with the Practical Problem * Facing Tactical Risks * Making Value Judgements * Re-framing the Response to Unexpected Change * A Geneology of Practical Wisdom * An Interpretative Framework * Reflecting on the Framework: Implications * Developing Practically Wise Habits * On the Front Lines * The Importance of Play in Organizations * Seeking New Directions in Management Education * Practical Wisdom as Everyday Strategic Preparedness * Reflections for the Field of Management and Organization Studies * Recommendations