Strategic Doing: Simple Rules for Not-So-Simple Problems

Welcome back, esteemed readers. Today, I continue my collaborative series with my colleague, Ed Morrison, the founder of a process called Strategic Doing. As a reminder, we have shifted from the ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of innovative team-building, community, and collaboration. The simple rules for not-so-simple problems outlined in the Strategic Doing process are some of the best I have encountered. 

The big aha in Ed’s process—and my writings—is that teams, collaboration, and purpose-driven networks thrive on action. Today’s wicked problems demand more than traditional management’s endless avalanche of strategic plans and mission statements; they require an adaptive, iterative approach of design, do, learn (rinse, and repeat). To that end, Ed envisions a global network of practitioners skilled in applying these methods to tackle society’s most wicked problems.

To inspire the actions necessary to address these problems, society needs a different approach. People are tired of vague and flowery vision statements and the soul-sucking process of creating strategic plans that often become obsolete by the time they are printed. Instead, they crave clear, specific goals and a practical, yet adaptable, path to achieve them. 

Here’s the insight: we can get there if we intentionally focus on our conversations. The Strategic Doing guides you by focusing on four key questions that provide a foundation for any collaboration:

• What could we do? Let's explore possible opportunities using the assets we already have to generate solutions to the complex challenges we face.
• What should we do? Since we can't do everything, we'll discuss criteria to decide which opportunities to pursue and define what success looks like.
• What will we do? Let's take action together to test our ideas and build momentum as a team, network, or community.
• What's our 30/30? We'll each commit to a small part of the project and reconvene to share progress, learn from our experiences, make adjustments, and plan our next steps. (We set the default at 30 days—What did we learn the last 30 days?, What will we do in the next 30 days? (But you can adjust the cycle time to meet your needs.) 

Though the questions are simple, staying on course requires tremendous discipline from leaders and participants. 

10 Rules of Strategic Doing

To make this discipline easier, the '10 Rules of Strategic Doing' break the questions down into practical steps for guiding conversations and helping participants move through the process.

Rule 1: Create and Maintain a Safe Space for Deep, Focused Conversations. Strive to set the sessions in spaces that allow for deep, focused conversations and set clear expectations for respectful behavior that build trust and mutual respect.

Rule 2: Frame Conversations Around an Appreciative Question. People move in the direction of their conversations. Problem-centric discussions often lead to groups becoming stuck in defining a problem that is increasingly complex and constantly changing depending on the context. Appreciatively framed questions focus on opportunities and potential solutions, guiding conversations toward positive outcomes that give the participants more agency over the outcome.

Rule 3: Uncover Hidden Assets that People Are Willing to Share. Avoid wishful thinking by grounding your conversations in the resources you actually have. Focus on assets—such as skills, personal networks, and finances—that participants are willing to share. This approach keeps the conversation realistic and actionable, avoiding ‘what ifs’ and ideas that participants cannot or will not follow through on.

Rule 4: Link and Leverage Your Assets to Create New Opportunities. With a list of available assets, brainstorm ways to combine and utilize them in projects. This process, called recombinant innovation, helps generate new and innovative solutions. Similar to design thinking, quantity at this point is more important than quality. When people start getting excited about an opportunity, it's likely worth further exploration.

Rule 5: Rank All Your Opportunities to Find Your ‘Big Easy’. Remember, you can’t do everything, so you now have to identify the criteria to choose one of the projects from your brainstorm. Two criteria are particularly useful for adaptive management: the relative impact of each opportunity and its ease of implementation. Balancing these criteria ensures the chosen project is important to motivate people and feasible enough to avoid discouragement. Apply criteria to choose your ‘Big Easy"—the one project that meets your criteria and that you can accomplish. Save the remaining opportunities for another day.

Rule 6: Convert Your Big Easy into an Outcome with Measurable Characteristics. Foster a shared understanding of the project by converting it into clear, performance standards and measurable outcomes. Becoming clear on what you want to accomplish makes the project more tangible and real, increasing clarity and reducing the chances of confusion, conflict, and lack of buy-in.

Rule 7: Define at Least One Pathfinder Project with Guideposts. Establish a few guideposts for your initial Pathfinder project and get started. We build trust and learn by doing things together. A pathfinder project moves ideas into action, allowing us to test assumptions and build trust through collaboration. Unlike traditional strategies that emphasize extensive data collection before action, pathfinder projects enable immediate learning and trust-building.

Rule 8: Draft a Short-Term Action Plan with Everyone Taking a Small Step. Shared leadership is essential, so each participant must take responsibility for their actions and help maintain the group's commitment to its purpose. Unlike typical teams where a few people do most of the work, this approach ensures everyone takes responsibility for a small step, collectively leading to significant results. Take a moment to create a brief action plan where everyone has a role, regardless of their position. This plan builds trust by establishing clear expectations and making everyone aware of and accountable for their commitments.

Rule 9: Set a Meeting to Review Progress, Learn, and Adapt. To make Pathfinder projects effective, we need to evaluate, reflect on the results, and make adjustments. Academics call this a closed learning loop; practitioners call it common sense. Set a brief check-in that aligns with achieving a guidepost in your project. This allows you to share learning experiences, harness the team's creative power, adjust as needed, and define the expected outcomes for the next meeting and the steps to get there.

Rule 10: Nudge, Connect, and Promote Relentlessly to Build New Habits of Collaboration. Shared leadership involves helping each other accomplish tasks. Friendly, specific, and supportive nudges from any team member build trust and improve performance over time. Always look to connect people and assets in your network to increase your capacity to collaborate and deliver results. Promoting your project relentlessly helps attract others and connect networks, accelerating and amplifying your impact while building the habits you need for collaboration. 

These are simple rules for not-so-simple problems. They guide us to a new, more effective, and fulfilling way to collaborate. If you hope to thrive amid a world of wicked problems, you must start building this collaborative muscle. 

What Now?

Want to learn more about Strategic Doing? Join the global movement. Ed hosts a community conversation every Friday to discuss the benefits of this process. He has also co-written a book that details the need for Strategic Doing and its simple rules.

 If you are interested in mastering these skills, take a practitioner course, like I have. These are thinking skills for a complex world.  The course will jumpstart your journey to a new way of thinking, behaving, and doing work together. Further, you’ll get insights into (1) how this discipline evolved over 30 years of working on wicked problems and (2) why it works. 

Like any discipline, the rest is up to you.  Mastery of these skills comes with practice.

Let’s Connect

For full disclosure, I have become a devoted practitioner of Ed’s Strategic Doing approach. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk with us about how to apply this innovative process to your organization, community, or network.

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In the meantime, let's expand our community. Subscribe to this newsletter and share it within your network. Together, we can create a ripple effect of knowledge and action.

Also, I'm eager to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic. Do you have a story that speaks to these ideas? What needs do you have in navigating wicked problems? Your insights are invaluable as we navigate this complex journey together.