Hey Changemakers,
Where’d summer go?! Being the nerd I am, I spent part of the time noodling on strategy and have been sharing thoughts over the past couple of months. This is the third installment. I also went to the beach.
Spending time outside always gets my juices flowing, especially being in water. Bobbing in the waves I realized the idea of the “strategy stack” was too inert. So, I’ve got a new handle for the framework I’ve been sharing here…the strategy spine. Why the change? I see these elements as structural and organic. Every one connects to the idea above and below it, so the whole thing works together. You can’t pluck out one vertebra and expect it to work on its own. The Strategy Spine is an integrated, connected organizational nervous system.
In July, we introduced the concept composed of seven elements. We started with core ideology: the foundation of your organizational identity. August was envisioned future: your Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and the vivid description of the far-distant shore you’re sailing toward. This month, we travel to the next region of the spine, which consists of three “vertebrae.”
Sort Your Closet
Too often, organizations cram their whole identity into their mission statement. Who they serve, how they serve, what programs they run, and where they operate all end up in one overstuffed statement that often loses its mojo. Then, as the things evolve, leaders get to tweaking, aka mission creep. Revising the mission to include the new region they decided to serve, or trying to squeeze in an up-to-date program list. I love the attempt at iteration, but the whole thing turns into a bunch of concepts in a trench coat.
A good strategic spine gives every idea its own clearly defined place. I think of it like an organized closet: When you can find things easily, you can access what you need quickly. If everything is in a jumbled pile, it’s chaos (don’t ask me how I know).
In our work, one goal of strategy formation is to calm the organization’s nervous system. Clarity and order helps people to come to their work resourced, not scrambled.
Programs, Domain, and Advantage do exactly that. They take the disparate elements that usually get jammed into the mission and give them each a proper home.
Three Cubbies
The framework I like has three components, each with a distinct job.
Programs are what you offer: your services or products. Writing this down and separating it from everything else is clarifying. Organizations often discover that some of what they’re doing is what I call accidental programming: things that got added somewhere along the way for a reason no one quite remembers, kept out of inertia.
Domain is who you serve and where: a target population, a geography, or both. When this is clearly identified, it stops organizations from trying to do everything for everyone and gives them a real basis for deciding what to take on and what to say no to.
Distinctive Competence is your advantage. It’s the how that went missing in your mission statement. In strategic management, distinctive competence refers to the specific strength or unique capability that an org executes exceptionally well, making it difficult for competitors to replicate. Because of those two things, you’re able to adapt and evolve, shedding what no longer fits and bringing fresh relevance and value.
The ability to adapt and evolve is the best asset a truly mature organization has. It’s a virtuous cycle moving fluidly between vitality and regeneration.
The Iterative Part
Unfortunately, you can’t work through core ideology, envisioned future, and the trifecta of programs, domain, and advantage once, and declare yourself finished. Naming these clearly almost always sends you back to adjust something else in the spine: a value that wasn’t quite right, a mission that was trying to do too much, a vision that needs a compelling call. Don’t fret! That’s a good thing.
My chiropractor once said something to me that I’ve used with organizations ever since. “Subtle is what got you sick, and subtle is what will get you well.” Strategy formation is like that, too. The clarifications that seem small, like writing out all your programs and naming your geography, can refine your mission (why) vision (who/what we are becoming), and make decision-making easier down the road.
I call this “getting to page 2.” In a nutshell, if you think of core ideology and envisioned future as the Vision Framework, then page 2 allows us to drill down into what we do, what we’re good at, and who and where we serve. Getting to that second page can feel like a big, long exhale.
A bit of outside perspective as you Marie-Kondo your organizational closet can help, so if you’d like help facilitating that process, I’m just an email away.
Standing tall and inviting you to do so too,
Kimberley
