The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists

Following collecting and clustering, you realize that there are too many issues, too many problems, and too many different interests at work. They need to be filtered. The first step is sequencing: bringing to the forefront those that seem to be immediate, while deferring attention on many where action can be deferred.

I call what passes the joint filters of critical importance and addressability an ASC (addressable strategic challenge). The number of ASCs that can be simultaneously worked depends on the size and resource depth of the organization and the graveness of the most serious.

A critical challenge that does not seem easily addressable deserves great attention. Can it be divided into subproblems? Is it like any similar problem others have faced? Is there anyone who might be an expert on such situations? What is changing that might alter its addressability? What is the single keystone constraint, which if broken, would mak

Deferred Judgment Deferred judgment helps avoid the problem of too early convergence on an answer, an issue Irving Janis pointed out in his analysis of groupthink. Convergence on action can be deferred by conscious attempts to focus instead on the identification of challenges and diagnosis of their inner logics.

In a company of any size, the core team at the very top is five to eight people.

Locating the crux is the first maneuver in dealing with gnarly challenges. Discovering, or articulating, that solvable problem within the complexity of a gnarly challenge is not easy.

I EXPLORE FOUR themes in the pages that follow. First, the best way to deal with strategic issues is by squarely facing the challenge. Too many people start with goals and other visions of a desired end state. Start with the challenge, and diagnose its structure and the forces at work. Once you do that, your sense of purpose and the actions you con

I EXPLORE FOUR themes in the pages that follow. First, the best way to deal with strategic issues is by squarely facing the challenge. Too many people start with goals and other visions of a desired end state. Start with the challenge, and diagnose its structure and the forces at work. Once you do that, your sense of purpose and the actions you con

It is not about setting overall performance goals. For this reason, it is important that a Strategy Foundry be held separately from any budgeting process.