Strategy

The point is not to “pick one preferred future,” and hope for it to come to pass (or, even, work to create it—though there are some situations where acting to create a better future is a useful function of scenarios). Nor is the point to find the most probable future and adapt to it or “bet the company” on it. Rather, the point is to make strategic

it’s your job to know which tools—in which order—to apply in solving that for them.

The first opportunity is when you are initially discussing the engagement. You’ll want to give the prospective client multiple options for the engagement, each one priced and scoped differently. You’ll probably have a good idea of what they should hire you for, but it’s still helpful to most (not all) prospects to hear the options. You’ll also be p

This method is the scenario—a vehicle, as my colleague Napier Collyns says, for an “imaginative leap into the future.”

To go and successfully explore somewhere totally unknown, you need to be prepared for whatever you may face. You need to anticipate potential needs that might arise. Sometimes you won’t have enough information, yet you still need to understand when a choice or decision has to be made.

Clients come to experts with challenges that they can’t solve. They’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit and it’ll take a ladder to get the rest. Or they’ve eaten everything on the plate except the vegetables and it’s going to be a slog to get through the rest of the meal.

Work to build consensus around your ideas,

It is the hard craft of strategy to decide which priority shall take precedence.

In contrast to independent strategies or goals, your business purpose is the overall impact you want your business to have in the marketplace and the world.