Julia Sloan > Quotes

“The better the questions, the more attentive the listening, the richer the reflection, the better the solutions, and the deeper is the learning.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The focus, however, should not be to find the perfect model, as our strategy environment is far too unpredictable, unstable, and uncertain; rather, the focus needs to be on strengthening people’s strategic thinking capability. We”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Many leadership-development approaches to strategic thinking are based on some variation of such “how-to” models and imply a fill-in-the-blank type of solution. Surf learning is an effective learning domain for facilitating the development of strategic planning, but less than ideal for improving strategic thinking.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Engaging in the dive domain expands frames of reference and can lead to frame shifting, shattering, and reframing. Dramatic transformational experiences that shatter our frame of reference, often provoking fear as they transport us far outside our comfort zone, may provide a catalyst for strategic thinking and present an opportunity to dive to the deepest level of learning.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Harvard professor Kenneth Andrews argued that “every business organization, every subunit of an organization, and even every individual [ought to] have a clearly defined set of purposes or goals which keeps it moving in a deliberately chosen direction and prevents it drifting in undesired directions.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“strategic thinkers reside within all levels and across all functions and geographic locations of an organization. Strategic thinking is not the byproduct of position, precedence, or status. It is not an elitist function; rather it is learnable.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Change the location of strategy meetings. Create an element of surprise. ■ Invite provocative conversations and presentations with “outsiders,” including those outside a functional group, a product group, an industry sector, or a particular level of management. ■ Establish interactions with non-experts, academics, politicians, consultants, professionals from various fields, children, teenagers, young adults, middle-age and mature adults, religious leaders, people from an extreme range of economic backgrounds, and those of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. ■ Volunteer to be part of an action-learning team to solve a problem for tasks that are outside of familiar functional or product areas. ■ Join conversations, discussions, and meetings where your frame is an outlier. ■ Participate in high-level strategy-making meetings and code the frames represented as points of view are expressed. ■ Note any frame omissions that could bring value.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“On one side of the argument is the perspective of the design school of strategy, which was discussed in Chapter 1 and which was heavily influenced by the technical rational period of thought prevalent in the early nineteenth century, which continues through to today. This perspective is anchored in principles of industrialism and reflects one of modernity’s key tenets—objective representationalism, the idea that the purpose of knowledge is to represent, without logical contradiction, the “way things really are,” or the linear, functional causes of actions.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Complexity theorists insist that chaos is essential for ideas to flourish and suggest that virtually all controls should be eradicated, allowing a multitude of minds to contribute new ideas. The studies of the complexity theory perspective have very wide application in fields such as policy design and national defense strategy.6”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“strategic thinking being a highly informal, iterative, and social process, there”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The unintentional learning that occurs as the result of these three mistakes makes us think about strategy in terms of using same frames. The incidental learning that results from such inclusion and exclusion is that expressing contrary views, challenging authority, or testing tradition is punished, while conformity of thinking is rewarded. Yet challenge and testing are essential for shifting and shattering frames and for learning to think in innovative and adaptive ways.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Mental frames of reference are belief schema, an organized cognitive way of perceiving a complex set of patterns and decisions. Business”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“While the planning school overlaps with most areas of the design school, it advocates a considerably more formal and systematic process—a nearly mechanical methodology that is deeply rooted in industrial-era beliefs. Strategy”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“McKinsey & Company introduced a strategy planning system during the same period that divided a company into natural business units, later termed strategic business units (SBUs). The”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Today, the debate continues between strategy as a process of learning through hypothesis, generation, and revision, in accordance with the view of the design school, and strategy as a process of learning through exploration and discovery, from the perspective of the emergent school.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Cell’s final kind of learning, transcendent learning, requires that we modify or create whole new concepts. This kind of learning is generative and provides new possibilities and new tools for interpreting individual situations. Transcendent learning is sometimes referred to as transformational learning.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Only 10 percent of most companies’ actions arise out of their strategic planning (i.e., realized strategy).4 The source of the other 90 percent of what companies do, Mintzberg calls “emergent strategy.” This is the accumulation of day-to-day decisions, disjointed initiatives, and actions taken by managers in response to everyday work demands, without any master plan or comprehensive strategic concept to guide them. When everything”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Readily, I acknowledge that this “group-think” mentality can be a highly efficient and lucrative environment in which to manage, but it can also be detrimental to strategic thinking because everybody shares the same frame and no one wants to “rock the boat” or take the risk of challenging frames. In”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Frames are passed on in organizations through stories, protocol, policy, and conversation channels, and they contribute to the subjective interpretation of strategic events. Because”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“I think a big part of being able to make really good strategy is to constantly know what’s going on all over the world.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Literally drawing complex problems and engaging with the problem as a metaphor within a different context allows strategists to imagine associations, relative positions, and movements across boundaries that may not be apparent within a traditional linear, rational context. Furthermore,”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Surf learning holds to validity tests of facts, measurements, and outcomes; something is true or false, accurate or inaccurate. The validity test is seen in concrete experience—something either happens or it does not; there is a result or there is not. This kind of testing is typical and familiar in strategy discussions and debates. Meanwhile,”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Creating a culture where learning is valued, knowledge is shared, and critical dialogue is practiced is among the most challenging issues facing conscientious executives and those responsible for supporting strategic thinking.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The debate between the emergent and design schools of strategy became increasingly polarized in the first half of the 1990s. By the late 1990s the debate had become colossal, and was a fundamental factor in the conceptual development of strategy. In”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Strategic thinking thrives on frame change as a means to divergent thinking and deep, dive questions.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“it is not uncommon for businesses to be in the midst of a strategy implementation, only to discover that the real problem has not been addressed. Exasperating and frustrating, it is often an indication of the absence of strategic thinking.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“In my consulting practice, I am astounded by the number of global executives who have developed or are developing business in emerging markets and lack even a rudimentary knowledge of, or interest in, frames that are historical, cultural, humanitarian, social, military, and political in nature. Not only do these business leaders not seek out these frames, they often dismiss such frames as being irrelevant, superfluous, and time consuming. Including diverse data, points of view, and perspectives in a strategic dialogue is essential to maintaining a competitive strategic edge. The implication of these missing frames is the emergence of blind spots, and their impact on long-term business strategy is the writing on the wall.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The U.S. corporate strategists and CEO had concentrated only on the economic and financial research, at the expense of cultural, social, and political information and data. Shortly”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The tension that is inherent in uncertainty and ambivalence is a constructive component for avoiding stagnation and maintaining a dynamic process. This”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“good questions are: ■ offered with a caring and sharing intent; ■ presented as selfless and not asked to “show off” the knowledge or wit of the questioner; ■ asked with courage and are difficult to answer; ■ supported with good listening; ■ followed through with time for reflection.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically