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Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership
Increasing business complexity and the emergence of networks is changing the practice of strategic management. Today's managers need to understand how to design and guide complex collaborations to accelerate innovation. These collaborations cross organizational boundaries both inside and outside the corporation. Technology and innovation management require the fast, agile development of these sophisticated collaborations. This book will introduce you to the new disciplines of agile strategy and collaborative leadership. Readers will learn how to design and guide complex collaborations by following a discipline of simple rules.
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Published July 16, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
April 6, 2021
Only gave two stars because no one takes one star reviews seriously.
I’ve never been as underwhelmed by a leadership book as I was by this work. Closing chapter’s comments up front might have helped a little but overall...this books was not engaging or particularly insightful.
I’ve never been as underwhelmed by a leadership book as I was by this work. Closing chapter’s comments up front might have helped a little but overall...this books was not engaging or particularly insightful.
February 12, 2024
Read this for work. Not a book that will change he you life, but it has some nice tips about how to get projects completed at work in a collaborative and efficient manner. Still not exactly sure what Yo-Yo Ma has to do with agile leadership.
April 21, 2023
Great way to approach facilitating collaborative projects in an Agile way without worrying about discussing specific tools or frameworks. A must have for any facilitator’s bookshelf.
July 29, 2019
Kurt, Central patron, July 2019, 3 stars:
Good material for getting a team to get stuff done; the book's readability suffers from poor visual layout, unfortunately. Deeper supportive research and more detailed case studies would greatly improve the book too.
Good material for getting a team to get stuff done; the book's readability suffers from poor visual layout, unfortunately. Deeper supportive research and more detailed case studies would greatly improve the book too.
February 19, 2022
Did not enjoy this or learn anything. Bad examples.
July 16, 2020
Good, pragmatic read with actionable ideas! Here is a summary:
Hierarchies, Networks, and Strategy: The hierarchy and the network have very different implications for thinking about strategy. In a hierarchy, the challenge is to communicate information about what to do “down” and to get information about the results “up.” In a network, on the other hand, the challenge is to get the members’ resources and efforts aligned toward a chosen objective. This is a key difference and necessitates thinking about “doing” strategy very differently. To effectively use the tools of strategy in a networked world, we need to change three things:
We need to think differently. In a complex environment characterized by networks, it’s simply not possible for one individual to develop effective strategy. Strategy has to be a team effort, and the more complex the environment, the larger the network that will need to be engaged.
We need to behave differently. In genuine collaboration, trust has to be high and turf low. Trust is established when words and actions align. Rules of civility are one important component of establishing an environment where trust can flourish. We also need to balance two dimensions: guidance and participation.
We need to “do” differently. Thinking differently and be¬having differently “set the table” for the third thing that needs to happen in order for companies, organizations, or communities to successfully navigate challenges - doing differently. The following 10 skills break that “doing” down into specific components that are simple to understand and put into practice.
Skill 1: Create and Maintain a Safe Space for Deep, Focused Conversation
Increasing the productivity of groups and teams begins with increasing the productivity of their conversations. One of the ways to assure deep, focused group conversations is to pay attention to the size of the group having the conversation.
In Decide & Deliver: 5 Steps to Breakthrough Performance in your Organization, Marcia Blenko and her co-authors contend that the ideal group size is 7 and that every person beyond 7 reduced the team’s effectiveness by 10%, so that when a group gets to about 17 members, about all they can do is make a decision about when to take a lunch break. Others have advocated for a slightly smaller size. When bringing together a small group or team for a strategic conversation, explain that when individuals work together in groups, there is evidence that the best outcomes occur in groups that have the greatest levels of “equity of voice.” This means that when they meet together, every member talks for about the same amount of time. Simply letting group members know that you’ll be striving for equity of voice can be quite powerful.
Skill 2: Frame the Conversation with the Right Question
The second skill of agile leadership is to design a conversation around an appreciative framing question, a question with many answers that will move the conversation in a positive direction. A good framing question is complex enough that it will require the deeper thinking and engagement of each person in the conversation. Adaptive questions point us to challenges for which there are no clear answers. Adaptive questions can trigger many answers that might all lead to acceptable solutions. “How do we become the employer of choice in our industry?” “What is the best way to respond to a new technology that can erode our market position quickly?” Each of these examples have many possible answers, and each solution could contribute to that answer. The overall focus of the inquiry is on what the organization wants more of, not less. By asking the right question - an appreciative one that allows for many perspectives on an adaptive challenge - agile leaders draw people into a deeper, more-focused conversation that can lead to many new opportunities.
Skill 3: Identify Your Assets, Including the Hidden ones
Many people operate in “If Only Land.” Look for social assets, capital assets, skills and knowledge.
Skill 4: Link and Leverage Assets to Identify New Opportunities
Agile leaders not only uncover hidden assets; they also see how different assets could be linked, leveraged, and aligned, and can help others see that potential as well. A mere list of assets is not enough. The magic happens when assets get combined. Making these kinds of connections is useful in many contexts but is critical in a network (rather than a hierarchy) - it provides the platform from which collective solutions to our most complex challenges will emerge. It’s helpful to think horizontally, across different disciplines, fields, or bodies of knowledge. New insights can occur when we think horizontally.
Skill 5: Look for the Big Easy
To develop and implement an effective strategy, we must move at least one of our ideas to action. Resources are limited. The fifth skill an agile leader needs involves efficiently sorting through (filtering) many options to identify one that has the best chance of success.
The 2x2 matrix tool is an aid to help make decisions. To use this tool, there is a very important decision to make: Which two criteria should be considered? You could use any two criteria you decide are best-suited to your challenge, but two in particular are suggested: impact and ease of implementation. That’s why it’s called the Big Easy. The “Big” inspires people and engages them emotionally. The “Easy” means that there are practical steps that can be taken now to move toward this opportunity. You are looking for the opportunity that has the largest impact and is the easiest to implement.
Skill 6: Convert Your Ideas to Outcomes with Measurable Characteristics
Agile leaders know how to translate ideas into meaningful, measurable outcomes that, when pursued, will help organizations achieve their most cherished ideals. To help groups adopt an agile strategy approach, ask them to consider three questions: If we are successful,
What will we see?
What will we feel?
Whose lives will be different and how?
Once you have statements about what a successful outcome would look like, go back to each one and name a couple of ways you could measure that quality. It is only when we are sure of what we want - in detail - that we can really pursue it. This skill allows agile leaders to guide groups in the kind of dialogue that is needed in order to come to a shared commitment to a common destination.
Skill 7: Start Slowly to Go Fast - But Start
We may all have an outcome to achieve in our mind - a better job, a more agile organization, a more prosperous community - and we want to get there as quickly as we can. The reality is that we really can’t learn how to make progress toward that outcome until we start doing something. Agile leaders are biased toward action for a simple reason: We only learn about these complex systems by doing. When we break big challenges into smaller, more manageable tasks, we not only reduce our risks; we also increase the chance of feeling good about getting something accomplished. Experiment, pilot, and prototype.
Skill 8: Draft Short-Term Action Plans That Include Everyone
Agile leadership means ensuring that good ideas don’t die on the vine, by making sure that each member of a group shares the responsibility for implementation. When we hear the word “leader,” most of us will be thinking about leadership as a quality that resides in a single person. Instead, focus on leadership as a shared characteristic of a group or a team. We need others to join us in leadership to take on complex challenges. Perhaps the most visible, pragmatic example of shared leadership is a shared action plan. The plan needs to be documented in writing, not just left to people’s powers of recollection. An action plan lays out in detail what needs to happen next to keep moving forward. In an action plan, members of the group take responsibility for the specific “to-do’s” that need to be done. An action plan should be limited to a short time-frame - say, the next 30 days. Why? Because if you’re in a complex environment, things change rapidly. While the action plan is straightforward, it’s also easy for this step to go awry if careful attention isn’t paid to the details. Each person should have something to do in the action plan - a promise they are making to the group.
Skill 9: Set 30/30 Meetings to Review, Learn, and Adjust
To make sure that agile strategy efforts stay on track, we use a feedback loop. Agile leaders need a specific kind of feedback loop: a learning loop. A 30/30 looks back¬ward at the last 30 days and forward to the next 30 days. The agenda for a 30/30 meeting should be very clear and simple. You could use the following questions:
What did we learn the last 30 days?
Here’s the outcome we’ve agreed to. Do we want to make any changes? Does everyone all still agree with the outcome we’ve chosen?
Are we on track for what we’re currently working on? How should we update our action plan?
When and where will we next get together? Are there any communication problems we need to resolve?
Skill 10: Nudge, Connect, and Promote to Reinforce New Habits
“Doing differently” when it comes to collaborative networks needs to become a way of life, a set of new habits. There are three specific kinds of activities that will make these new habits of collaboration more likely to be permanent. The first way agile leaders maintain the momentum of a network is to nudge everyone to move ideas into action and complete their tasks. In nudging, we are acknowledging the reality that most people will not do what needs to be done all of the time without this kind of reinforcement. We all need an extra push (at least some of the time) to get us to do our part in the new collaborative venture.
When we nudge, we are really doing two things: Most obviously, we are ensuring that a particular task is completed. Less obvious but more important is the second function of nudging: We are establishing positive norms for the group. Another habit of agile leaders that strengthens a network is to connect new people and other networks to it. In connecting, you intentionally seek to grow the network. Networks have porous boundaries. Connecting is taking an active role in helping people move across that boundary to be more tightly connected to your network. Each addition to the network brings new resources and assets that might be instrumental in the group’s future work. The third habit to cultivate is that of promoting. You want to publicize your successes. This helps attract more people to your network that you might not have had access to otherwise. Promotion is particularly important if yours is the kind of group that doesn’t have much in the way of access to financial resources. People with money make decisions about where to invest it based in part on their calculation of risk - and the best predictor of low risk is a track record of achievement. Even if your successes are small, they communicate that you’re a good investment prospect.
Hierarchies, Networks, and Strategy: The hierarchy and the network have very different implications for thinking about strategy. In a hierarchy, the challenge is to communicate information about what to do “down” and to get information about the results “up.” In a network, on the other hand, the challenge is to get the members’ resources and efforts aligned toward a chosen objective. This is a key difference and necessitates thinking about “doing” strategy very differently. To effectively use the tools of strategy in a networked world, we need to change three things:
We need to think differently. In a complex environment characterized by networks, it’s simply not possible for one individual to develop effective strategy. Strategy has to be a team effort, and the more complex the environment, the larger the network that will need to be engaged.
We need to behave differently. In genuine collaboration, trust has to be high and turf low. Trust is established when words and actions align. Rules of civility are one important component of establishing an environment where trust can flourish. We also need to balance two dimensions: guidance and participation.
We need to “do” differently. Thinking differently and be¬having differently “set the table” for the third thing that needs to happen in order for companies, organizations, or communities to successfully navigate challenges - doing differently. The following 10 skills break that “doing” down into specific components that are simple to understand and put into practice.
Skill 1: Create and Maintain a Safe Space for Deep, Focused Conversation
Increasing the productivity of groups and teams begins with increasing the productivity of their conversations. One of the ways to assure deep, focused group conversations is to pay attention to the size of the group having the conversation.
In Decide & Deliver: 5 Steps to Breakthrough Performance in your Organization, Marcia Blenko and her co-authors contend that the ideal group size is 7 and that every person beyond 7 reduced the team’s effectiveness by 10%, so that when a group gets to about 17 members, about all they can do is make a decision about when to take a lunch break. Others have advocated for a slightly smaller size. When bringing together a small group or team for a strategic conversation, explain that when individuals work together in groups, there is evidence that the best outcomes occur in groups that have the greatest levels of “equity of voice.” This means that when they meet together, every member talks for about the same amount of time. Simply letting group members know that you’ll be striving for equity of voice can be quite powerful.
Skill 2: Frame the Conversation with the Right Question
The second skill of agile leadership is to design a conversation around an appreciative framing question, a question with many answers that will move the conversation in a positive direction. A good framing question is complex enough that it will require the deeper thinking and engagement of each person in the conversation. Adaptive questions point us to challenges for which there are no clear answers. Adaptive questions can trigger many answers that might all lead to acceptable solutions. “How do we become the employer of choice in our industry?” “What is the best way to respond to a new technology that can erode our market position quickly?” Each of these examples have many possible answers, and each solution could contribute to that answer. The overall focus of the inquiry is on what the organization wants more of, not less. By asking the right question - an appreciative one that allows for many perspectives on an adaptive challenge - agile leaders draw people into a deeper, more-focused conversation that can lead to many new opportunities.
Skill 3: Identify Your Assets, Including the Hidden ones
Many people operate in “If Only Land.” Look for social assets, capital assets, skills and knowledge.
Skill 4: Link and Leverage Assets to Identify New Opportunities
Agile leaders not only uncover hidden assets; they also see how different assets could be linked, leveraged, and aligned, and can help others see that potential as well. A mere list of assets is not enough. The magic happens when assets get combined. Making these kinds of connections is useful in many contexts but is critical in a network (rather than a hierarchy) - it provides the platform from which collective solutions to our most complex challenges will emerge. It’s helpful to think horizontally, across different disciplines, fields, or bodies of knowledge. New insights can occur when we think horizontally.
Skill 5: Look for the Big Easy
To develop and implement an effective strategy, we must move at least one of our ideas to action. Resources are limited. The fifth skill an agile leader needs involves efficiently sorting through (filtering) many options to identify one that has the best chance of success.
The 2x2 matrix tool is an aid to help make decisions. To use this tool, there is a very important decision to make: Which two criteria should be considered? You could use any two criteria you decide are best-suited to your challenge, but two in particular are suggested: impact and ease of implementation. That’s why it’s called the Big Easy. The “Big” inspires people and engages them emotionally. The “Easy” means that there are practical steps that can be taken now to move toward this opportunity. You are looking for the opportunity that has the largest impact and is the easiest to implement.
Skill 6: Convert Your Ideas to Outcomes with Measurable Characteristics
Agile leaders know how to translate ideas into meaningful, measurable outcomes that, when pursued, will help organizations achieve their most cherished ideals. To help groups adopt an agile strategy approach, ask them to consider three questions: If we are successful,
What will we see?
What will we feel?
Whose lives will be different and how?
Once you have statements about what a successful outcome would look like, go back to each one and name a couple of ways you could measure that quality. It is only when we are sure of what we want - in detail - that we can really pursue it. This skill allows agile leaders to guide groups in the kind of dialogue that is needed in order to come to a shared commitment to a common destination.
Skill 7: Start Slowly to Go Fast - But Start
We may all have an outcome to achieve in our mind - a better job, a more agile organization, a more prosperous community - and we want to get there as quickly as we can. The reality is that we really can’t learn how to make progress toward that outcome until we start doing something. Agile leaders are biased toward action for a simple reason: We only learn about these complex systems by doing. When we break big challenges into smaller, more manageable tasks, we not only reduce our risks; we also increase the chance of feeling good about getting something accomplished. Experiment, pilot, and prototype.
Skill 8: Draft Short-Term Action Plans That Include Everyone
Agile leadership means ensuring that good ideas don’t die on the vine, by making sure that each member of a group shares the responsibility for implementation. When we hear the word “leader,” most of us will be thinking about leadership as a quality that resides in a single person. Instead, focus on leadership as a shared characteristic of a group or a team. We need others to join us in leadership to take on complex challenges. Perhaps the most visible, pragmatic example of shared leadership is a shared action plan. The plan needs to be documented in writing, not just left to people’s powers of recollection. An action plan lays out in detail what needs to happen next to keep moving forward. In an action plan, members of the group take responsibility for the specific “to-do’s” that need to be done. An action plan should be limited to a short time-frame - say, the next 30 days. Why? Because if you’re in a complex environment, things change rapidly. While the action plan is straightforward, it’s also easy for this step to go awry if careful attention isn’t paid to the details. Each person should have something to do in the action plan - a promise they are making to the group.
Skill 9: Set 30/30 Meetings to Review, Learn, and Adjust
To make sure that agile strategy efforts stay on track, we use a feedback loop. Agile leaders need a specific kind of feedback loop: a learning loop. A 30/30 looks back¬ward at the last 30 days and forward to the next 30 days. The agenda for a 30/30 meeting should be very clear and simple. You could use the following questions:
What did we learn the last 30 days?
Here’s the outcome we’ve agreed to. Do we want to make any changes? Does everyone all still agree with the outcome we’ve chosen?
Are we on track for what we’re currently working on? How should we update our action plan?
When and where will we next get together? Are there any communication problems we need to resolve?
Skill 10: Nudge, Connect, and Promote to Reinforce New Habits
“Doing differently” when it comes to collaborative networks needs to become a way of life, a set of new habits. There are three specific kinds of activities that will make these new habits of collaboration more likely to be permanent. The first way agile leaders maintain the momentum of a network is to nudge everyone to move ideas into action and complete their tasks. In nudging, we are acknowledging the reality that most people will not do what needs to be done all of the time without this kind of reinforcement. We all need an extra push (at least some of the time) to get us to do our part in the new collaborative venture.
When we nudge, we are really doing two things: Most obviously, we are ensuring that a particular task is completed. Less obvious but more important is the second function of nudging: We are establishing positive norms for the group. Another habit of agile leaders that strengthens a network is to connect new people and other networks to it. In connecting, you intentionally seek to grow the network. Networks have porous boundaries. Connecting is taking an active role in helping people move across that boundary to be more tightly connected to your network. Each addition to the network brings new resources and assets that might be instrumental in the group’s future work. The third habit to cultivate is that of promoting. You want to publicize your successes. This helps attract more people to your network that you might not have had access to otherwise. Promotion is particularly important if yours is the kind of group that doesn’t have much in the way of access to financial resources. People with money make decisions about where to invest it based in part on their calculation of risk - and the best predictor of low risk is a track record of achievement. Even if your successes are small, they communicate that you’re a good investment prospect.
July 14, 2020
My employer had planned a training program this year based on the book The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, unfortunately OBE (that’s overcome by events for those unfamiliar with that acronym). I’d planned to read that book, and my plans so far have also been OBE. Near as I can understand Adaptive Leadership and this, Agile Leadership, probably have some overlap. The former says leaders must evolve, preserving the best from the past, knowing what to discard, and finding new ways to meet new challenges. Sounds like my entire career! The latter seems to focus on product delivery methodology, with one product being strategy on delivering the product. If you’ve done these sort of things for a few of decades or more, and perhaps from different careers, you’ll see a lot of repackaging, renaming, and (re)branding of what you probably already know in a leadership du jour book. This one comes with a trademarked brand - Strategic Doing - and some renaming - Agile Leadership - and familiar techniques.
I’ll list the skills they talk about:
1. Create and Maintain a Safe Space for Deep, Focused Conversation
2. Frame the Conversation with the Right Question
3. Identify Your Assets, Including the Hidden Ones
4. Link and Leverage Assets to Identify New Opportunities
5. Look for the “Big Easy”
6. Convert Your Ideas to Outcomes with Measurable Characteristics
7. Start Slowly to Go Fast - But Start
8. Draft Short-term Action Plans That Include Everyone
9. Set 30/30 Meetings to Review, Learn, and Adjust
10. Nudge, Connect, and Promote to Reinforce New Habits
Anything look earth-shattering? Maybe #8 is unfamiliar (that renaming), but it’s not: set a meeting in 30 days to review progress and go over what is coming in the next 30. Two week look ahead? four weeks? One? I’ve always adjusted - uh...been strategically agile - the granularity of the focus to the requirements of the moment. Early on, meet more frequently to ensure the start is good; middle schedule are usually just course maintenance; the final push also needs more frequent checks to ensure successful completion and picking up all of the gotchas.
Bottom line: if you’ve never been exposed to any sort of strategic training, planning, doing (not to infringe on any trademark, but you sort of have to do something, else it’s just a thought exercise) this may be of some benefit. If you’ve been around the block a few times, it’s worth a skim, if only to log the different buzz phrases for cross reference. Call it 2.5 stars rounded up.
I received a free copy of this from the publisher Wiley through Mercury Magazines.
I’ll list the skills they talk about:
1. Create and Maintain a Safe Space for Deep, Focused Conversation
2. Frame the Conversation with the Right Question
3. Identify Your Assets, Including the Hidden Ones
4. Link and Leverage Assets to Identify New Opportunities
5. Look for the “Big Easy”
6. Convert Your Ideas to Outcomes with Measurable Characteristics
7. Start Slowly to Go Fast - But Start
8. Draft Short-term Action Plans That Include Everyone
9. Set 30/30 Meetings to Review, Learn, and Adjust
10. Nudge, Connect, and Promote to Reinforce New Habits
Anything look earth-shattering? Maybe #8 is unfamiliar (that renaming), but it’s not: set a meeting in 30 days to review progress and go over what is coming in the next 30. Two week look ahead? four weeks? One? I’ve always adjusted - uh...been strategically agile - the granularity of the focus to the requirements of the moment. Early on, meet more frequently to ensure the start is good; middle schedule are usually just course maintenance; the final push also needs more frequent checks to ensure successful completion and picking up all of the gotchas.
Bottom line: if you’ve never been exposed to any sort of strategic training, planning, doing (not to infringe on any trademark, but you sort of have to do something, else it’s just a thought exercise) this may be of some benefit. If you’ve been around the block a few times, it’s worth a skim, if only to log the different buzz phrases for cross reference. Call it 2.5 stars rounded up.
I received a free copy of this from the publisher Wiley through Mercury Magazines.
October 6, 2024
The community shaper’s user manual
A manual for community and economic development work if I’ve ever seen one. It’s not billed quite like that, and this approach has many additional uses, but it could be applied in rural communities anywhere and I’d expect rewarding results.
A manual for community and economic development work if I’ve ever seen one. It’s not billed quite like that, and this approach has many additional uses, but it could be applied in rural communities anywhere and I’d expect rewarding results.
June 24, 2022
This book isn’t “bad” by any standard, but it’s just not good. There were close to no moments where I thought, “Wow, this is new!”
Given the way I rate books on Goodreads, this falls in my bottom 20% tier, so it gets one star out of five. YMMV.
Given the way I rate books on Goodreads, this falls in my bottom 20% tier, so it gets one star out of five. YMMV.
January 11, 2020
I read the book and loved it so much that I took the training to facilitate the method. If you participate in any kind of collaborative work in your life, these are the best ideas out there.
June 2, 2021
Practical. Simple. re-readable.
September 11, 2024
Organizational life in America has grown much flatter and more mobile in recent decades. A lifetime career with one company is now the exception rather than the norm. As such, an individual’s ability to contribute quickly to a team has become more important than their upward mobility. However, much literature about leadership and cultural practices remain fixed on the idea of one all-powerful person at the top commanding legions of followers. To counter this narrative, these five university scholars present their approach towards leading by doing in complex networks. They provide a framework for a paradigm shift in the way leaders conduct themselves.
This book’s subtitle reports its topic as “agile leadership.” This term “agile” is borrowed from the world of software development. A top-down design approach used to direct software development and specified complex code all at once. Then teams would build the software, often over years. By the time the team completed development, the software would often be obsolete, and thus, large investments would be lost. Instead, agile software development sought to flatten software organization so that groups can achieve quick results through many iterations of continual feedback and improvement. It has revolutionized the world of software engineering.
The authors seek a similar agile revolution for leadership. Instead of one small group of leaders defining five- and ten-year plans of strategic thinking on their own from on high, the authors suggest that organizations learn about their direction as they go through doing and iterative feedback. Thus, the creative energies of an entire organization can be unlocked instead of just a select few. This framework then places a premium on teamwork and communication. The authors do not leave this direction as mere inspiration; rather, they provide ten concrete practices for individuals to enact this vision within their local contexts. Leadership thus becomes everyone’s business.
Though this book is geared for the general public, not just academics, the authors have grounded their analysis in evidence-based research. They have implemented its ideas widely through workshops and in classrooms. Therefore, the reader can trust the practical effectiveness of their work rather than just pondering whether ethereal concepts would work in reality.
Clearly, the authors aim to bring the insights of their academic discipline to a wide array of organizations. Anyone working in a team can benefit from understanding how agile principles can be applied to their setting. I’ve worked with agile software development for over ten years, but I appreciate how the authors extended this helpful approach towards organizational life. They have put words on social practices that I have sought to adopt in my work context. I only hope others follow suit so that we all can benefit.
This book’s subtitle reports its topic as “agile leadership.” This term “agile” is borrowed from the world of software development. A top-down design approach used to direct software development and specified complex code all at once. Then teams would build the software, often over years. By the time the team completed development, the software would often be obsolete, and thus, large investments would be lost. Instead, agile software development sought to flatten software organization so that groups can achieve quick results through many iterations of continual feedback and improvement. It has revolutionized the world of software engineering.
The authors seek a similar agile revolution for leadership. Instead of one small group of leaders defining five- and ten-year plans of strategic thinking on their own from on high, the authors suggest that organizations learn about their direction as they go through doing and iterative feedback. Thus, the creative energies of an entire organization can be unlocked instead of just a select few. This framework then places a premium on teamwork and communication. The authors do not leave this direction as mere inspiration; rather, they provide ten concrete practices for individuals to enact this vision within their local contexts. Leadership thus becomes everyone’s business.
Though this book is geared for the general public, not just academics, the authors have grounded their analysis in evidence-based research. They have implemented its ideas widely through workshops and in classrooms. Therefore, the reader can trust the practical effectiveness of their work rather than just pondering whether ethereal concepts would work in reality.
Clearly, the authors aim to bring the insights of their academic discipline to a wide array of organizations. Anyone working in a team can benefit from understanding how agile principles can be applied to their setting. I’ve worked with agile software development for over ten years, but I appreciate how the authors extended this helpful approach towards organizational life. They have put words on social practices that I have sought to adopt in my work context. I only hope others follow suit so that we all can benefit.
May 27, 2021
In the highly volatile and uncertain world we live in – change is rapid and unpredictable in its nature and extent. The present is unclear and the future is uncertain. There is Chaos and it is Complex – many different, interconnected factors come into play. Today’s organisations and teams, within or outside, need to understand how effective collaboration looks like and how it lends itself to accelerated innovation.
Strategic doing presents a practical guide to navigating this new world. A gem of a book and a must read for anyone interested in Agile Leadership, Collaboration, Strategy Execution, Innovation to learn this new discipline of leadership strategy designed especially for open, loosely
Strategic doing presents a practical guide to navigating this new world. A gem of a book and a must read for anyone interested in Agile Leadership, Collaboration, Strategy Execution, Innovation to learn this new discipline of leadership strategy designed especially for open, loosely
January 6, 2020
This book is a critically important read for anyone working to solve complex problems in a rapidly changing environment. I highly recommend this book because I believe the skills that it teaches are vital to building the collaborations that will be necessary to move our organizations and our communities forward.
September 26, 2022
In the book “strategic doing – ten skills for agile leadership” the five authors, work you through just that. 10 skills. They admit that they doubt you can take on more than two, but I think even if you do that you are a better self then you were before you read this book.
Each chapter also has a case study which will allow you to see the practical application of the skill.
Each chapter also has a case study which will allow you to see the practical application of the skill.
November 22, 2025
Interesting premise, but it didn’t seem as if the book was offering any new information, just re set sting practices that already exist. Some of the examples were engaging and really illustrated the point and others not so much.
I would only recommend to those seriously interested in leading a team.
I would only recommend to those seriously interested in leading a team.
January 7, 2020
Book club.
Lots on shared leadership
Particularly helpful in terms of appreciative questions
Networking
Idea of 30/30 meetings
Lots on shared leadership
Particularly helpful in terms of appreciative questions
Networking
Idea of 30/30 meetings
January 13, 2020
Increasingly, strategy resembles software development.
August 31, 2020
Very easy read with practical information on implementing the skills discussed. This has changed my entire outlook on my nonprofit board meetings.
June 11, 2021
Required reading for Appalachian Leadership Institute. Workshop with two of the authors afterward!
February 27, 2022
It was good, I think.
Want to Read
April 20, 2022From Manny Bankston
January 3, 2023
I've tried and tried to read this through. I read it a while ago, put it down and recently gave it a second go. I like the concepts presented but found the whole book a bit blah....
February 12, 2023
This is an approachable, teachable framework. Excited to adopt this book for my Organizational Strategy course.
April 9, 2023
If you have Agile skills it's a lesson learned book. I would not use this as a leadership book but as something to help bring ideas to iterations and sprints. And helpful guided meeting ideas.
March 31, 2026
I truly felt like I could use the tools from this book with my own executive team.
October 20, 2022
Doze são os capítulos que compõem "Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership", sendo o primeiro o ponto de partida depois de feita em capítulo próprio a introdução e o décimo segundo o ponto de chegada/conclusão já apresentados devidamente - um por capítulo - os dez skills necessários à liderança Agile. É também este último capítulo o mais importante e directo de perceber.
Durante a leitura, achei que os autores tanto queriam explicar e detalhar para se tornarem - supostamente - mais claros e compreensíveis que acabavam por se tornar bastante confusos. De igual modo, nem sempre achei que os exemplos práticos escolhidos fossem os melhores... Por vezes, fiquei mesmo com a sensação de estar a ler "uma manta de vários retalhos".
Voltando ainda aos capítulos, a estrutura é a seguinte:
1- You are here
2-Create and maintain a safe space for deep, focused conversation (skill 1)
3- Frame the conversation with the right question (skill 2)
4- Identify your assets, including the hidden ones (skill 3)
5- Link and leverage assets to identify new opportunities (skill 4)
6- Look for the "big easy" (skill 5)
7- Convert your ideas to outcomes with measurable characteristics (skill 6)
8- Start slowly to go fast - but start (skill 7)
9- Draft short-term action plans that include everyone (skill 8)
10 - Set 30/30 meetings to review, learn and adjust (skill 9)
11 - Nudge, connect and promote to reinforce new habits (skill 10)
12-Ten skills. Got it. Now what?
Para quem tiver interesse em ler de forma mais detalhada algumas das ideias deste livro, poderá fazer fazê-lo, em inglês, neste outro texto escrito por mim: https://dataanalyticsandtech.blogspot...
Durante a leitura, achei que os autores tanto queriam explicar e detalhar para se tornarem - supostamente - mais claros e compreensíveis que acabavam por se tornar bastante confusos. De igual modo, nem sempre achei que os exemplos práticos escolhidos fossem os melhores... Por vezes, fiquei mesmo com a sensação de estar a ler "uma manta de vários retalhos".
Voltando ainda aos capítulos, a estrutura é a seguinte:
1- You are here
2-Create and maintain a safe space for deep, focused conversation (skill 1)
3- Frame the conversation with the right question (skill 2)
4- Identify your assets, including the hidden ones (skill 3)
5- Link and leverage assets to identify new opportunities (skill 4)
6- Look for the "big easy" (skill 5)
7- Convert your ideas to outcomes with measurable characteristics (skill 6)
8- Start slowly to go fast - but start (skill 7)
9- Draft short-term action plans that include everyone (skill 8)
10 - Set 30/30 meetings to review, learn and adjust (skill 9)
11 - Nudge, connect and promote to reinforce new habits (skill 10)
12-Ten skills. Got it. Now what?
Para quem tiver interesse em ler de forma mais detalhada algumas das ideias deste livro, poderá fazer fazê-lo, em inglês, neste outro texto escrito por mim: https://dataanalyticsandtech.blogspot...
June 28, 2020
Great handbook on making plans happen by leveraging assets such as community, location, people, unique skill sets. Very practical and useful for collaboration and consensus building.
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