STAT Part 1: An Introduction to the Strategic Tensions Assessment Tool (STAT)

© 2019 David Denyer. All rights reserved.
PROFESSOR SPEAKER ADVISOR
Leadership
Change
Resilience
www.cranfield.ac.uk/oracl
www.daviddenyer.com
www.linkedin.com/in/daviddenyer/
STAT Part 1:
An Introduction to the
Strategic Tensions
Assessment Tool (STAT)
Professor David Denyer

STAT Part 1: An Introduction to the
Strategic Tensions Assessment Tool (STAT)
This article is the first of a 5-article series on my Strategic Tensions Model for Organizational
Resilience. The Strategic Tensions Assessment Tool (STAT) is an online Organizational Resilience
survey.
We define Organizational Resilience as “the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for,
respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper”
BS 65000 Organizational Resilience, 2014.
Organizational Resilience is required for businesses to respond to disruptions as well as positively
adapt in the face of challenging conditions, leverage opportunities, and deliver sustainable
performance improvement.

The STAT combines information from the best available scientific evidence on Organizational
Resilience and practices of world-leading firms. Inspired and developed by Professor David
Denyer – the STAT draws on 15 years of research on Organizational Resilience at Cranfield
University. You can access the BSI Cranfield research report here:
bsigroup.com/en-GB/our-services/Organizational-Resilience/Organizational-Resilience-Research/

Using the STAT
Using the STAT, you can gain scientific and objective insight into how individuals perceive
Organizational Resilience - how it works now and how they imagine it working in the future. The
insight helps organizations in:
• Selecting a fit for purpose approach
• Surfacing differences across individuals and groups
• Identifying blind spots and risk factors
• Managing tensions
• Improving Organizational Resilience

The Strategic Tensions Quadrants Model
The STAT is based on the Strategic Tensions Quadrants Model. Our research found that
Organizational Resilience strategies differ on two core dimensions:
Defensive (e.g., stopping bad
things from happening,
mitigating threats, protecting
results, preserving market
share)
Mindset
Progressive (e.g., making
good things happen,
leveraging opportunities,
achieving results, growing
market share)
Consistency (e.g., goals,
processes, routines,
behaviors)
Approach Flexibility (e.g., ideas, views,
actions)

Leaders have to manage the tensions between the need to be both defensive AND progressive
and also consistent AND flexible. These two dimensions form an integral part of a framework,
which we have termed the Strategic Tensions Quadrants Model (Figure 1), which highlights four
common strategies for achieving Organizational Resilience.

000
PERFORMANCE
OPTIMIZATION
Improving and
exploiting
MINDFUL ACTION
Noticing and
responding
PREVENTATIVE
CONTROL
Monitoring and
complying
ADAPTIVE
INNOVATION
Imagining and
creating
PROGRESSIVE
(Achieving results)
FLEXIBILITY
(Ideas, views, actions)
DEFENSIVE
(Protecting results)
CONSISTENCY
(Goals, processes, routines)

All four core strategies are described below, plus a fifth strategy we have termed ‘neutral’ for
organizations that have a very balanced combination of the four core strategies (see figure 2). The
descriptions of the five strategies are described on the following pages as archetypal examples –
they are not meant to represent a perfect model, but rather to stress particular elements common
to most cases of the given strategy.

Preventative control
Organizational Resilience is usually achieved utilizing robust risk management, physical barriers,
systems back-ups, safeguards, and standards, which protect the organization from threats and
allow it to predict and prevent disruptions and crises. Preventative control is primarily a defensive
strategy based on consistency and returning the organization to its current state if there is a crisis.

Mindful action
Organizational Resilience is typically created by people who use their experience, expertise, and
teamwork to anticipate and adapt to threats and respond effectively to unfamiliar or challenging
situations utilizing creative problem solving and improvisation. Mindful action is a defensive
strategy based on flexibility.

Performance optimization
Organizational Resilience is typically formed by process optimization, continually improving,
refining and extending existing competencies, and exploiting current technologies to serve present
customers and markets more efficiently and effectively. It involves improvement within the current
paradigm rather than creative ‘blue skies’ or ‘out of the box’ thinking. Performance optimization is
essentially a progressive approach based on consistency.

Adaptive innovation
Organizational Resilience is typically created through innovation and creating new products,
services, or markets. It is also the strategy required to resolve complex, intractable issues both
internally and to external challenges that require fundamental rethinking of the business and
culture. With this strategy, forward-thinking companies can themselves embody the disruption in
their environment. Adaptive innovation is a progressive strategy based on flexibility.

Neutral
A neutral strategy has almost uniform emphasis on all four-core strategies. Is it possible to be
equally great at all four Organizational Resilience strategies? The short answer is probably not,
although it depends. Organizations reporting a neutral position often lack a clearly defined
Organizational Resilience strategy, trying to be all things to all people or are attempting to "hedge
their bets." Individuals, groups, and parts of the organization will likely gravitate towards their
preferred way of working, not necessarily the same quadrant.
A neutral strategy is hard to do well since the purpose, people, process, and product that lead to
excellence in any one discipline are often contradictory and incompatible. If an organization tries to
pursue all four core strategies, it is likely to end up somewhere ‘stuck in the middle’ delivering an
average performance in all four core strategies. Therefore, I am not going to write a separate
article on the neutral strategy.

Balance and Fit is Key to Organizational Resilience
Every organization has a unique STAT profile that is usually made up of some combination of all
four core strategies. One size doesn’t fit all. Instead, the overall Organizational Resilience
approach will vary according to the nature of the organization, its mission, and the environment
and circumstances it faces. It is also likely to change over time as the strategy if the organization
itself evolves.

Balance and Fit is Key to Organizational Resilience
Senior leaders need to manage the tensions between these four approaches if organizations are to
be truly resilient. We suggest that the shape of the Organizational Resilience Tension Quadrant
(Figure 3) will depend on the nature of the organization, its operations, and the industry,
particularly level of uncertainty and industry clock speed (rate of technological, regulatory and
market change). We tend to find, for example, that organizations with high potential for accidents,
such as energy production, transport, mining, and construction, are often weighted toward the
preventative control (defensive consistent) quadrant. It should be noted that a preoccupation with
one particular dimension could create blind spots that can impair Organizational Resilience.

The STAT Series
In the five articles in this series, I discuss each of the four approaches and will highlight key
differences in terms of purpose, people, process, and product. I will use real-world examples of
organizational failures to reveal potential blind spots and risk factors. I will also suggest areas for
improvement.
Articles in this series:
STAT Part 1: An Introduction to the Strategic Tensions Assessment Tool (STAT)
STAT Part 2: Failure at Thorp (Sellafield): preventative control without mindful action
STAT Part 3: Failure of CTO (anonymized): mindful action without performance optimization
STAT Part 4: Failure at Kodak: performance optimization without adaptive innovation
STAT Part 5: Failure at Uber: adaptive innovation without preventative control

David runs the Organizational Resilience and Change
Leadership (ORaCL) Group at Cranfield University, which
works in three areas of expertise: developing leadership
capability, designing organizational change and building
organizational resilience. We are world-renowned
researchers, impactful educators, engaging speakers, and
trusted advisors to organizations across all sectors.
We are an experienced group of academics and
practitioners from different disciplines and backgrounds
who share a passion for ideas, problem-solving, and
translating knowledge into action.
We act as an information hub and community builder,
connecting an extensive network of external experts,
industry leaders, public officials, and researchers with
interest in organizational resilience, change, and
leadership who want to share experiences, exchange
ideas and collaborate to work through complex
challenges.
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Website

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STAT Part 1: An Introduction to the Strategic Tensions Assessment Tool (STAT)

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