This session of the strategic leadership workshop presents the methodology of Pisapia's all-echelon theory; the theory, the components, and the practice..

1. 1
Module 2
SESSION 1:
Introducing the Strategic Leader Methodology
John Pisapia
Florida Atlantic University
Tony Townsend
Griffith University
Principals as Strategic Leaders

2. Strategy Thinking
or
Strategic Planning

3. What does the research literature agree on?
 Change is inevitable, but success is not
 The object of planning is change
 The idea of strategic planning is good
 It doesn’t work - It does has been estimated
that between 70-90% of all change efforts fail
(Axelrod, Axelrod, Jacobs, Beedon, 2006; Covey,
2004; Kaplan & Norton, 2004; Sirkin, Keenan,
Jackson, Kotter, Beer, Nohria, & Duck, 2005).
Pisapia (2012) 3

4. Strategy: Schools of Thought
Modernist
• The Design School
• The Planning School
• The Positioning School
• The Resource-based School
• The Contingency School
Postmodernist
• The Learning School
• The Emergence School
Pisapia (2012) 4
SL uses the learning
and emergence
schools as
assumptions that
guide the SLM

5. Core Differences

6. Whose View of Strategy Is the
Most Relevant Today?
Michael Porter
• The Future can be predicted
through analysis of 5 Forces and
Data
• Plans will succeed
• Boundaries are fixed
• Focus on competition to create
value
• Pre identified strategies can be
systematically programmed.
• Competitive advantage is
sustainable
• Created by detached group of
experts
Henry Mintzberg
• The Future Emerges as
intentions meet changing reality
• Pre identified Plans fail
• Boundaries are fluid
• Focus on innovation and new
futures
• Strategy emerges as intentions
collide with and accommodate a
changing reality.
• Competitive advantage transient
• Emphasis on learning and the
political dimension
8/3/2016 The Strategic Leader Network 6

7. Key Elements Strategic Thinking Strategic Planning
Change Model Social, Cognitive, Political and
cultural
Control
Information Needed Data and Narrative driven Data Driven
Value Proposition Strong –uses values to control
and coordinate activity
Not strong – Uses
measurement to control and
coordinate activity
Strategic Listening Strong – people on cutting edge
of industry -
Moderate – listens to data and
reports not to new ideas
Strategic Conversations Strong – develops
understanding of larger system
and how they connect to it
Not used – Needed
information is obtained, plan
is crafted and disseminated
for implementation
Minimum Specifications Minimum specifications Maximum specification
Strategic Fitness Fit to external and internal
environment – process adds
value
Fit to external environment –
plan is ultimate objective
Chunking Change Small initiatives building on each
other
Large stand alone initiatives
7

8. Why?
Which Model best serves Your School?

9. The Strategic Leader 9
Pisapia’s Perspective
Most agree Strategy is a process that results in a dominant
logic that guides leader and organization actions for a period
of time
Strategy
A plan of action designed to achieve a
major or overall aim.
Strategic Planning and Strategic Thinking
Methods by which we identify the destination and
ways to get there

10. Strategic Leaders Find the Future and Make it Happen!
Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader8/3/2016
Philosophy
The SL
Methodology
In this PaSL session,
we introduce the
Strategic Leader
Methodology (SLM)
and the philosophy
and strategies that
support it.
Strategic Thinking
Capability

11. 8/3/2016 Pisapia, J. (2009) The Strategic Leader. 11
Strategic Leadership
The What?
Strategic leadership is the capability to singularly,
or with others, anticipate change, and establish
direction, align people and structures to seek
commitment, build teams and focus on results,
and write it down in a statement of intent.
8/3/2016 The Strategic Leader Network (SLN) 11

12. First, You need a
Philosophy
8/3/2016 12The Strategic Leader Network (SLN)
OK, Just how
do I do this
in real life?

13. The Philosophy
Principle #1
• SLers know that that their ability to create and
execute is dependent on people embracing
solutions and acting upon them; not technical tools.
• Takeaway - The quality of my leadership is
found not in my actions, but in those of
my followers.
8/3/2016 Pisapia, J. (2009). The Strategic Leader. Charlotte, NC: IAP 13

14. “We cannot teach people anything; we
can only help them discover it in
themselves.”
Galileo Galilee
Principle #2

15. Principle #3
“ One of the difficulties in bringing about
change in an organization is that you must do so
through the persons who have been most
successful in that organization, no matter how
faulty the system or organization is. To such
persons, you see, it is the best of all possible
organizations, because look who was selected
by it, and look who succeeded most within it.
Yet these are the very people through whom we
must bring about improvements.”
George Washington
First President of the United States15

16. The Philosophy
Principle # 41
Transformation Will Require a
Change In Thinking…
“People are very open minded about new things. As long as they are
exactly like the old ones.”
- Charles Kettering
16
© 2009 Guidon Performance Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved. Guidon Performance Solutions is a licensee of LeanSigma®, a
service mark of TBM Consulting Group.

17. Pisapia, J. (2009). The Strategic Leader.
Charlotte, NC: IAP
17
The Philosophy
Principle #5
People want to be part of
something larger than
themselves. They want to be
part of something they’re
really proud of, that they’ll fight
for, sacrifice for , trust.” —Howard
Schultz, Starbucks (IBD/09.05)
8/3/2016

18. “People respond to their perception
of reality, not what the reality is. . .”
(Kurt Lewin,1936).
The Philosophy
Principle #6

19. SO. . . .
Principle #7
The goal of the Strategic Methodology is to
establish conversations, focused on differing
viewpoints and data, that generate a coherent
statement of strategic intent to lead the
organization to the future.
The outcome is a shared reality that is neither too
rigid nor too chaotic; doesn’t over-control the
organization or allow it to fall apart.
Pisapia, J. (2009). The Strategic Leader.
Charlotte, NC: IAP
8/3/2016 19
How
much do I
share?
CREATE
SHARED REALITY
AND DIRECTION

20. The WE-THEY Line
Decide How Deep you want to go?(c)Pisapia08 20
Principle #8
SLers create a shared reality, and then a shared direction to get more
people above the WE-THEY LINE where vision and aspirations live.

21. P r i n c i p l e # 9
S L e r s S l e r s A c t a s G a r d e n e r s
Senge (1999)
“Treating organizations like machines
keeps them from changing, or makes
changing them more difficult.
We keep bringing in mechanics –
when what we need are gardeners.”
“We Keep trying to drive change
when what we need to do is
cultivate it.”

22. Principle 10
Build Ambidextrous
Organizations
8/3/2016 Pisapia, J. 2009. The Strategic Leader
• The pursuit of two different
modes of leading and learning:
1. Exploitation = using current
resources and capabilities in
an efficient and reliable
fashion to head in the same
direction
2. Exploration = searching for ,
acquiring and developing new
resources and capabilities to go in a
new direction

23. 8/3/2016 23The Strategic Leader Network (SLN)
Second, You need a
Process!
How do you do it??

24. Establishes a process we can use to define
the destination and the way to get there
The Strategic Thinking
Methodology
The Strategic Leader Network -
www.thestrategicleader.org
African Proverb
If you want to go fast go alone!
If you want to go far go to together

25. Anticipating
What is going on
here?
Articulating
What needs to happen
here?
Aligning
How do we make it happen?
Assuring
How do we keep making it
happen?
Slers cultivate their organizations/teams by using
The Strategic Leader Method (SLM)
The Strategic Leader Network (SLN)8/3/2016

26. The Strategic Thinking Methodology
C o r e S t r a t e g i e s
Light the Way
Statement of Intent
 Focused on Future
 Provides Direction
 Encourages commitment
and join-in
 Serves to shape culture
 Focuses Asset and
competency allocations to
support Intent
Patience
Run to Daylight
A Entrepreneurial Mindset
 Focused on Present and
the Future
 Provides Flexibility (fast
response, tactical, action-
oriented)
 Reduces risk of missing
emerging opportunities
 Assets & competencies
drive opportunism
Vigilance 268/3/2016 Pisapia, J. (2009). The Strategic Leader. Charlotte, NC: IAP

27. Light the Way
Learn - Analyze - Decide
The Strategic Leader 27
Input
Output
Synthesizer
You
Look Outside –
Look Inside –
Create Statement
of Intent

28. 28
The Strategic Thinking Protocol
Goal #3 Learn: Synthesize - Filter out the Noise
Light the Way
Learn –Synthesize – Analyze - Decide
-
Use the Input Tools
Situational Analysis
Look Outside – Strategic Listening
Look Inside – Determine Readiness
The
Navigating
Team
A shared statement of strategic
intent forms a psychological
contract with members and guides
the leader’s and organization
member actions.
Use the Decision Tools
Strategic Conversations
Strategy Canvas
i-SWOT Analysis
Action Framework
Synthesizersinputs Statement of
Strategic Intent
Pisapia (2012)

29. The Strategic Leader 29
The Statement of Strategic Intent
Lights the Way

30. The Strategic Leader Network (SLN) 30
Structural Components Process Components
 Coordinating
Committee
 Work plans
 Data Types
 Statement of Intent
 Design Team
 Transparency
 Situational Analysis
 Strategic Listening
 Stakeholder Analysis
 Social Intelligence
 Look Inside/Outside
• Strategic Conversations
 Analysis/Decision making
The Structural and Process Components of Strategic Thinking
√
8/3/2016

31. Your Turn…
• What is it?
• Why is it important
to you?
• How will it affect
your school?