Success with strategy assumes that enough people, if not everyone, are on "the same page"... But what does that page look like, and why?

1. An Architecture of Strategy
What to know, and Why

2. Overview

3. ALL strategy is “about” Where you’re going to be, and Why you’re going to be there.
As a result, a strategy is essentially a theory of success, packaged in a desire.
Strategy exists whether you use it or not, because strategy is directive information.
But having a strategy is in fact optional. That is not at all the same assertion as whether it is desirable or
undesirable; it simply points out that you may or may not have a strategy.
That observation indicates that we should identify what purpose is served by having a strategy.
Strategy does not “occur naturally”; a strategy is something that is made. Without strategy, there can still be
significant levels of coincidence and/or compatibility enjoyed in given circumstances.
The reason to have a strategy is to coordinate opportunities with capabilities, by describing that relationship
in a way that guides operations towards valuable production.
To paraphrase a well-known idea, “if you don’t care where you’re going, then it doesn’t matter how you get
there.”
But let’s presuppose that you do care. In that case, the more likely an environment of operations includes
multiple opportunities, the more useful strategy is -- for deliberately taking advantage of one or more of
them.

4. DESIGN DEVELOP IMPLEMENT OPERATE
Make a Strategy the way anything utilitarian is produced:
• Create the description of it that makes it distinct
• Assemble and arrange the elements and components that are needed to support the description
• Bring that assembly into the situation it is meant for
• Use it in the situation, and make intelligent refinements in both the thing itself and the way it is used
• Go back and repeat/improve any of the steps, in order to make the impact of usage better
• As with anything that is made, it is possible that at any given time the strategy produced so far will be
more or less complete, and more or less high quality.
• It is useful to have a complete but low quality strategy, as a first draft or “iteration”. Continuing to
revise and mature the strategy over numerous iterations is what should normally be done, not only for
the initial invention of the strategy but also throughout the lifespan of the use of a complete strategy.

5. DESIGN DEVELOP IMPLEMENT OPERATE
Strategy’s description requires a set of logical expectations that align with each other to make the overall
idea “viable” as guidance towards competent production of value.
The expectations are, put simply, answers to five necessary questions. If the answers are missing or wrong, it
is likely that the strategy will fail as guidance towards competency. Competency always requires purpose,
preparation, ability, focus, and awareness.
Those expectations (or “premises”) link the ideas in the strategy together across its spectrum, from its
“design” pole as conceptual direction to its ”operate” pole as procedural direction.
What advantage
comes with the
position?
How do you
attain the
position?
How do you
sustain the
position?
How do you use
the position?
How do you
know when to
re-position?

6. Constraints
User-Specific factors
Generic factors
Generic Elements
Research &
Communications
Strategy as Guidance: What to Describe
©2017 malcolm ryder / archestra research

7. Discussion

8. DESIGN DEVELOP IMPLEMENT OPERATE
What advantage
comes with the
position?
How do you
attain the
position?
How do you
sustain the
position?
How do you use
the position?
How do you
know when to
re-position?
Why is the
advantage an
advantage?
What trade-offs
and changes are
required?
How is the new
configuration
supported and
defended?
What must be
done in the
attained position?
What tells you if
the advantage no
longer exists?
Since many different parties might pursue the same Position for the same Reason, it is absolutely possible
that the same strategy might be used by different parties.
Strategic questioning is intended to discover and expose the specifics of how the strategy can be viable for
the particular party (yourself) that will use the strategy.

9. What advantage
comes with the
position?
How do you
attain the
position?
How do you
sustain the
position?
How do you use
the position?
How do you
know when to
re-position?
Why is the
advantage an
advantage?
What trade-offs
and changes are
required?
How is the new
configuration
supported and
defended?
What must be
done in the
attained position?
What tells you if
the advantage no
longer exists?
SURVEY MEASUREMAP MODEL PLAN
Producing a strategy does not necessarily mean relying on new ideas or facts. The most important aspect of a
strategy is that it is logically coherent. Producing strategies is not something new, and much of what has proved
to help in creating strategy is seen in other familiar activities. Here, those activities are used to get the needed
answers to strategic questioning, to represent them unambiguously, and to relate them to each other. Relevant
information should be both created and reused from surveying, mapping, modeling, planning and measuring.

10. What advantage
comes with the
position?
How do you
attain the
position?
How do you
sustain the
position?
How do you use
the position?
How do you
know when to
re-position?
SURVEY MEASUREMAP MODEL PLAN
When does the
advantage occur?
What is the net value
of the position?
What commitments are
necessary in scope?
How will process equal
progress?
How are resilience and
agility ensured?
A Strategy is ready to offer for adoption when it addresses the more direct, specific questions of the What If scenario.

11. When does the
advantage occur?
What is the net value
of the position?
What commitments are
necessary in scope?
How will process equal
progress?
How are resilience and
agility ensured?
PREREQUISITES TRANSFORMATIONS PRIORITIES KNOWLEDGE TRANSITIONS
DESIGN DEVELOP IMPLEMENT OPERATE
What advantage
comes with the
position?
How do you
attain the
position?
How do you
sustain the
position?
How do you use
the position?
How do you
know when to
re-position?
Strategy is future oriented. Whether available information is new or re-used, its strategic meaning is established in
terms of what the future state will be like. Strategic guidance is essentially a gigantic What If scenario. The
scenario is strongly sensitive to constraints. The constraints are variables that may be changeable by the party that
wants to use the strategy, but usually it must be discovered which constraints may be changed, and how much.

12. SURVEY MEASUREMAP MODEL PLAN
Why is the
advantage an
advantage?
What trade-offs
and changes are
required?
How is the new
configuration
supported and
defended?
What must be
done in the
attained position?
What tells you if
the advantage no
longer exists?
When does the
advantage occur?
What is the net value
of the position?
What commitments are
necessary in scope?
How will process equal
progress?
How are resilience and
agility ensured?
What advantage
comes with the
position?
How do you
attain the
position?
How do you
sustain the
position?
How do you use
the position?
How do you
know when to
re-position?
PREREQUISITES TRANSFORMATIONS PRIORITIES KNOWLEDGE TRANSITIONS

13. Constraints
User-Specific factors
Generic factors
Generic Elements
Research &
Communications
Architecture of a Strategy: Overall Framework
Formulation
©2017 malcolm ryder / archestra research

14. Archestra notebooks compile and organize decades of in-the-field empirical findings. The notes offer explanations of why things did
happen or can happen in certain ways or to certain effects. The descriptions are determined mainly from the perspective of
strategy and architecture. They comment on, and navigate between, the motives and potentials that predetermine the decisions
and shapes of activity as discussed in the notes. All notebooks are subject to change.
©2017 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research
©2017 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research
www.archestra.com
mryder@archestra.com