We have to teach a grad course this fall in a seminary on project management and strategic planning. This abstract — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379833454_A_Systemic_Approach_to_Strategic_Planning_Navigating_Complexity_with_Clarity — really helped us broaden our thinking about strategic planning — to more of a systems-based approach (as opposed to linear-thinking for ‘traditional goalsetting’). If you were to desire to focus more on systems-based and scenario-focused strategic planning, are there other resources you’ve come across might help us — books, videos, courses, papers? Scholarly articles and abstracts are helpful – but so are practical, action-focused curricula too. Thanks for any recommendations you can make.
9) Your Best Resource on Systems-based Planning?
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I’d love to follow this conversation! I’ve also been searching for a strategic planning framework that incorporates Agile or systems thinking. I checked out the article you posted. It’s posted as a “paper,” but it only cites one other author, which, upon investigation, only loosely cites a handful of other seminal authors (Mintzberg, Bertalanaffy, Drucker, etc). That author, Ramirez, doesn’t cite anyone more recent than 1996. In short, these two writers are on the right track, but both lack sufficient scholarly support, and neither provides a practical framework for helping teams develop systems thinking.
Good insights, Jeff. OK – we have to do better. The two principles we need (on our side) are *systems* thinking and *scenario planning.* Please do tell us if you bump into anything else in that regard. Thanks for partnering with us in the quest.
Hi! That wasn’t a criticism of you or the post. I’m grateful that you raised the topic. It was just an indication of wrestling with the topic too. Blessings!
Awesome, Jeff. We’ll remember you!
Offline, one respondent sent, “Our organization has historically…very historically…landed on Bobb Biehl’s “Masterplanning” process. It’s dated for sure, but has some upsides. A couple of colleagues have been experimenting with a more recent “business canvas” model ( https://www.strategyzer.com/library/business-model-generation ), adapted for the missions world. In my personal life, I’ve really enjoyed, “Getting Results the Agile Way,” ( https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Results-Agile-Way-Personal/dp/0984548203 ). This work incorporates some of the best of the Agile software development process into the personal life management space. I think there is a lot here that I haven’t figured out how to teach in my work.”