The Forward

“Who says elephants can’t dance” 

Larry Cooper and Dan Murphy provide an introduction to elephant dancing in this eBook on Agile Strategy. By applying agile thinking, organisations transform their strategic planning process from top-down plan-driven to a collaborative process of co-creation. Simultaneously, by intently focusing on the customer, organisations are able to take purposeful action toward a different future.

Agile Strategy is a strategic discovery process designed to ensure the long term viability of organizations through adaptability. It allows strategy, at both the customer and business levels, to emerge from the fog of uncertainty. This becomes extremely important as we grapple with the new reality where there are far more “unknown-unknowns” than “known-knowns” that have to be detected, understood, and addressed.

Agile Strategy starts with “good enough”. Kicking off in only a few weeks, at a fraction of the cost and effort of traditional methods, and based on an opportunity-driven approach. This enables your organization to quickly establish an initial strategy and then, by executing on it, use the gathered evidence and insights to quickly pivot the strategy as needed.

This eBook also introduces us to two new roles for business leaders; that of Culture Curator and Context Curator. Culture Curator focuses on inculcating strong values and principles over proscriptive rules. While the Context Curator ensures everyone (including their customers, employees, and partners) are part of co-designing and co-creating a different future - one where they can collectively survive and thrive through uncertainty.

As Larry, Dan and others have shown, with very large organizations, even elephants can dance.

Evan Leybourn, Co-Founder & CEO, Business Agility Institute