Strategy

Strategy is a set of choices about the use of a System’s resources to maximise its chances to fulfil its Purpose in a given Environment. If the environment is competitive, “the heart of the matter in strategy is usually advantage”.Rumelt (2011)

In a good strategy, one that does provide advantage, the choices

make a real difference for resource use,
have a clear relationship to the purpose,
are based on sufficient awareness of the environment.Simon Wardley calls this “situational awareness”. (Wardley 2018, 8–13)

The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors.ibid.

On an abstract level, Strategy is a pattern of actions and Strategy is based on models.

On the implementation level, Strategy is a learning process.

References

Rumelt (2011): Good Strategy/Bad Strategy
Wardley (2018): Wardleymaps

Mentions

Behavioural Disposition

A behavioural disposition is a disposition of a System to behave in a certain way.

Bubble of Affluence

A bubble of affluence is a community of (relatively) wealthy individuals and groups, whose affluence hides the negative aspects of the world from their personal experience, thus masking or hiding their Privilege.

Colonialism and Capitalism Form a Feedback Loop

From Colonisation to Early Capitalism Colonisation can be seen as an expansion of the supply zones of European citiesDeLanda (2011) , “the original European solution to the ‘ghost acreage’ question”Tooze (2022) .

Institutions Lose Legitimacy in a Feedback Loop

Zuboff (2021) describes why the legitimacy of Institutions is essential for social stability: [The] ongoing miracle of social order rests on “common sense Knowledge,” which is “the knowledge we share with others in the normal self-evident routines of everyday life.

Kano Model

What The Kano Model helps test, categorise and prioritise potential features for new Products and Services.

Move up and Down in the System Hierarchy

The world is a hierarchy of systems.

Move up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction

Since we want to Move up and down in the system hierarchy, a useful Strategy is to build epistemic connections between very abstract and very concrete Models, that is an easy-to-climb ladder of abstraction.

Prioritise Abstraction Over Metaphor

Usually, the Abstractions we are using are based on Conceptual Metaphors.

Rationalism Is Not Rational

Rationalism à la Eliezer Yudkowsky has two connected fundamental flaws – an ontological and an epistemological one.

Rationality Is an Evolved Strategy

It is a fact about our social and epistemic lives that Rationality is a norm that guides our thinking about beliefs and hypotheses; it is a Concept we use to direct thinking and discourse.

Revise Concepts to Critique Ideology

In Conceptual Engineering, propose improvements to Concepts that expose and critique Ideology, making Ideological Oppression visible and enabling its subversion.

Stakeholder Map

What Stakeholder Maps help identify and classify actors who have Power over and/or interest in the outcomes of a Project or Product development.

Strategy Is a Learning Process

Strategy is de facto always an iterative learning process, even if this is often not made explicit and information gaps between iterations make it less effective and efficient.

Strategy Is a Pattern of Actions

On an abstract level, Strategy is a set of System activities, structured in a process.

Strategy Is Based on Models

Every Strategy is based on an (implicit or explicit) assessment of the situation, that is the Model a System has of its Environment.

System Change Needs Disruption, Popular Support and Alternative Institutions

Climate and Ecological Breakdown is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced, with civilisational Collapse an increasingly realistic outcome.

Theory of Change

A Strategy tells us what to do, a Theory of Change explains why this should work.