Strategic self-renewal

Together with management, we create a recurring space for reflection. Which signals from customers, technology, politics or society receive attention? Which are overlooked because of existing categories? The question of the “blind spot” is not an accusation, but an invitation to make one’s own logic of observation visible. One suitable instrument is a self-renewal audit, which evaluates the assessments of different stakeholders and discusses differences together.

Together with those responsible, we examine how the organisation currently deals with weak signals and chance impulses. Suitable search, decision and learning routines are then developed. A strategy review can regularly compare the chosen positioning with new observations. The result is not a one-off forecast of the future, but an organised capability to make one's own decisions and patterns of change a topic again.

Arbeitsergebnisse: Überprüfte Beobachtungs- und Strategieroutinen; Gemeinsam bewertete Entwicklungsoptionen; Verbindung von Umsetzung, Lernen und strategischem Review.

The work can start from existing strategy routines or from a specific change task. Scope and support depend on your situation.

We distinguish adaptation within established patterns from the ability to change those patterns themselves. Organisations select only some of the signals from their environment; successful routines in particular can direct attention to what has worked so far. A self-renewal audit makes this selection and the blind spots that result from it a topic.

Different key players assess which developments they see, which obstacles make change more difficult and which decisions are being postponed for too long. The results are reflected on together. After that, the focus is on variation, selection and re-stabilisation: perceiving new possibilities, assessing their significance and feasibility and building selected innovations permanently into routines. An organisation needs suitable places for each phase.

A strategy review can regularly check whether the current positioning still fits the relevant environments. The point is not to change everything constantly. It is about the deliberate ability to distinguish between stability and fundamental renewal. The concrete benefit lies in better joint observations and decisions; a particular market position cannot be guaranteed as a result.

One possible first step is a self-renewal audit. Participants assess the company's development to date, its strategic positioning and its capacity for change. The evaluation does not just look for an average, but for differences between viewpoints. If one unit sees strong signals from the market and another sees no urgency, precisely this difference is a topic for leadership.

In joint reviews, the observation grids are examined and new search questions agreed. Another important element is re-stabilisation: after it has been trialled, a meaningful innovation must be taken up into responsibilities, routines and capabilities. Otherwise it remains an exception with no effect on the company.

Variation without selection overwhelms the organisation; selection without subsequent anchoring only produces temporary exceptions. The three mechanisms are therefore designed together.

Variation, selection and retention are the mechanisms of strategic self-renewal. Variation creates several interpretations and possibilities; selection makes a conscious choice; retention anchors viable innovations in the organisation. Each phase needs different decisions and participants. An observation from the market must first be heard and examined. A selected option needs resources and a clear mandate. Whatever proves itself must flow into routines, competencies and structures.

Together with leadership, we examine where this connection breaks off today. Are ideas collected but never decided on? Are projects started but not taken over? The answer points to the right starting point. The aim is the organisation's lasting ability to develop its own direction further under changed conditions. Recurring reviews show whether new insights actually pass into strategic decisions and later into routines.

Well-known cases from business show how organisational blindness arises. A market-leading mobile phone manufacturer did not believe a newcomer to the industry was capable of building mobile phones, and overlooked the fact that the newcomer was not interested in building mobile phones at all. Large electronics retail chains ignored the change in consumer behaviour: customers used to get advice from specialist retailers and then buy more cheaply from the chain; later they inspected the device at the chain and ordered it online. For a long time, the traditionally chemistry-based German pharmaceutical industry failed to recognise the possibilities offered by biotech research.

Behind this lies the same mechanism. Organisations select their relevant environments in order to remain capable of acting, and their routines filter out impulses that deviate from the established picture. Observations thus confirm themselves and solidify into basic convictions that even divergent experiences hardly shake. Strategy work therefore combines action, reflection and meta-reflection: the strategy review examines the positioning, and in addition the routine of the strategy review is itself reviewed. Evaluation routines belong at all levels of the hierarchy, and existing evaluation structures are regularly questioned.