How SD works
Simple rules. Fast learning. Shared commitments.
Strategic Doing replaces long planning cycles with short, structured conversations that help people discover what they can do together and take immediate action. It turns uncertainty into coordinated movement through disciplined collaboration.
The ten skills of Strategic Doing The backbone of the discipline.
Strategic Doing is built on ten practical skills that help groups collaborate with discipline and speed.
These skills include:
- Create safe spaces
- Frame questions that spark possibility
- Identify hidden and shared assets
- Link and leverage assets to shape opportunities
- Guide ranking and choose the Big Easy
- Define outcomes with clarity
- Create Pathfinder Projects
- Draft action steps everyone can commit to
- Run effective 30/30 meetings
- Build collaboration habits that last
Each skill is learnable.
Each skill is teachable.
Each skill contributes to faster, more focused collaboration.
The Strategic Doing rhythm
A Strategic Doing session flows through four phases:
Step 1 - What could we do?
Here we create trust. Acknowledge complexity. Set expectations. Uncover assets. Spark opportunities.
Step 3 - What is our 30/30?
Set 30/30 meetings to reflect, learn, and adapt.
Communicate success. Nudge and promote.
Step 2 - What should we do?
Ideate and choose the most promising direction.
Step 4 - What will we do?
Define a shared outcome and a Pathfinder Project - a small experiment that tests the idea.
Instead of long planning documents, Strategic Doing uses short, structured conversations that help people design a shared outcome and take immediate action.
