Strategic Doing: 10 Skills for Agile Leadership

Complex challenges are all around us – they impact our companies, our communities, and our planet. This complexity and the emergence of networks is changing the practice of strategic management. Today’s leaders need to understand how to design and guide complex collaborations to accelerate innovation and change – collaborations that cross boundaries both inside and outside organizations. This book will introduce you to the new disciplines of agile strategy and collaborative leadership. Learn how to navigate an unpredictable future through the fast and agile development of complex collaborations, using a set of ten practical skills. Your guides – a team of five skilled Strategic Doing practitioners (who also teach others to use the approach) – will show you the keys to getting things done in difficult situations – when people need to work together, when no one person is “in charge,” or when the challenge defies easy solutions.

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Meaningful, effective collaboration is the theme of Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership – collaboration no less true of the book’s creation as well. A team of experienced Strategic Doing practitioners and teachers from around the US worked together to craft the book.

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Praise for Strategic Doing: Ten Keys for Agile Leadership

“I’ve been investigating how organizations’ working environments influence a group’s ability to achieve their goals for two decades. . . .This book provides insight into the practices and behaviors that help build high-performing groups. Readable and practical guidance for every organization and team.”

Amy C. Edmondson, Harvard Business School, author of The Fearless Organization

“Shared leadership – not the all-powerful individual – will be the key to thriving in these new times. This book . . . explain[s] what it really looks like on the ground….A valuable resource for anyone looking to get to the ‘next level,’ as well as those trying to help them.” 

Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach; only two-time #1 Leadership Thinker

[P]rovides a roadmap, along with specific examples, for every community to thrive in the new economy.”

Victor Hwang, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, author of The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley

“Most of us like the idea of collaborating with others, but we don’t do it. . . . So, are there rules for collaborating? The answer is yes, and this valuable book sets them out clearly and succinctly. An important contribution.”

Robert Reich, University of California at Berkeley, former US Secretary of Labor

“The missing element in most strategic initiatives is a successful collaborative approach.   [Strategic Doing] adds to the agile strategy toolset available to managers who drive for results.”

Mark DeLuzio, President/ CEO, Lean Horizons Consulting, Shingo Prize Academy inductee, author of Turn Waste into Wealth

“It’s no longer about individual talent development, it’s about our ability as leaders to coach a team to be agile, recognize opportunities, and adjust the course appropriately.  . . If you’re talking about collaboration, this book provides a foundation.”

Ben Amaba, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM/Industrial Sector, Watson & Cloud Platform

“Today’s competitive marketplace demands more than just executing a plan. We need to form active partnerships incorporating people with diverse expertise to solve complex problems. [T]he authors present a practical guide to doing just that.”

Greg Satell, author of Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age

“This book is the best consolidation and codification of best practices for [a different approach to strategic planning and implementation] that I’ve seen. [Makes] the Strategic Doing methodology clear and provides a manageable roadmap that makes the methodology easy to apply…just in time to address the largest speed and complexity challenges mankind has known.”

Bob Sadler, executive coach and authority on change leadership and executive presence

“Don’t even bother reading all those other books on leadership and strategy. I know because I’ve written a number of them. Strategic Doing is THE source to understand how leadership and strategy are changing in this age of speed and complexity. What makes this book more important are the ten practical skills that you and your colleagues can learn to become masterful at leading in a disruptive age.”

Jay Conger, Chaired Professor of Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College and author of The High Potentials Advantage

“Over the past 30 years, I have been traveling the world for 60 Minutes. One trend is clear. The challenges we face are growing in complexity. The best way to address these challenges is through human ingenuity unleashed through collaboration. This book illuminates that path. Recommended.”

Bob Anderson, Producer, 60 Minutes (CBS)