Designing for Strategic Success, Even When Challenges Are Complex & Conditions Are Uncertain
Leaders today have a tough job. An increasingly complex world means a growing list of “impossible” challenges that don’t respond to traditional solutions. Many say that no matter what they do they can’t get the results they need, and a climate of chaos and uncertainty is to blame.
What if the results you’re getting are exactly the results your system is designed to achieve? Scott Spann, founder of Innate Strategies and a key Conversant partner, says we are not only capable of solving these impossible problems, we can actually design our organizations and leverage our systems of behavior to achieve and sustain our most important strategic goals.
Scott joined Robin Anselmi and Kell Delaney for a conversation about the methods they’ve seen help organizations find clarity in chaos, revealing new possibilities for action that cause a meaningful and enduring impact. Scott’s approach in particular involves mapping a more accurate and comprehensive picture of what’s happening in an organization (known as System Mapping), a process that drives deep alignment and creates a common ground for purpose-driven conversations and strategic planning.
Scott’s methodology combined with Conversant’s expertise in causing high-value conversations has contributed to a number of complex client projects, including The Nature Conservancy’s Mississippi River Basin initiative or Hewlett Packard’s Global Notebook Supply Chain.
About Scott Spann
Scott is working to create deep, lasting impact in Business and in Society. His work is inspired by his experience with business leaders – trying to do the right thing in complex, competitive situations; his work with Social leaders in NGO’s and government – seeking to satisfy diverse stakeholders in ways that benefit the whole; his career as a Rolfer and trauma psychotherapist – witnessing people recover from the injuries that life and humanity too often deal us; and his time in nature as a cowboy, hunter, and sailor.
Scott’s experiences range from consulting with Arthur Andersen & Co. to launching the Texas office of the Nature Conservancy; serving as Managing Vice President of RPC, a small national consulting firm to leading the Rolf Institute as Executive Director; Vice President for ARC, International, a global consulting firm specializing in leadership development and cultural change to working for Stone Yamashita Partners, a leading branding and strategy firm. And he continues to learn by working with Business and Social leaders through Innate Strategies.
“We truly thought – and I actually said – it was impossible for anyone to add that much value in a two–day strategy offsite. Then Scott offered to do the work for free – paying him only if we succeeded. It was ‘an offer we couldn’t refuse.’ One month later, his invoice was one of the easiest I’ve ever approved and we gladly paid him. He did a truly amazing job of helping us collectively understand how our internal networks and external supply chain actually worked as a whole system. We used our common insight to leverage critical control points to achieve our own seemingly impossible goal.”
Ike Harris
Former Vice President, Global Notebook Supply Chain at HP
