Ideas
Strategy becomes real through action.
A strategy isn’t a document. It’s a set of choices that only matter when they become purposeful movement. As IntoWisdom puts it, only action on a plan leads to progress.
What IntoWisdom means by strategic action
Strategic action is the work of turning a clear picture of success into purposeful movement, one next best step at a time.
Many planning processes put their energy into building the plan and leave out the details of carrying it out. IntoWisdom’s emphasis is on the action. Building a plan is vital, but acting on it takes more intention and resources than planning does.
IntoWisdom’s process is called the Next Best Step Strategic Action Process. It connects directly to IntoWisdom’s purpose: helping individuals and organizations find their next best step toward growth and sustainability.
Why this perspective matters
Seeing strategy as action changes where planning starts, and where it ends.
Start from success, not from issues
We often begin planning by focusing on the obstacles we face, and that limits our thinking. Starting with a clear, shared definition of success opens up possibilities.
Count the cost
Every trip costs something. A goal can be exciting and fit your purpose, and still not be worth the time, money, energy and effort it would take. Deciding that it is worth it comes before planning how to get there.
Know your terrain
The gap between where you are and where you want to be is the terrain you have to travel. IntoWisdom looks at it in four parts: thrust (internal factors that propel you forward), drag (internal factors that hold you back), tailwinds and headwinds (external factors that help or hinder). It is one place where the wider ecosystem shows up in strategy.
Plans need real alternatives
If you don’t think you can change, you can’t; if you don’t see any alternatives, you won’t. That’s why IntoWisdom uses Practical Creativity to generate options before narrowing them into a plan.
Commit and communicate
Creating a plan isn’t the end of planning. Formally committing to it, and communicating it to the people who need to know, makes it much more likely to succeed.
The Next Best Step Strategic Action Process
IntoWisdom’s strategic action process moves through four steps.
- From Issue-Based to Success-Based Start with a clear, shared definition of success (purpose, mission and a clear goal) and an honest picture of where you are now.
- Assessing the Terrain Count the cost. Then look at the gap: thrust and drag inside the organization, tailwinds and headwinds outside it.
- Closing the Gap Generate alternatives with Practical Creativity, narrow them into a plan, then commit to it and communicate it.
- Moving With Intention Act on the plan, with the attention, rhythm and resources it takes to keep moving.
Only action on a plan leads to progress. Each round of action informs the next picture of success.
A different way to look at strategy
A focus on strategic action adds questions that keep strategy connected to real movement.
- Instead of only asking, “What’s our biggest problem?” also ask, “What would success look like, clearly enough that we’d all recognize it?”
- Instead of only asking, “What do we want to achieve?” also ask, “What will it cost, and is it worth it?”
- Instead of only asking, “What’s holding us back?” also ask, “What’s propelling us forward, inside and outside the organization?”
- Instead of only asking, “What should we do?” also ask, “If we accomplished only one thing in the next six to eight months, what would it be?”
- Instead of only asking, “Is the plan finished?” also ask, “Have we committed to it and communicated it to the people who need to know?”
These questions don’t replace planning. They make it more likely that planning leads somewhere.
From plan to purposeful movement
Strategic action depends on clarity, and on habits that keep an organization moving once the plan exists.
Six questions for clarity
When IntoWisdom works with leadership teams, it often uses six questions adapted from Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage: Why do we exist? How do we behave? What do we do? How will we succeed? What is most important right now? Who must do what?
What is most important right now?
A single thematic goal focuses energy better than a long list of priorities. One useful test: what must be true six to eight months from now for us to say, with any credibility, that we had a good period?
Keep score simply
Progress is easier to sustain when it’s visible. A simple scoreboard of a few leading measures, directly connected to the result you want, keeps attention on the actions that matter.
Who must do what?
Strategies stall when responsibility is vague. Specific, unambiguous responsibilities and clear accountability turn shared intentions into action.
Reflect and adjust
Regular, honest check-ins on what is happening keep the cycle going. Learning that a step didn’t work is useful information; the direction can hold steady while the path changes. Quality Thinking helps here, too.
What this looks like in practice
Here is how strategic action shows up in IntoWisdom’s work. These are illustrations of the approach, not accounts of particular clients.
In organizational development
Strategic action planning helps organizations connect a clear picture of success to the decisions and work happening every day.
In leadership-team retreats
Facilitated retreats help leadership teams build trust, work through the six questions for clarity and leave with clear agreements about what to communicate.
In self-guided planning
John Losey’s Finding Your Next Best Step workbook takes individuals and teams through the strategic action process at their own pace.
In individual leadership
Leaders apply the same process to their own priorities and decisions, often with a thinking partner.
Where this idea connects to IntoWisdom’s work
Strategic action runs through these ideas and services.
Idea
Organizations as Ecosystems
Why strategy has to account for the terrain inside and outside the organization.
Idea
Creativity & Innovation
Practical Creativity generates the alternatives a plan is built from.
Idea
Quality Thinking
Better framing and decisions through better thinking.
Idea
Leadership
How leaders keep a strategy alive in everyday choices.
Service
Organizational Development
Including strategic action planning.
Service
Facilitation
Planning sessions and retreats that help groups decide and act together.
From the IntoWisdom library
Articles, tools, events and resources connected to Strategic Action.
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