Advanced Dynamics

Why are we different?

Advanced Dynamics sees strategy differently: not as the fixed end-product of a highly technical process divorced from the everyday actions of the organisation, but as an on-going activity that is integrated into everything the organisation does and is.

Treating strategising in this way opens up important possibilities for increasing engagement, adaptability and responsiveness across the organisation. 'Talking strategy' can be at least as important as what comes out of those conversations, at least in terms of the performance of the organisation. Advanced Dynamics has the tools and insights to support organisations in bringing strategies to life, in the real world, improving both long-term flexibility and short-term performance.

What problems do we solve?

What is an organisation looking for when it wants ‘a strategy’? It will usually be some sort of unifying vision of what it wants to be doing and where it wants to get to, which can be used for many purposes – to act as a framework for making decisions about how to organise itself; as a convincing story to get external support or placate external critics; or as an input for planning financial and human resource programmes.

But these purposes are not always consistent with each other; and, furthermore, defining strategy does not guarantee success in implementation, even if the chosen direction remains valid in a fast-changing external environment. Some approaches to ‘strategy’ try to resolve these issues by developing better strategy. All too often, though, this leads to ‘experts’ developing strategy which is neither owned by the organisation, nor implementable in the real world.

Strategising is something that is done across organisations all the time – it is an activity that encourages everyone involved to see their actions and external events not only in terms of immediate consequences, but of potential longer term implications - it is a way of making meaning. For that reason, it cannot be treated separately from the culture, symbols and systems that define the organisation. It grows out of, and is constrained by, the entire system of organisation, and changing direction means changing the organisation.