As we step into a new year with big expectations, the truth is – there are and will be many unknowns to navigate.
Most of us have probably learned this the hard way in the last two years.
A big part of business strategy is being comfortable with navigating ambiguity.
To admit upfront we don’t have all the answers….
This clip is a snippet of how Stanford University’s d.school (business design faculty) helps their students embrace the unknowns.
“The trick is to give them multiple requirements, where they have to figure out which are the right ones”
“They have to get used to doing that on their own because a lot of times in life you are going to be presented with situations where you have to figure out what’s important rather than be given the rules or goals”
“We won’t necessarily give them a roadmap. We give them things to do but not targets to hit. So that they have to figure out what the targets are”
“The successful students are able to create their own constraints that are meaningful to the problem at hand. The ultimate goal is for the students to jump into ambiguity vs being afraid to try or avoiding it”
Foundstone uses an approach to real-life business strategy using similar principles. We’ve been sharing how we approach strategy through a recent case study. Stay tuned to find out more.
Full article here: https://hbr.org/2020/11/what-you-should-follow-instead-of-your-passion