The Convergence of Strategy and Learning

© 2006-2010 Roland Deiser CLO Symposium – Sep 27-29, 2010 Page 1
The Convergence
of Strategy and
Corporate Learning
Roland Deiser
Founder & Chairman, European Corporate Learning Forum (ECLF)
Senior Fellow, Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg
rd@rolanddeiser.com
Fall 2010 CLO Symposium
September 27-29, 2010
Laguna Niguel, California/USA

Rethinking the
Paradigm of Learning

Massive Change and Disruption
Knowledge Based Competition
Global Horizontal Networks
New Role of the Periphery
New Strategic
Importance of
Learning
Learning is Gaining Strategic Importance – for the
Sustainability of Societies and Corporations

Redifining the Paradigm of Learning

A 5-Level Model of
Corporate Learning Interventions...

A Comprehensive Learning Architecture Needs to
Tap into a Variety of Tools and Interventions
Some Examples…

Redefining the Paradigm of Learning has an Impact
on the Identity and Scope of the Learning Function
Functional
Responsibility
Organizational
Challenge
Strategic
Challenge
Learning and
Development
Department
All relevant
stakeholders of the
organization
Customers
Suppliers
Alliances
Competitors
Regulators
Human
Resource
Function
Enterprise
Enlarged
Value
Chain
1 + 2
3 + 4
5
Low
Medium
High
Impact on
Business System
Perception of
„Learning“
Key Players Within
Learning Architecture
Reference
System
Stage
external organizational barriers
internal organizational barriers

Under the New Paradigm, Learning Becomes
Embedded as a Leadership Practice
Happens primarily in hierarchical
expert-student relationship
Happens primarily in horizontal
peer-to-peer relationship
Transfers existing knowledge, trains
prescribed behavior
Puts existing perspectives
and behavior into question
Focus on qualification for future
application
 requires learning transfer
Focus on ongoing innovation,
change and transformation
 transfer is not an issue
Happens remote from practice Is embedded in practice
Restricted Paradigm Comprehensive Paradigm
Learning as People Development
Learning as Strategic and
Organizational Process
Focus primarily on cognitive
competences
includes social, political,
and ethical competences
Learning as Educational Practice Learning as Leadership Practice

The Strategy Challenge

A New View of Strategy is Emerging
Emerging ViewTraditional View
Strategy as
extrapolating the past
Strategy as
an analytical exercise
Strategy as
top management activity
Strategy as positioning in an
existing Industry Space
Strategy as
fit with resources
Strategy as
creating the future
Strategy as an analytical and
organizational exercise
Strategy as comprehensive
organizational process
Strategy as
creating new industry space
Strategy as
stretch and leverage

From Strategic Planning to Strategic Management
  Numbers
  Pieces of Paper
  Committees and Reports
  Once a Year Exercise
  Planning Department/Staff
  Secret Process Known Only to
CEO and Top Management
Strategic Management Is Not
  Qualitative Rationale for Focus and
Action Taking Throughout the
Organization
  Organizational Foundation plus
Behavior = Results
  Informal, "Natural", Dynamic
Process
  Continuous Action/Learning/Change
Process
  Led and Enacted by Senior and
Middle Management
Strategic Management Is

Ambidexterity Revisited:
Linking Strategy, Innovation, and Learning
Agenda for a Strategic Learning Architecture
Win the Present Create the Future
Agenda for
Performance
Improvement
Agenda for Sustaining/
Renewing Strategic
Leadership
Agenda for Industry and
Company Transformation
•  What game are we
playing today?
•  What are the
Key Success Factors?
•  How do we compare against
our toughest competitors on
key industry drivers?
•  What is our position
in key segments?
•  How well are we utilizing our
assets and capabilities?
How can we leverage
our product, technology,
and people capabilities
to re-define value
creation for key
customer/market
segments?
•  What game will we play in the
future?
•  How can we accelerate
industry and company
transformation in ways that
benefit us?
•  What is the appropriate
business model for that?
•  What related capabilities will
the company require?
+ +
Understand Potential
Discontinuities

  What is the company‘s point of view about its future?
  What is its business model for creating and capturing value?
  What unique capabilities support the business model?
  What new capabilities will have to be acquired and how will they be
embedded?
  What capabilities can be developed internally, what requires
partnering, what acquisitions?
  How can the company stay alert to inflection points that will re-define
value in its business?
  What is the company‘s migration path? Actions that will help it win in
the present while creating the future?
  What type of leadership culture needs to be developed to make the
necessary change happen?
Strategic Agenda of a Typical Corporation

A Learning Architecture Needs to Impact the Domains
That Are Critical for Ongoing Strategic Innovation
Relationship to the
External World
M&A, Corporate venturing,
open innovation, customer
centricity
Organizational Design
foster cross boundary processes,
knowledge brokerage; create
heavy teams
Organizational Culture
Allow and design for difference
and diversity, commit to
managing ambidexterity
People
Develop Leadership
competencies - managing
creative talent, risk taking,
entrepreneurship
Strategy and
Business Rationale
Understand and critically
reflect business models
Arenas for
Corporate
Learning
Interventions

Learning and the Strategy Process:
A Simple Framework

3 Distinctive Elements of the Strategy Process
Strategy
Generation
Strategy
Formulation
Strategy
Execution
The strategy process is not a sequence of clearly separated steps
(traditional planning paradigm),
It is rather an iterative and circular process that leads to organizational
learning and the development of strategic competence

Strategy Generation
 Is about understanding environmental forces and
organizational capabilities
 Can be intuitive or analytical
 Happens throughout the entire organization
 Can be planned/ organized through mechanisms and
processes, or it happens coincidental, “anarchical”
 “Designed Irritation” is an important source for seeing
differently
 Seeing differently is an important source for creating
novel strategies that redefine existing business models
Dominant Logic: “Ask” - “Listen”

Strategy Formulation
 Is about dealing with risks and opportunities
 Sets directions that also include exclusion of alternative
opportunities
 Makes choices explicit
 Usually a very political process, including multiple stakeholders
 Has impact on allocation of resources
 Is only partly rational
 Is rooted in existing mindsets and cognitive frameworks
 Is a function of power dynamics
Dominant Logic: “Decide” - “Choose”

Strategy Execution
 Requires political strategy and tactics
 Micro politics are important
 Cascading Training efforts may be required to build new
capabilities and/or establish new routines
 Interventions for conscious unlearning may be required
 Project Management is key (establishing processes,
milestone planning, prioritizing of actions, controlling etc)
 Execution is source of learning in terms of experiences
that loop back to Generation
 Challenge to cope with variety of situations
Dominant Logic: “Tell” - “Know”

The Three Elements Of The Strategy Process Follow
Fundamentally Different Rationales
All levels within relevant
network cluster
Center, top level
Periphery + all levels,
also external
constituencies
Organizational
level involved
Convincing, explainingReasoning, arguing
Investigating,
understandingDialogue
Culture
Organizational inertia,
Power issues (vertical)
Different assumptions,
perceptions; Power
issues (horizontal)
Ignorance towards the
unknownConflicts
Cascading Workshops,
Townhall Meetings,
Organizational
alignment
Top Executive Forum
Workshops
Learning Expeditions,
Customer visitsActivities
Create learning designs
for “telling”
Enable constructive
discourse
Create learning designs
for “listening”
Role of
Learning
Employees, Customers,
Strategic Partners
Senior Executives,
Board of Directors
Customers,
Competitors,
Employees
Stakeholders
Complying, accepting
Experimenting,
exploiting
Fighting, struggling,
reasoning,
competing
Inquiry, curiosity, open to
new perspectives,
learning, exploring
(Socio)
Dynamics
Generation Formulation Execution

How Do Your Current Activities and Projects Fit With
These Conceptual Frameworks?

More Details in My New Book That Also Features
Ten Case Studies From Global Corporations
Featuring cases from
•  ABB 
•  BASF 
•  US Army 
•  EADS 
•  UniCredit 
•  PricewaterhouseCoopers 
•  Novar=s
•  Siemens 
•  EnBW 
•  Deutsche Post DHL

Please Do not Hesitate to Being in Touch
More material at www.rolanddeiser.com
Contact me at rd@rolanddeiser.com

Not Used

What is learning anyway?
Knowledge Transfer is only a
very small part of the equation
The Cartesian paradigm:
Mechanistic, restricted to the cognitive, one way street

negotiating meaning to create a
shared understanding of the world
The Essence of Learning
The participative paradigm:
Dynamic, social, tapping into the mutual expertise of learners

Well Designed, a Corporate Learning Architecture
Impacts the Culture, Structure, and Strategy of the Firm
  Help identify key strategic Issues
  Facilitate strategic decision making
  Help implement strategic initiatives
  Help build the right capabilities
  Work across organizational boundaries
  Help improve managerial systems and
mechanisms
  Build flexibility and responsiveness into
the organization
  Help create shared vision
  Help create leadership culture
  Integrate and socialize members
  Encourage discourse and collaboration
  Help create openness, trust
Capability Portfolio
Business Model
Strategy
Structure Culture

Key Questions for a Strategic Learning Architecture
  What institutional structures and systems exist within the
firm and between its relevant external partners as a
managed framework for developing and nurturing
strategic competence (learning architecture)?
  What is the specific business model driving this
framework? How is it linked to the operational core of
the firm? How does it work as a competence and
business developing "engine"?
  What are organizational cornerstones of the framework?
  Which practices does the framework contain, and how are
they interrelated?
  Which players are actively and intentionally included
within the framework? How are they managed?

The Convergence of Strategy and Learning

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