# Repetition as an Indicator of Strategy Focus By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-11-20 Organizations frequently approach strategy development with an offsite. Key members of the organization go away from the office to an alternative location and work [[together]] over a couple of days to develop the organization’s strategy. Whereas this approach is common, it suffers from several inherent limitations. First, the strategy contains the thinking of a particular moment in time. Whatever is going on in the world at that moment will be more salient as people are making contributions to the strategy. Second, the strategy is generated outside the normal working environment. This is done primarily to spark creativity. There are certainly positives associated with this. However, the negative generated is that it doesn’t reflect the type of day-to-day thinking that will be required to implement the strategy. Lastly, the participants provide strategic ideas which seem to them to be appropriate. In short, those engaged in the activity are filtering things out which do not seem to be appropriate. Collectively, these limitations, along with others, constrain the efficacy of organizational strategy from its creation. There is a different approach. It is possible to engage with strategy indirectly to find what those in an organization truly find to be of strategic importance. Instead of taking key members of the organization away for a strategic offsite, direct them to write twenty minutes a day for three months. During that time, each person will generate about 60 posts. Examining the topics which are repeated frequently can be an indicator of what might be the organization’s strategic focus. Unlike the offsite approach, this approach is not constrained to one moment in time. Over the course of three months, blips of interest will be transitory whereas elements of strategic concern will appear throughout. If written at the office (physical or virtual) the posts will reflect “work thinking,” increasing the chances of successful implementation. Lastly, constrained writing will force people to stop self-editing and go with whatever idea they can generate and write on during the twenty-minute period. Organizational strategy is challenging. The offsite approach is popular not so much because it is effective but because it is fun, accepted, and feels like it is productive as it is being enacted. The writing approach doesn’t seem all that “special.” The writing approach suggested here holds the potential to reveal topics with which people are concerned. In this way, repetition becomes an indicator of strategic focus. Textual analysis techniques can be applied to these writings to identify key areas. Informed by these insights organizations are in a better position to develop strategies that are strategically aligned with organizational thinking. #### Related Items [[Strategy]] [[Business]] [[Writing]] [[Thinking]] [[Analytics]] [[Meetings]]