How To Lead A Quest

Part III Cultivating Options

Optionality [noun]: a state or quality in which discretion or choice is available.

Quest-Augmented Strategy is our elegantly ‘flawed-yet-useful' framework for meaningful progress. We're going to plunge right into the abyss, and start with the pioneering thinking required to cultivate options.^[1] After all, without viable alternative options, we simply default to our defaults.

But generating alternative options that are of genuine strategic benefit to an enterprise isn't simply a case of gathering senior leaders into a room for a few hours of brainstorming. Nor is it about simply replicating the strategy of competitors, or outsourcing this process to an expensive agency to come up with all the answers for you.

No — to truly cultivate options, we must build the capability to explore uncertain futures, to seek out potential incoherencies, and to foster acuity for the hunches that may harbour options worth pursuing.

Note

¹ Those potentially viable alternatives that could influence and enrich strategic decision-making.