How do strategic stories evolve?
In my previous article, I talked about how a concept that brings consistency to a strategic story can be created.
The starting point for the creation of new value elements in a strategic story is the awareness of a concept. In order for a new value element to be created based on that concept, several steps are required to be taken. In this article, I will explain this process.
Steps in the evolution of a strategic story and the positioning of the value creation process
First, let’s review the five evolutionary steps of a strategy story to see the big picture of creating a strategy story.
In the previous articles, I have explained the steps (1) through (4) of a strategic story evolution. If you want to know more about this, please refer to this article.
After steps (1) through (4), we finally come to step (5), the “value creation” step. In order to create this value, I mentioned in my previous article that having a concept that ensures the consistency of the entire strategic story is a prerequisite.
The process of creating new value elements while connecting to a clear concept is the “value creation process”. I will now talk about the “value creation process,” but before I do, I think it is necessary to answer this question.
“What do we mean there is a more detailed value creation process within the steps of a strategic story evolution?”
I think it is very natural to have this kind of question. I also believe that it is important to keep things as simple as possible, rather than making things overly complicated.
However, as I mentioned in a previous article, I have decided that in order to bridge the gap between “understanding” and “creating” a good strategy, I need to describe the process in more detail in the steps of strategy story evolution
It is enough to grasp the macroscopic, consequential, and integral aspects of strategy when “understanding strategy”, but when “creating strategy”, it is necessary to have a microscopic, causal, and differential sense.
The following is a metaphor of traveling by car. If the destination of the trip is “to create a good strategy,” it is necessary to drive the car at a certain speed in order to reach the destination. That speed is the “ evolutionary steps of a strategy story. In order to drive a car at a certain speed, you need to push the acceleration pedal. The acceleration pedal is the “Value Creation Process” that I will introduce here.
Metaphorical representation of creating a good strategy as taking a trip by car
The destination of the trip (distance): Creating a good strategy
Speed of the car (speed, first derivative): The evolutionary steps of a strategy story
Stepping on the acceleration pedal (acceleration, second derivative): the value creation process
In order to get to the destination of our trip, we need to step on the acceleration pedal of the car. And stepping on the acceleration pedal of a car is similar to an internal sensation, and it is something that we can do if we want to.
In the same way, I believe that creating a good strategy needs to be viewed from a microscopic, causal, and differentiated perspective, at a level close to our internal senses, as something we can do if we want to.
And I have repeatedly told you that to take a microscopic, causal, and differential view means to become aware of how we use our consciousness. The “value creation process” that I am about to explain is also viewed from the worldview of conscious management.
The six processes of value creation
The value creation process can be divided into the following six categories. The consciousness to be activated in each process is indicated by a number on the 3+1 consciousness model.
In order to understand the six processes, I would like to give an overview of each process. In addition, I would like to deepen our understanding not only by explaining the contents in an abstract way, but also by introducing specific examples.
The first step is to utilize intuition, which is the beginning of the value creation process.
It is important to use intuition to create value
1) Intuition of a strategy story :
Use meta-consciousness/intuitive consciousness to capture inspiration that leads to a strategic story to realize the vision.
The first process is to capture the spark that leads to value creation on the strategic story to realize the vision or concept (identity + core values).
“Is inspiration something we try to get intentionally?”
Many of you may be asking this question. As you say, flashes of inspiration are something that come to us and are not something that we can intentionally create right here and now. However, it is possible to make it easier to get intuition and inspiration.
The key to making it easier to get intuition and inspiration is to use our intuitive consciousness. In the 3+1 consciousness model, this corresponds to activating the intuitive consciousness. Intuitive consciousness is “the consciousness that intuitively senses the existence of essence, truth, INOCHI(life), and love. In a word, “ it is the consciousness that integrates into the One.”
This consciousness that integrates into the One is useful for value creation. The use of intuition was also used in the derivation of visions. Essentially, it is the same mechanism of intuition utilization.
For more information on how to use intuition in deriving visions, see the following article.
As I mentioned in the article above, have you ever done a lot of market and competitor analysis in developing a vision or strategy, only to find that the vision or strategy you came up with was uninteresting, empty, or boring?
Analyzing the market and competition is necessary when thinking about strategy. However, this is not enough to create a creative strategy story that leads to our own vision and concept. What is derived from analysis and logical thinking may provide some suggestions, but it is unlikely to lead to creative value creation.
While the thinking consciousness has the direction to understand things by “dividing” them, the intuitive consciousness has the direction to see things as a single image by “integrating and synthesizing” them. In order to conceive a strategic story and create new value, it is essential to use not only the thinking consciousness but also the intuitive consciousness.
In order to activate our intuitive awareness, we need to remove the frame of thinking consciousness that tends to be so prevalent in our daily work and prepare an environment where inspiration can come down to us.
In order to make effective use of our intuitive consciousness, it is important to have quests(questions). “How do I want to be?” “How can I integrate the contradictions? “What are the essential principles?” These quests(questions) are effective.
On the other hand, questions such as what is going on and what is the cause of the problem activate the direction of analysis and condensation, which is a characteristic of the thinking mind, so one can dare to avoid them in the intuition stage of the strategy story.
The importance of intuition has been shown theoretically
“Somehow I realized that intuition is important, but is it true?”
You may be left with such questions. I myself have gone through a period of time when I utilized thinking consciousness too much as the main tool rather than intuition, and had a value system that “everything is what can be thought”, so I understand such questions very well.
In fact, the importance of intuition has also been shown theoretically. It is called the Dual-Processing Theory. In this theory, it is revealed that “in response to external stimuli, two types of decision-making systems occur simultaneously in the human brain.”
System 1 is “a system of cognitive judgments that work automatically and at high speed, requiring no effort at all or very little if any,” which is what we call intuition.
System 2 is “a system of cognitive judgment that allocates appropriate attention to difficult intellectual activities that require the use of the brain, such as complex calculations,” which is so-called (logical) thinking.
Intuition and thinking are complementary. Intuition has the disadvantage of being prone to cognitive bias, which is the tendency to make mistakes, but it also allows us to take a holistic view and make quick decisions. Thinking has the advantage of being less prone to cognitive bias, but it tends to be localized and does not allow for quick decisions. It also has the disadvantage of not being able to make correct judgments if the information it assumes is not correct.
In an environment of increasing uncertainty, recent research has shown that the use of intuition can be effective. (For those who are interested, please refer to “Management Theory of the Global Standard (by Shoei Iriyama)” for an easy-to-understand overview.
I have talked about the importance of using intuition, but I believe that in the business world, a thinking-dominant worldview still prevails. When we formulate a business plan, we need to explain it in a way that is easy to understand to the people involved, so we tend to think in a thinking-centered way.
While it is of course important to use our thinking consciousness, it is also important to use our intuition, and the value creation process in a strategic story starts with the use of intuition.
In my next article, I would like to talk about the use of intuition, using specific examples.
Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)
・What is the balance between your intuition and your thinking in your daily work situations? Do you think the balance is good as it is now? Or would you like to change the balance a little more? And what are the reasons?
・What, if anything, has your intuition been telling you lately? What “quests(questions)” have you been consciously or unconsciously asking yourself as a background to that intuition?
Bunshiro Ochiai
