Strategic Doing

By Edward Morrison

**Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:**

How to lead effectively in a world where hierarchies are fading and networks are rising. You'll discover a practical framework for turning conversation into action, building trust across organizational boundaries, and making measurable progress on complex challenges that no single person or organization can solve alone.

**Who This Book Is For:**

Leaders who feel frustrated by traditional strategic planning. Managers who need to coordinate work across departments, organizations, or communities. Anyone facing a "wicked problem" that resists conventional solutions and requires collaboration among people who don't report to each other.

Something strange has happened to the way work gets done. Not long ago, if you wanted to accomplish something significant, you needed a formal organization. You needed a hierarchy with clear lines of authority, defined roles, and a chain of command. You needed a strategic plan that mapped out the next three to five years. You needed permission from someone in charge. That world has not disappeared entirely, but it no longer describes how most important work actually happens. Consider the challenges that dominate our attention today. A regional economy needs to reinvent itself after its dominant industry collapses. A city wants to reduce childhood obesity. A company needs to innovate faster than its competitors. A community wants to prepare for climate change. A university wants to partner with local businesses to create jobs. None of these challenges can be solved by a single organization. None of them respect the boundaries of departments, companies, or government agencies. None of them come with a clear instruction manual. And none of them will wait for a five-year strategic plan to be written, approved, and implemented. These are what scholars call "wicked problems." They are complex, interconnected, and constantly shifting. They involve many stakeholders with different interests and perspectives. They cannot be solved by applying a standard formula or delegating to a single expert. And they are becoming more common every year. The problem is that most of us were trained for a different world. We learned to think in terms of hierarchies and command-and-control. We learned to write plans and execute them. We learned to define clear goals, assign responsibilities, and measure progress against predetermined milestones. These skills are not worthless, but they are increasingly insufficient. When we face a wicked problem, we discover that no one is in charge. We discover that the people we need to work with don't report to us. We discover that the problem itself keeps changing shape even as we try to solve it. We discover that our carefully crafted plans become obsolete before the ink dries. This is the situation Edward Morrison addresses in…