Over the past years, we have seen a rapidly growing community of Strategy Tools practitioners. From business school faculty in the US, executives-turned-consultants in Latin America, to Australian Innovation Clusters, the Strategy Tools platform is used across the globe to accelerate impact.
So how are people using Strategy Tools in Action? How are companies changing the way they work with strategy based on the toolkit? How are global consultants building their business with the help of the Strategy Tools platform? Read our Strategy Tools in Action, a report where we explore this in full detail.
Featured today is Victor Haze, Innovation Manager at Health Valley, based in the Netherlands. Victor Haze has been working in ICT and project management for over two decades. His clients span industries, from Finance, Energy, to Oil & Gas. Currently, he works in healthcare cluster management, looking to align strategies of SMEs, Universities and HCOs using workshop settings with all stakeholders. When not working, he can be found on a bike riding up a mountain. Here’s his story:
My Preferred Strategy Tool
For me the Supercluster Strategy Map is the most comprehensive One-Stop-Shop picture to explain a number of concepts around Superclusters, how to start them, who to involve and how to execute on them. Together with the Simulation this is a very powerful combination to kick off any cluster initiative.
How I Use It
Supercluster Strategy Map
I start with the Supercluster Strategy Map to get everybody literally on the same page. Once this coalition is formed and people see the possibilities, we can tie the broad picture to more focused ones.
Supercluster Strategy Intro
Voicing the ambition of the whole cluster helps in establishing the next steps. It is a very clear cut and concrete target planning tool to set a multi-year development plan.
Clusters of Change Roadmap
The CoC Roadmap is then a next step in bringing in more perspective over the upcoming years and a visually easy to understand building block of essential and logical follow up.
Supercluster! Simulation
When I am using the Supercluster! simulation I make sure there are specific points in the ‘game-play’ that make it easy to transfer over to the canvases. This can be a specific question, remark or discussion by the participants. It is very easy and smooth then to step away from the table and work out the ‘problem on the board”.
Client Impact
We started by using the Supercluster simulation for a group of regional stakeholders from government, university, development agencies. Right away it became clear that the simulation is a way to facilitate discourse in a much easier way. We worked a long period on developing the different clusters in the simulation and it became clear to the participants “how-to-play-the-game”. That transformational aspect in real life taking place at the actual table was an eye opener not only for me but also for the actual participants themselves. Feedback afterwards stressed the aspect of the multi-layered approach that you can introduce in the session. So the simulation, the canvases and the software platform really has all angles covered.
Recommendations to Others
1. Bring in the tools one by one. Be aware of trying to cram in too much in one session.
2. Take time to get everybody on board of the visual aspect of the toolset. Their mileage may vary and you may need to ‘re-sync’ everybody to the same level. Re-syncing participants will highly increase everybody’s participation effort!
3. Make sure you have thought about a logical build-up in using the tools. The sequence of what you are using has to make sense to the group.
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Want more strategy insights from across the globe? Download the Strategy Tools in Action Report.
