At the end of the month, we will see the third cohort join the Strategy Tools Global Coaches program in Portuguese. A consolidated international program to train strategists on how to use our visual canvases, the Global Coaches now advances in Brazil with Portuguese webinars and translated content.
After over 50 participants from all over the country – from São Paulo to Porto Alegre – we’re now seeing new concepts and frameworks to (re)design strategies for this ‘New Normal’ being used across Brazil.
We can’t handle a mega-VUCA world with old tools. Worse than that, we might not rely upon old assumptions. As Rita McGrath has been saying for several years, it is now a necessity to compete with transient advantages, surfing this fast-changing environment, rather than protecting your core business as if it were an old medieval castle, fixed and rigid.
Strategy Tools’ founder and CEO Chris Rangen asserts that “language creates reality”. To overcome the dominant logic inside the organization and promote real innovations, we must change the narrative.
There is no better way to move organizational culture than fostering a new mindset, providing practical tools and taking on new habits through concrete action.
International certification
Obtaining the Strategy Tools Global Coach certification will put you in contact with several other strategists around the world.
There is a huge value in mastering new tools, but the biggest value lies perhaps in the ability to connect with fellow professionals all sharing their knowledge, experience, use cases and developing a network to open up new business opportunities together.
Thanks to the Strategy Tools’ ecosystem, you can get in touch with people who represent the ‘state of the art’ in strategic thinking, learning and collaborating with consultants and executives who had participated in projects with some of the most prominent names in strategy such as Rita McGrath, Gary Hamel, Clayton Christensen amongst others.
Becoming a Global Coach is not only about getting a technical stamp, but putting yourself on a global team of experts who can design best-in-class strategies as well as enable contexts for innovation.
Emergent or deliberate strategies?
Strategies may be deliberately designed by the business leaders or enabled by strategic capabilities the company has.
Sometimes we see executives with such a drive that their strategic choices lead their companies to actual successful transformations. But other times we notice cultures where the strategy is a result from a pattern of small choices from many strategists across the organization.
If we need to make fast changes in the route, redirect the entire business to respond to industry shifts that are shaping a different landscape, or even ‘black swans’ or any other natural phenomenon which just arrived suddenly (such as pandemics that, perhaps, someone has the crazy fantasy to talk about), we need the right tools.
If we manage organizations as adaptive complex systems – as they truly are – we may enable emergent strategies by leading the way on generating the proper context for people to engage, collaborate and actively participate in the strategic work.
Whether you prefer to think as a ‘designer of plans’ or as a ‘context enabler’, in both ways you need the best tools to work.
Hands on, immediate action
Some of the participants of the Strategy Tools Global Coaches Brazil are executives – CEOs, CTOs, COOs, CFOs… One of them, a managing partner from the 2nd edition, applied Strategy Intro to review and redesign with his peers the strategy of the holding – a group of two businesses. Key outcome: better balance between their different business models through three ‘time horizons’; more alignment of the top management around new ambitions; more simple roadmap for execution; clearer narrative for engaging people on implementation.
Other participants are independent consultants. One of them changed his approach from old tools into a new set of visual canvases, gathering the management team of one of his clients on understanding its industry shifts and provoking deep questions on how to prepare for the future – result: a total reallocation of resources in the company.
There are also business owners, startup founders, entrepreneurs who subscribe for the program. During this ongoing 3rd edition, there is a guy who is moving his small business from a product based company into a services business to business model. Previously with no idea on how to do that, he is now redefining the whole plan mapping the stages of a scaleup, following up each development stage with a funding tactic.
One of my own clients, an engineering firm served directly by me and my colleagues at Strategy Tools, reviewed his vision for the company. A huge impact for a family-owned business after becoming aware of the trends and scenarios for the environmental and waste treatment industry. The outcomes range from changing from an only focused strategy into a portfolio of business models
Capability building
But, look, “it’s not about tools!”, Chris Rangen would say.
Of course, the canvases alone won’t help without the intelligence and the skills of a true strategist. That’s why our platform features a range of solutions for the development of strategic capabilities using simulations, online programs, mentoring, content, apps and several other instruments in order to enhance business acumen, innovation repertoire and transformation roadmaps.
Join the Global Coaches community
Subscribe to our self-paced program.
As well, if you prefer to interact and learn directly with our CEO, check out the version with live webinars.
And of course, if you are reading this and also speak Portuguese (or wanna test out your language skills), meet me in the next intake for the Strategy Tools Global Coaches Brazil 😉