Rhode Island School of  Design leaders (John Maeda and Becy Bermont) offer a succinct comparison of differences between business and academics, using punctuation marks as the metaphor .  This combination is at the heart of our partnership with Stanford for the SAPM program. The the following quotes capture the essence of their post.  Creative organizations (such as, Apple, IDEO, P&G, or Pixar) and teams continually strive to balance these two frames of reference, depending on the culture and strategy of the organization.

In academia there is the luxury of time. Thus when a thought might start, it doesn’t necessarily have to finish. You can begin … and not necessarily end. It is this kind of open-endedness that makes academia a necessary space of free thought in the world.

In industry we like to hear the virtues of “execution” and “getting things done.” Got an idea? Set a target deadline. When you’re done, package the result and move onto the next task. Don’t think. Just do. And keep on doing.

In industry it’s important to be heard. Speaking up is critical for an individual’s or idea’s survival. “I can’t hear you.” No. I really can’t. So what do you do? YELL. YEEEEEELLLLLL. And you still hope to get heard. By your boss, of course. Or even better by your boss’s boss. 

In academia there’s always a need to think critically. Debate is the starting- and ending-point for all meaningful dialogue. Got an idea? Question it. And question the question while you’re at it.

In our SAPM courses at Stanford and client companies around the world, we use many examples from IDEO. Tim Brown and IDEO Founder David Kelley have used the term Design Thinking to describe how they approach challenges and their work.  See June 2008 Harvard Business Article on Design Thinking by Tim Brown.  Design Thinking also underlies the Stanford d.school. Brown notes that a design thinker shows empathy, integrative thinking, optimism, willingness to experiment, and collaboration.  All of which are critical for designing the execution of strategy via project-based work (PBW).  Here are some initial thoughts on the elements of Strategy Execution Thinking – we welcome your comments and suggestions on these.

Elements of Strategy Execution Thinking:

• Strategy is executed via:
  • project-based work (PBW) that delivers new or upgraded products, new or upgraded business processes, and new or improved business facilities and systems.
  • operations that use the results of PBW to deliver the products and services the organization offers
• PBW and operations are conducted within a variety of contexts:
  • overall business
  • organization / business unit
  • projects
  • teams
  • personal

• ---

  ---

  Understanding the culture in which PBW and operations are conducted and acting on that knowledge accelerates strategy execution
  • functional
  • ethnic
  • national
  • organizational
    
• Who / what the organization is – its purpose, vision, how it sees itself – always drives successful execution: the questions is whether this is by design or by default
• Collaboration riles: It’s not about me but us – we is smarter than me.
• Clear understanding of 1) what done looks like and 2) how to measure “levels of doneness” supports the execution of strategy via PBW
• …what would you add?