{"id":10407,"date":"2022-02-09T06:54:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T11:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=10407"},"modified":"2022-02-08T11:55:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T16:55:57","slug":"strategic-thinking-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/strategic-thinking-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Thinking Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizational leadership<\/a> can draw on 3 Strategic Thinking Games to master Business Strategy<\/a> and apply in varied scenarios and organizational structures.\u00a0 The Strategic Thinking Games provide Decision Making models for senior executives<\/a> to choose from and use as per the situation.\"\"<\/p>\n

The Strategic Thinking Games<\/a> are based on mathematics and statistics, particularly Probability Theory<\/a>, and exhaustive research into the Business Strategy realm.\u00a0 Probability Theory is actually a branch of mathematics that deals with analysis of random phenomena.\u00a0 The basic element of Probability Theory is an experiment that can be at least hypothetically repeated under identical conditions, but may lead to different outcomes on different trials.<\/p>\n

Each of the Strategic Thinking Games warrants employing a different mindset and decision-making approach to confront the challenges presented by a particular problem.\u00a0 Executives can apply these Strategic Thinking Models to control their future:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Planning<\/a> as Positioning <\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Organization Learning <\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Constructive Transformation <\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s discuss these Strategic Thinking Models in detail.<\/p>\n

    Planning as Positioning<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The 1st<\/sup> Strategy game allows the players to make 40 blind draws from a pot holding 25 black and 75 red balls. \u00a0It costs $10 per draw\u2014which has to be paid beforehand\u2014and it allows the players the opportunity to win $20 on drawing a red ball but naught on drawing a black ball.\u00a0 The game imitates a scenario where managers make informed bets about the future based on data and insights into the level of uncertainty encountered.<\/p>\n

    The Planning as Positioning Model enables the executives to learn about their industry and competition, gauge ambiguities and uncertainties, and select markets that have the potential to generate a positive Return on Investment (ROI).<\/p>\n

    A classic example of a company operating on the Planning & Positioning Model was the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT). \u00a0For 17 years, the company was led by Harold Geneen (from 1960 to 1977). \u00a0\u00a0Harold Geneen was unrestricted by any company mission.\u00a0 He expanded in multiple industries, acquired around 350 enterprises from varied industries, including auto parts, cosmetics, hospitality, insurance, and technology. \u00a0As a formal accountant, Harold considered facts as indisputable, final, and a foundation for making strategic decisions. \u00a0He would travel to far-flung regions to meet his business unit managers, who were free to make their own strategic decisions but were responsible for their unit\u2019s performance and objectives\u2019 achievement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Organization<\/strong> Learning <\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The 2nd<\/sup> Strategy game allows the players to blind draw from a pot containing an unknown mix of red and black balls.\u00a0 This time it costs $5 per draw.\u00a0 Players have to bet on either color before each draw.\u00a0 They can draw up to 50 times, or stop whenever they want, and win $20 if they draw the right ball.\u00a0 This game imitates a scenario for training managers<\/a> to dynamically respond to upcoming events with unpredictable degree of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

    Through the pot filled with balls experiment, it was revealed that when people are given complicated choices, they behave in manners conflicting with their beliefs. \u00a0In his famous Ellsberg Paradox, Ellsberg hypothesized that people make illogical preferences in order to avoid ambiguity.\u00a0 The Organizational Learning Model underlines that in a world full of uncertainties instead of spending too much time predicting the future, planning and positioning, organizations should devise and implement an evolving strategy, take one step at a time, search for viable patterns, and then adjust the course based on results.<\/p>\n

    An example of successful implementation of the 2nd<\/sup> Strategic Thinking Model is Corning Inc. that embraced Organizational Learning to develop a healthy product pipeline. \u00a0The company developed Pyrex, TV tubes…..<\/p>\n

    Interested in learning more about the 3 Strategic Thinking Games?\u00a0 You\u00a0can download\u00a0an editable PowerPoint on Strategic Thinking Games\u00a0<\/b>here\u00a0<\/a>on the\u00a0Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n

    You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the\u00a0FlevyPro Library<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0FlevyPro<\/a>\u00a0is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here\u2019s what some have to say:<\/p>\n

    \u201cMy FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today\u2019s market.\u00a0 They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions.\u00a0 I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u201cAs a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power.\u00a0 For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    \u201cFlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients.\u00a0 In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over!\u00a0 The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it\u2019s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u2013 Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Organizational leadership can draw on 3 Strategic Thinking Games to master Business Strategy and apply in varied scenarios and organizational structures.\u00a0 The Strategic Thinking Games provide Decision Making models for senior executives to choose from and use as per the situation. The Strategic Thinking Games are based on mathematics and statistics, particularly Probability Theory, and… Strategic Thinking Games<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":10409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,81],"tags":[5,1136,2839,2838,2556,752,2837,2835,2836,27,388,824],"class_list":["post-10407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-strategy","tag-business-strategy","tag-decision-making","tag-ellsberg-paradox","tag-organization-learning","tag-planning","tag-positioning","tag-probability-theory","tag-return-on-investment","tag-statistics","tag-strategic-planning","tag-strategy-2","tag-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10407"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10503,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10407\/revisions\/10503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}