Strategic Thinking & Strategic Action

Fostering strategic thinking and strategic action by organizational leaders since 2007.

Lead from strategy, don’t waste time
Strategy Lee Crumbaugh Strategy Lee Crumbaugh

Lead from strategy, don’t waste time

An acronym that crystallizes our fraught times and ought to lead us to focused action is VUCA, meaning Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. VUCA describes the challenging conditions and environments that organizations, leaders, and individuals face, particularly when those conditions make analysis, response, and planning difficult. In short, today we are most certainly living in a VUCA world.

Lest we kid ourselves, let’s recognize that the world has always been more VUCA than not, despite our being lulled at times, whether it be by the post World War II economic boom, the long run of low interest rates through the early 2020s, the U.S.’s 80-year hegemony as the world’s leading military and economic power, or the availability of low-priced Chinese goods. More often, our business and personal lives are upended, be it by hurricane or COVID Pandemic or personal tragedy or windfall, or any of a thousand other status-quo warping events.

So what do we know about succeeding in a VUCA world? From theory, evidence, and practice, we can distill four key principles that will foster success.

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Rise of the poker pros: 10 lessons for great success
Decision making Lee Crumbaugh Decision making Lee Crumbaugh

Rise of the poker pros: 10 lessons for great success

Is life a poker game? Or, perhaps better stated, to what extent does playing poker teach us about living the best life?

If you have read recent books by Nate Silver (The Art of Risking Everything), Maria Konnikova (The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win), and Annie Duke (Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away), all one-time professional poker players, you likely will be convinced that poker is a useful simulation of real life, albeit under controlled conditions (that is, a set of rules). The cool thing about Silver, Konnikova , and Duke is that they are much more that poker pros.

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