In a recent post, I said I would put together a list of recommended books that have influenced my thinking on Strategy Deployment over the years. This post includes that list! Most of them I have previously blogged about in my series on Strategy Deployment And other approaches, and I have included links to those posts here as well.
Getting the Right Things Done: A Leader’s Guide to Planning and Execution by Pascal Dennis
- A very accessible book from the LEI which introduces the basic concepts of Strategy Deployment. It includes sample A3 templates, although not the X-Matrix.
Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise: Developing Competitive Capabilities and Managing Profit by Thomas L. Jackson
- A less accessible book, but one which introduces and describes the X-Matrix in great detail. While not an easy ready, and very manufacturing focussed, it contains a number of nuggets of gold.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey and Chris McChesney and Jim Huling
- This doesn’t describe itself as a Strategy Deployment book, but the model introduced with the four disciplines provides a straightforward way of getting started.
- I referenced this book in Strategy Deployment and the Four Disciplines of Execution
Idealised Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow’s Crisis. . .Today by Russell L. Ackoff
- Another more general business book that puts the emphasis on setting a trajectory of change (the idealised design) rather than defining a target solution.
- I referenced this book in Strategy Deployment and Idealised Design
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters by Richard Rumelt
- This is the best book on strategy I have read so far. Rumelt has great insights and practical recommendations on how to create a good strategy and how to avoid a bad strategy.
- I referenced this book in Good Agile Bad Agile
Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A. G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
- Another great book on how to define a good strategy which describes the Strategic Choice Cascade and a set of powerful questions to ask about a strategy.
- I referenced this book in Strategy Deployment and Playing to Win
The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results by Stephen Bungay
- This book describes and introduces the concept of auftragstaktik from General Helmuth von Moltke, the Chief of the Prussian General Staff during the Franco-Prussian War. Bungay applies that to businesses with the Directed Opportunism model.
- I referenced this book in Strategy Deployment and Directed Opportunism
Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by L. David Marquet
- Another military-based book that describes intent-based leadership and introduces the Leader-Leader model.
- I referenced this book in Strategy Deployment and Leader-Leader
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal with Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell
- A third miliary-based book that focuses more on the people and dynamics aspects of how teams need to work together.
- I referenced this book in Strategy Deployment and Team of Teams
That’s nine so far. I’m sure the list will grow and I’ll try and keep this page updated when it does.
Thanks for sharing this, Karl.