I joined an online training with Dave Snowden yesterday about his latest thinking on Estuarine Mapping. That is one of the ideas which inspired my last post on a Terrific Typology of Transformation Tactics. In particular, Estuarine Mapping uses two typologies with triads to “generate a list of things which can be managed” – constraints and constructors.
Estuarine Mapping Triads
I’m not going to go into any detail about those typologies here. I would recommend reading the latest posts from Dave on the subject. However, I will describe the general triad pattern Dave is using, and how it gave me a better idea of how to structure the typology.
A few thoughts on why I think this could be useful in relation to Strategy Deployment and the X-Matrix. I describe tactics are the “coherent action we will take”. Another way of saying that could be the “coherent things we will manage”, which is what Estuarine Mapping is designed to explore. Thus I’m curious how Estuarine Mapping can be a way of generating the Tactics. Given that, I wonder whether my typology of tactics might work as an alternative way of generating input for the exercise. On the one hand, the language might be more relatable. On the other hand, it might be too relatable in that preconceptions of the meaning behind those words might narrow people’s thinking.
Transformation Tactics Triads
A reminder of the typology:
- People – related to roles or leadership
- Plexuses – related organisational structures or networks
- Processes – related to workflows or methods
- Practices – related to techniques or skills
- Products – related to customer or market deliverables
- Platforms – related to enabling tools or technologies
Initially, I paired those up, into 3 sets of diads. However, the alternative pattern that Dave uses is to group them into two triads with an overarching diad. That could then look like this:
It’s not perfect, but I’m not sure it has to be. The goal is to trigger people into thinking about what coherent actions they might take, breaking them down into small enough (granular) tactics to decide what to do next and start running experiments.