the information extracted from analysis and the judgment gained from years
of practical experience only prepares our minds for strategy making. They cannot substitute for the work of our strategic
imagination...
Why are children more imaginative than the average adult? Well, for one
thing, children play.
Research in dozens of companies, shows clearly that what was missing
from the strategy making process was some serious play! ...
When we look at play we see that it is not a single process, but
rather a set of linked phases. Playing requires us to engage in each of these phases... The first thing we
do with play is to actively construct what we see in our imagination. When children build with their blocks or draw
on their papers, they are bringing their imagination into the world. When adults begin their serious play, they must do the
same. This construction phase allows us to bring our intuition from all our experience and our analyses into
something concrete, something we can play with...
Children bring others into the world they have imagined by enthusiastically
talking about the possibilities to be found there. This is the story telling phase of play...
When a child can bring others into their imagined world, the next phase
of play can begin. in this transformation phase, the players take on roles, cooperate, clash, argue, and
agree their way to fun and, importantly, to learning...
our experience shows that serious strategy can come from serious
play. Serious play can enable adults to explore, challenge, disagree, and come to agreement on how they will meet
the future...
Original strategies require human imagination.
More and more refined "strategic" analysis is unlikely to help you and your fellow executives see new possibilities...
When strategy makers play seriously they... find the strategic potential in their imagination... Serious play can
leverage the accumulated strategic information and judgment gained over the years. It can help develop original strategies...
Make imagination the priority... The purpose of serious play is to progress
- to make original strategies... Among adults... play just does not happen by itself.
