Strategic Planning as Sense-Making

Abstract

Universities need to develop a new strategic discipline so they also can adapt to constantly changing circumstances, confront new facts and find creative ways to solve problems. Strategy is ultimately a tool for sense-making, sustaining and growing organisational capabilities for change. The challenge of strategy in a rapidly changing and ambiguous future is explored through ideas including the concept of black and grey swans and the impact of the normalcy bias on strategic thinking. Porter’s five forces strategic planning tool is used as a lens for strategic sense-making generating a set of analytical prompts that integrate the material presented earlier in the book. The use of these prompts by leaders engaging in sense-making is illustrated through application to the strategic analysis of MOOCs building on the earlier analysis of the virtual university lessons in the modern MOOC context.