Bernhard Ries along with Elisa Johnson from Purpose Balance Journey (PBJ) joined us for our Strategic Learning for Extraordinary Results workshop at Rackspace in Redwood City, CA on January 31, 2025. Our host, Madhavi Rajan, started the rainy evening with an introduction sharing the history of WiBD and her experience being involved as an early member. The event provided an intimate setting in which everyone felt comfortable sharing their opinions and questions while also enjoying food provided by Rackspace.

Bernhard started his workshop by asking all participants what strategy is. After our lively discussion, he shared his definition; “strategy is a set of choices leading to coherent actions that achieve aspirations.” He outlined a three-step strategy development framework involving defining aspirations, generating options, and selecting and activating a strategy. 

We all crafted our strategic intent given his framework. He also had some of our participants practice a peer-coaching exercise to demonstrate how it works. He encouraged everyone to follow this peer coaching process in order to maximize the outcome.

Here are some takeaways from the event:

1. For a strategy to be truly effective and successful, it must incorporate an element of execution.
2. Practice with others (peer coaching). This lets us sort through our ideas and make us really think of our aspirations, options, and actions. It’s also a good practice for active listening if one is being the coach. Bernhard’s guidelines for active listening is to paraphrase what you have just heard (to make sure that you understand what the other person said) and ask the person to elaborate further. 
3. Constantly reevaluate all aspects of the strategy. including the aspirations when new information is provided. Aspirations are not set goals, and aspirations can change over time. 
4. Evaluate all options. There are always multiple ways to achieve our aspirations. We should evaluate all options including those that we had dismissed instantly. Make sure to discuss enough details for why those are not viable options.
5. A strong strategy is an iterative process, drawing on input from peers and stakeholders.

We can apply these concepts to our personal lives as well. For example, one participant tried to find balance with her family, work, and volunteer work as her aspiration. 

We walked away with a good framework that empowers us to apply strategic thinking to both corporate and personal scenarios.

Bernhard concluded the workshop by stating that “strategy equals aspirations plus options and beliefs plus coherent actions.” He emphasized the importance of curiosity, listening, and the ability to follow one’s own advice. 

Thank you to Madhavi Rajan & Rackspace for hosting and providing a wonderful space in which our members could enjoy this event! Special thanks to Bernhard And Elisa for sharing PBJ’s insights with us!