The New Strategists: Strategic Design for Business and Government

Matthew Schmidt argues that strategic design problems are now everywhere, at all levels of private- and public-sector decision making. This is the result of living in a post-industrial, post-information age world where the span of human control over our economic and political ecosystems is growing exponentially. It's why we can think in terms of not just controlling markets, but creating them. But how we think about strategic problems is fundamentally flawed. And so is the way we develop strategic thinkers and lead strategic change in organizations. The New Strategists reveals how a studio-arts learning model can be used at the most elite levels of business and government to manage the most complex of challenges. Schmidt is the first to argue that the key to understanding strategic thinking is to think like a studio artist. He explores the counter-intuitive notion that CEOs and generals, managers and team leaders, should think like an architect developing a building concept. Schmidt explains how the studio learning model that architects and other design professions use is the best way to develop people in business and government who think strategically and who can act to design purposeful futures in the face of the most complex challenges. Bringing together the latest advances from neuroscience, behavioral economics, and systems theory, Schmidt introduces key people in business, government, and the military engaged in the work of revolutionizing what it means for companies and nations to plan and act strategically. They are the New Strategists, and this book draws on the insights of these practitioners to lay out the framework of strategic design and to offer new ways to develop strategic thinkers for the complexities of this century.