After having studied strategic management in detail, the strategic learning workshop was held on the 2nd and 3rd of July 2003, which broadened my study of the above subject and gave me a platform to explore and analyse the numerous issues by which every organisations are effected and the ways to unlock new perspectives by planning for the future in the form of learning. As described by Peter Schwartz (1991) strategic learning can be described in the simple words as “the art of long view”.
In the world of uncertainty and ambiguity it is crucial for the organisations to thrive successfully and create possible future choices so that all the options made by the strategists can be easily carried out. Strategic learning helps us in providing a set of tools to comprehend the different forces which act on the organisation, and therefore help us to plan as we learn, which in turn enables to make better decisions confidently.
Strategic positioning mapping as the name suggests denotes the strategic position of an individual or a group in relation to the main player identified in a particular issue and thereby deriving the various expectations out of each other which helps us to identify the influences these key players have on the main individual in planning for the future.
Since the successful and timely completion of my MBA course was the key issue faced by me as seen from the appendices 1 so I was and am aware of its importance and the key factors associated with it, but the idea that this issue could have an impact on others whether directly or indirectly did not strike my mind. Mapping is the key place together has helped me to identify how their power can influence and bring out the best in a decision-making.
My learning from strategic mapping helped me to think more about the issues concerning myself in a wider concept putting myself in the centre position while mapping has helped me to identify the importance of various key players involved, which I was not aware of before, has enabled me to deeply analyse the key individuals and groups whose expectations of myself and vice versa have a positive and negative impact in planning a strategic for the future with regards to the issues faced by me.
It helps us to extend our assumptions that within an issue apart from the key factors, these are other minute details, which should be looked after in order to explore the complexity and ambiguity of a particular issue. As strategic learning is for future planning of an uncertain world, strategic positioning mapping is a tool which helps to identify different groups of individuals who are indirectly associated with us so that their identification helps us to avoid confusion, resistance, and conflict within a given situation to enable us to produce an error free strategy for the future.
Therefore from an organisations view point, it can be said that strategic mapping places different stakeholder in a web of relationships to absorb what is going on in the environment, analyse critically the critical problems and issues facing the organisations and finally “act on that information with appropriate business moves”. [Geus, APD (1998)]. For example, identifying key issues that costs problems in real life in the life cycle of organisations.
Having identified the key players for a better future learning, it is necessary to raise one question in respect to the corporate scenario-what is the role of planning in corporate learning? After sufficient research it has been found out that the decision process in every organisation is a learning process as “people change their own mental models and build up a joint model as they talk” [Geus, APD (1998)] so it is necessary to review the expectations of key individuals and group found out through strategic positioning mapping as the ability to manage knowledge within the organisation is the only way to sustain the competitive advantage.
