What is Strategic Doing?
A Discipline of Agile Strategy.
Strategic Doing is an agile approach to strategy — designed for complexity, grounded in collaboration, and driven by action.
Unlike traditional planning, it doesn’t rely on static documents or top-down directives. Instead, it equips groups to co-create doable strategies, test them quickly, and adapt as they learn.
Born from two decades of real-world use in communities, businesses, universities, nonprofits, and government, Strategic Doing is fast, flexible, and deeply collaborative. It’s the strategy of choice when the challenge is complex, time is short, and alignment matters.
What It Teaches
At its core, Strategic Doing helps groups:
- Form agile, action-oriented collaborations
- Design strategies around shared outcomes
- Build trust and momentum through repeatable habits
Whether in economic development, education, healthcare, aging, or innovation, Strategic Doing turns complex challenges into coordinated action.
The Four Questions of Strategic Doing
The process revolves around four guiding questions that move a group from talk to action:
- What could we do? – Identify assets, skills, and opportunities.
- What should we do? – Choose a shared, doable priority (“the big easy”).
- What will we do? – Make clear commitments and launch a Pathfinder Project.
- What’s our 30/30? – Meet every 30 days to review, learn, and adjust.
This rhythm creates accountability and ensures strategies evolve through doing, not just planning.
Why It Works in Complexity
Strategic Doing is uniquely suited for today’s toughest challenges:
- Networks over hierarchies – Leadership is distributed; everyone contributes.
- Emergence over prediction – Small experiments guide learning and adaptation.
- Structure for collaboration – A repeatable process keeps groups aligned and productive.
- Momentum through small wins – Quick steps build trust and accelerate progress.
- Built-in accountability – Progress is sustained by the group, not one leader.
Why It Matters
Whether you’re navigating disruption, building partnerships, driving innovation, or rethinking how we age, Strategic Doing provides a scalable path from complexity to possibility.
It’s more than a method — it’s a mindset. Taking you from talk to action, from isolation to partnership, and from uncertainty to results.