Insight does not automatically awaken at our call. It cannot be guaranteed, but it can be aided. If you have not grasped the thorns of the problem, you cannot expect insight into a solution. Insight is helped by practice at the feel of sliding and shifting points of view. Insight into strategy is much aided by understanding the power of focusing co

Experienced designers can be seen to engage with a novel problem situation by searching for the central paradox, asking themselves what it is that makes the problem so hard to solve. They only start working toward a solution once the nature of the core paradox has been established to their satisfaction.

Effective people gain insight through finding and concentrating attention on the crux of a challenge—the part of the tangle of issues that is both very important and addressable (which can be overcome with reasonable surety).

Start with the challenge, and diagnose its structure and the forces at work.

Third, avoid the bright, shiny distractions that abound. Don’t spend days on mission statements; don’t start with goals in strategy work. Don’t confuse management tools with strategy, and don’t get too caught up in the ninety-day chase around quarterly earnings results.

The truth is that gnarly challenges are not “solved” with just analysis or by applying preset frameworks. Rather, a coherent strategic response arises through a process of diagnosing the structure of challenges, framing, reframing, chunking down the scope of attention, reference to analogies, and insight. The result is a design rather than a choice

I think of strategic challenges as arising in three basic forms: choice, engineering design, and gnarly. Most that I see are gnarly, perhaps because companies don’t ask for help with easier ones.

To be a strategist you have to take responsibility for external challenges, but also for the health of the organization itself. To be a strategist you will have to balance a host of issues with your bundle of ambitions—the variety of purposes, values, and beliefs that you and other stakeholders wish to support. To be a strategist you will have to k

The concept of a crux narrows attention to a critical issue. A strategy is a mix of policy and action designed to overcome a significant challenge. The art of strategy is in defining a crux that can be mastered and in seeing or designing a way through it.