Strategic Planning & Organizational Development Flashcards

A consultant observes that a client's organization consistently fails to implement strategic decisions despite sound planning. According to Beer and Eisenstat, the most likely culprit is:

Answer: Silent killers such as unclear priorities and poor coordination

Beer and Eisenstat identified 'silent killers of strategy implementation' — including top-down management style, unclear priorities, and poor coordination — as the real blockers, not planning quality.

In dynamic capabilities theory, which of the following best describes a 'sensing' capability?

Answer: The ability to detect and interpret emerging technological and market opportunities

Teece's dynamic capabilities framework distinguishes sensing (detecting opportunities/threats), seizing (mobilizing resources), and reconfiguring (transforming); sensing is the environmental scanning component.

A strategic planning facilitator uses a 'pre-mortem' exercise. What is its primary purpose?

Answer: To identify potential failure points of a plan before it is executed

A pre-mortem (Gary Klein's technique) asks participants to imagine a plan has failed and work backward to identify probable causes, surfacing risks before implementation begins.

Which of the following is the best indicator that an organization has achieved strategic alignment?

Answer: Individual performance goals cascade from and directly support enterprise-level strategic objectives

Strategic alignment exists when organizational, business unit, team, and individual goals form a coherent cascade that collectively drives the overarching strategy.

When evaluating strategic options, the SAFe criteria assess each option against which three dimensions?

Answer: Suitability, Acceptability, and Feasibility

Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington's SAFe framework evaluates strategies on Suitability (does it fit the situation?), Acceptability (do stakeholders approve?), and Feasibility (can we execute it?).

An organization that develops detailed emergency response protocols, cross-trains personnel across functions, and maintains resource buffers is building:

Answer: Organizational resilience

Organizational resilience is the capacity to absorb disruption, adapt, and recover; it is built through redundancy, flexibility, and preparedness mechanisms.

A CMC consultant advising on organizational restructuring recommends reducing management layers to increase responsiveness. This approach is known as:

Answer: Delayering

Delayering specifically refers to reducing the number of hierarchical levels in an organization to speed decision-making and communication, distinct from overall headcount reduction.