The Strategy Autonomy

We should clarify some basic concepts before explaining what strategy autonomy is. First, what is strategy? Strategy describes the course of actions for achieving a particular goal. This simply implies that Goals precede Strategies, and strategy determines actions and the sequence in between.

Apparently, strategy is the center point for all the functions and activities inside an organization. The way you manage the creation and execution of the strategy defines the nature of your organization.

Second, what is autonomy? Autonomy is the freedom and independence in the workplace for deciding what to do and how to do to be more valuable. It implies the level of attention and effort employees are willing to invest in achieving business results. There are two extreme scenarios. If this autonomy is the lowest, we call it Colonialism meaning someone else decides almost everything that you have to follow; if this autonomy is the highest, we call it Anarchism meaning you decide almost everything and you follow only your rules.

What exactly Strategy Autonomy is?
Strategy Autonomy simply means whoever has an objective chooses what to do and determines how to do. It is the groundwork of an organization that underpins the organizational capacity. The level of strategy autonomy determines the effectiveness of developing organizational capacity and competitive advantage, and ultimately the confidence and possibility in winning the competition continuously.

What Strategy Autonomy is NOT?
Strategy Autonomy is not a decentralized way of strategy development and management, nor is it a self-centered way of managing strategy with fixed mind-set.

Why Strategy Autonomy is the groundwork?
If something is the groundwork, it means it has to be developed and consolidated ceaselessly no matter what you want to achieve. It also means it has to be the first priority no matter how scarce your resource is.
Strategy Autonomy describes a scene in which employees are building linkages between business results and what they need to do to achieve successes in their areas of performance, which is the prerequisite of developing organizational capacity. If employees do not care about the objectives, they will never cherish the resources you invested in the workplace no matter how valuable they are.

The new generation of employees want to be recognized and strive to find their values in the organization. Their innate desire of self-directing and self-actualization is the most effective energy of Strategy Autonomy.

However, the groundwork for developing capacity is missing in today’s organizations. Being performance-driven is now the best excuse for not building the foundation of desired breakout business results.

In a hierarchical society, managing strategy is a symbol of authority and superiority. Strategy as a key factor in achieving business success now becomes a performance barrier and a root cause of many organizational issues such as lower morale or engagement, poor collaboration between functions, etc.

In an organization with outstanding strategy autonomy, leaders are no longer guardians of goals and strategies. They instead are strategy enablers who give freedom to team members and help them set their objectives and choose the most appropriate approach for achieving objectives. Team members then are fully responsible for the business results and corresponding strategies. Therefore, strategy autonomy enables employees to care about what they achieve and what they do as well as the skills and resources they need to get what they want.

Strategy Autonomy is the foundation of Organizational Capacity. Foster strategy autonomy before investing in anything else if you find employee engagement is low or employees are passive in learning. However, as you can imagine, cultivating strategy autonomy throughout the organization is not a simple project. It should be a permanent focus and a daily initiative in the organization.

9 key components of Strategy Autonomy

6 Success Factors of Strategy Autonomy

The Framework of Strategy Autonomy.

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