{"id":248171,"date":"2018-08-11T20:43:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-11T18:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socius.de\/?p=248171"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:15:17","slug":"evolutionary-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socius.de\/en\/selbstorganisation-b\/evolutionare-strategie\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolutionary strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everything will unfold with more grace if we stop trying to control and instead choose to simply sense and respond.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organisations)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a fine line between \u201enot always just reacting to the environment\u201c and \u201enot just planning for the drawer again\u201c in strategy work. The latest contribution to the discourse by Laloux\u00a0Concept of \u201eSense & Respond\u201c\u00a0<\/strong>describes a mode between these two extremes. It is neither clearly defined nor consistent \u2013 but it exudes the aura of a contemporary epochal headline.<\/p>\n

The organisation's peripheral field of vision<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Sense & Respond mode, resonances with internal and external dynamics that are just emerging are sought. It is about seizing a future whose seeds are becoming visible in the here and now. This\u00a0Feeling into the world<\/strong>\u00a0is anything but trivial: as we know, we often filter out anything new or unsuitable through selective perception or interpret it through filters that fit our mental models. When I read the newspaper, there is a high chance that I will find and remember things that fit my view of the world. I quickly skip over anything unsuitable or reinterpret it. In the strategic process, \u201eweak signals\u201c that flash up as harbingers of major developments in the noise of the world are also subject to these filters and distortions. We have to consciously seek them out \u2013 even at the edges of our field of vision.<\/p>\n

This search can be supported, for example, by cultivating\u00a0Networking as an extended perception interface<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 training the organisation's peripheral vision, so to speak. To do this, the network must first be informed about the type of signals the organisation is interested in and where such information can be sent. Cognitive filters can also be structurally balanced, for example by systematically contrasting the perspectives and interpretations of different observers. Another way is to approach the signals with as unobstructed intuition as possible, as Otto Scharmer describes in his presencing approach.<\/p>\n

However, sensing does not only refer to signals from the environment, but also to the\u00a0Feeling the social interior<\/strong>, on mindfulness for impulses and developments within the organisation. Where are new ideas and courses of action emerging? Who has just discovered something significant? Where is there potential for focusing attention (oh, the most valuable resource of our time...)? How sensitive and synchronised the response to such dynamics is has something to do with the jazz improvisation skills and teamwork of the members: listening, going with the flow and setting your own impulses \u2013 all of this contributes to successful emergent development and cannot be taken for granted. Laloux's concept of evolutionary sense describes how, with such mindfulness and the structural permission to make directional decisions not only at the top but in every part of the organisation, the \u201ebigger picture\u201c of strategic lines emerges in a joint process. Planning and implementation are no longer separate processes, but interwoven. Meaning emerges as we go along.<\/p>\n

As with the open space approach, I ask myself: Is this still strategic? And if not, is that a bad thing? Hasn't the discovery of mindfulness heralded a post-strategic era in which life is good? When an organisation asks me to accompany a strategy process, my first question is why they need a strategy in the first place. This question often elicits a mixture of shrugs and raised eyebrows: strategy is just something you need. Oh, really? If strategy is really just a pattern in the stream of decisions, then there's no need to think ahead \u2013 it emerges on its own. The eyebrow remains raised and I realise that this interpretation is not enough for me either. I don't just want to discover the world and drift with it, I also want to shape it. The big picture needs a canvas. So some ingredient is still missing. Could it perhaps be a little evolutionary and a little classical? What could compass performance and minimal control look like in sense and respond mode?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Navigation by probing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

First, it is worth taking a look at the context. Contexts have more or less perceptible orders, each of which requires different forms of navigation. A helpful map for this is provided by the\u00a0Cynefin Framework<\/strong>, which describes four orders:<\/p>\n