Deep Strategy

When combined, the DTN practices presented here result in a new kind of scenario thinking cycle. Each of the in-depth videotaped interviews of typically 10-50 world class thinkers are transformed into virtuosic visualisations, drawn by an expert in this field. This makes the complex interplay of their thinking tangible and visible in the room when the scenarios are discussed. It stretches the mind of the group but still lets all ideas be contained within the same physical space.

We also combine intensive workshops with extensive virtual facilitation and documentation of the project’s progress. At the project wiki website everybody can contribute and change the project documentation in a transparent way.

Further, we let this virtual and visualised content merge with future modelling that grounds the insights in physical expressions here and now. This combination brings more substance to the intuitions we are grappling with in long-view scenarios. Building the scenarios are themselves done through both analytical, visual and mythical means.

When moving from scenarios to strategy and implementation, we combine analytical, numerical and visual approaches to mapping the strategic space onto the uncertainty space defined by the scenarios. This helps the group converge on a coherent strategy that can be explained and illustrated on a single page, expressing clearly the main strategic directions necessary to take in the very near future. Strategic gains from DTN scenario projects have resulted in new organisational developments, new products, and new business opportunities counting in the hundreds of millions of Euros.