THE 5 STRATEGY TOOLS FOR STRATEGIC EXPLORATION, FROM JOEL ARTHUR BARKER

A recent casual conversation at the Hanis Cafe in the NLB Building on North Bridge Road with Dilip Mukerjea brought up the work of futurist-filmmaker-author Joel Arthur Barker into limelight, so to speak.

Our conversation had somehow centred on the collation of powerful & yet pragmatic strategy tools as part of a tentative curriculum for Dilip's newest pet project, the Brainaissance University.

Joel Arthur Barker is one of my most favourite authors. I like to rate his deliberate forays in recent years into the exploration of the" law of unintended consequences" [in particular, with the application of his proprietary methodology known as the 'Implications Wheel';] as well as "innovation on the verge" as truly exemplary.

The five strategy tools for strategic exploration had originally been highlighted in Joel Arthur Barker's debut book, 'Discovering the Future: The Business of Paradigms', during the mid-eighties. He had self-published the book, which later became 'Future Edge' in the early nineties or so. [The paperback version is 'Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future'.]

To share my thoughts with readers, here's my recap to Dilip:

1) Influence Understanding: understanding how your perceptual sensitivity & fluidity of perception affect your environmental scanning, & eventually, your decision making;

2) divergent thinking: discovering more than the one right answer;

3) convergent thinking: organising for evaluation all your integrated information with prioritised choices;

4) mapping pathways: using visual approaches to chart out your journey; [Dilip has his proprietary visual planning methodology known as "lifescaping"]

5) imaging: putting your explored ideas into pictures or visual models; [Dilip has his own visual tools, e.g. "splash-mapping"; "thumb-charting", "note-boarding", just to name a few; in fact, in recent months, we had iointly created one or two new ones, one of which, we had just simply it call 'mandala map';]

Despite the transpiration of almost a quarter of a century, I still think the foregoing strategy tools are still relevant in today's era of digital convergence.

For me, at the end of the day, it's the concrete results that you produced by using the foregoing strategy tools, which in turn propel you to move forward faster... better... & maybe, cheaper than your competition!

So, enjoy your exploration & assimilation!