ABSTRACT
The learning on the run process addresses the issue of what strategic leaders can do if they face significant uncertainty about what the strategy should be. The key steps in the learning on the run process are: choose a strategic direction, identify strategic opportunities aligned to that direction, pursue opportunities as insights emerge on what actions to take and how to navigate obstacles, and learn from outcomes and update the strategic direction and opportunities being pursued. Strategic leaders need to ensure that they complement this process with activities or processes that scale up the realisation of deliberate strategies as needed. Strategic leaders need to discharge their fundamental role of maximising their organisation’s performance and longevity. A key way they do this is by ensuring the realisation of strategies that balance the efficient pursuit of today’s opportunities and mitigation of today’s threats whilst building capacity to adapt to tomorrow’s opportunities and threats.
