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Hold the destination, adjust the route.
Adaptive Strategy is an approach to planning that builds in flexibility and responsiveness. The focus is on developing the capability to sense change and adjust direction with confidence, keeping long-term intent clear while remaining free to adapt how you get there.
Traditional planning often assumes a degree of stability that many organisations and teams no longer have. When conditions shift faster than plans can keep up, a fixed plan becomes a liability. Adaptive Strategy starts from the premise that the answer is to plan differently.
The session introduces three core practices: sensing, which means building regular routines for reading what is changing in the environment; deciding, which means agreeing in advance on the triggers and criteria that would prompt a change of course; and adjusting, which means making directional changes deliberately and transparently.
The aim is not to produce a new strategic plan in the session. It is to examine how planning typically happens and where it could become more responsive. This makes the framework equally applicable in a change context, where people are navigating a specific transition, and in a strategic planning context, where teams are thinking about how to set and hold direction over time.
Most planning assumes more stability than actually exists. Adaptive Strategy gives participants a way of thinking about direction that holds firm on purpose but holds lightly on method. They leave with a clearer understanding of what a well-structured flexible approach looks like in practice, how to identify where their current approach may be too rigid, and how to build the habits and processes that allow a team to respond to change without losing its sense of direction.
Open by surfacing the gap between how planning tends to work and how it needs to work, then introduce the idea of holding the destination while adjusting the route. Work through the three practices of sensing, deciding and adjusting, apply them to the team's own situation, and close on one change each person will make.
Ask what the team's current planning process looks like, how often they revisit it, and how often conditions shift in ways the plan did not anticipate. Run a short pairs discussion, then a brief share-back. The aim is to surface the gap between how planning tends to work and how it needs to work.
Give a brief explainer: most plans are built on assumptions that are rarely made explicit or tested over time. The real question is how quickly and how significantly conditions will change. Introduce the core idea, hold the destination and adjust the route. The point of adaptive thinking is to build the capacity to make good decisions when circumstances shift.
Introduce sensing, deciding, and adjusting. Sensing: what signals would tell you that something important has changed, who is responsible for tracking them, and how often? Deciding: what would need to happen for you to change direction, what are your criteria, and who has the authority to decide? Adjusting: when you do change course, how do you do it in a way that is clear and coordinated, so the team understands what has changed and why?
Then run a pairs or small group discussion: where are these practices working well in your current approach, and where are the gaps?
In a strategy context, ask what a more adaptive version of the current planning approach would look like, and what one thing people could change about how they set, review, or communicate direction.
In a change context, ask what people are sensing right now as the change unfolds, what might prompt them to adjust their approach, who is involved in that decision, and how quickly they can move.
Ask people to name one thing they will do differently in how they plan or respond to change, and invite a brief share-back from two or three of them.
This session works in both a change context and a strategic planning context. In a change workshop, ground every example in the change people are navigating. In a strategy workshop, use the team's planning cycle or a specific strategic decision as the raw material.
Use Adaptive Strategy when a team's planning assumes more stability than it actually has. It builds the discipline of holding the destination firmly while adjusting the route, through three practices: sensing what is changing, deciding in advance how to respond, and adjusting with confidence.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
