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9 - The process of strategizing through crafting embodied metaphors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2011

Loizos Heracleous
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
Claus D. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Universität St Gallen, Switzerland
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Summary

This chapter aims at providing readers with some practical guidance to assess when it would be most appropriate to use embodied metaphors, as a synthetic, divergent intervention approach; and when other, more convergent or analytical intervention approaches would be most appropriate. Thus, we set out by discussing occasions within organizational life that lend themselves to be explored or supported by embodied metaphors more than others. Then, we describe the generic process of crafting embodied metaphors and provide some guiding principles based on our experience. We finally discuss the organizational context and enabling conditions for the most effective use of the approach, and outline what can meaningfully be expected from our approach, and what cannot.

When is it most appropriate to craft embodied metaphors?

Playing seriously may not always be the most appropriate choice in all stages of strategizing. Since this process helps to manifest differences and creative tensions, both through the crafting process as well as through the various constructions, it lends itself particularly well to stages in strategizing where novelty, difference and ambiguity are appreciated and can indeed be productive – for example, when agents need a way to help them see a strategic challenge in a different light and explore alternatives in an open-ended way.

Type
Chapter
Information
Crafting Strategy
Embodied Metaphors in Practice
, pp. 209 - 224
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

Heracleous, L. 1998. Strategic thinking or strategic planning?Long Range Planning 31: 481–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heracleous, L. and Jacobs, C. 2005. The serious business of play. MIT Sloan Management Review. 47(1): 19–20.Google Scholar
Heracleous, L. and Jacobs, C. 2008. Developing strategy: The serious business of play. In Gallos, J. (ed.) 2008. Business leadership, 2nd edn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, Chapter 25: 324–35.Google Scholar
Heracleous, L., Wirtz, J., and Pangarkar, N. 2009. Flying high in a competitive industry: Secrets of the world's leading airline. Singapore: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Jacobs, C. and Heracleous, L. 2007. Strategizing through playful design. Journal of Business Strategy. 28(4): 75–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. 1996. Translating strategy into action: The balanced scorecard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, R. H., Peters, T. J., and Phillips, J. R. 1980. Structure is not organization. Business Horizons, June: 14–26.

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