Ministerio Flores

Strategic Conversations for Action: enhancing a descriptive model of

strategic thinking for the public sector

Rafael Pastor

November 4, 2005

LIEDTKA’S MODEL OF STRATEGIC THINKING

NATURE OF LIEDTKA’S MODEL

1. Normative

1.1. Descriptive

1.2. Educational

1.3. Executable? The million dollar question

THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN OUR LIFES

• Human beings tend to undermine the fact that they view the world, others and themselves through language

• Human life and action is heavily rooted in language• Language is the house of Being• Language is the way we produce ourselves historically • We are languaging beings• Organizations put together and managed by human beings, and thus,

are also heavily rooted in language• An organization’s actions and changes occur in and come from

language and the conversations that it is able to have• An organization’s current actions and future prospects are bounded by

the limits and potential of these conversations

LANGUAGE, COMMITMENT AND ACTION

• It is essential to understand the role that language plays in action

• If we speak with intention we are acting, we are creating worlds.

• It is through language -the commitments we make in speaking- that we actually shape and create a common future a network of trust, and hence, of truth.

FLORES’S INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

• Integrated the work of Martin Heidegger, John Austin and John Searle

• Heidegger helped Flores understand the link between words and the self. When we speak we are turning towards the world together, letting the world reveal itself.

• Used John Austin’s work on speech acts and John Searle (theory of commitments)

• Heidegger + Austin + John Searle = action language or conversations for action

FERNANDO FLORES

AUSTIN’S SPEECH ACTS: HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORDS

Language is not only declarative and descriptive but also performative.

Examples:

The door is open.

Please close the door.

Abortion is morally unacceptable.

I hereby sentence you to ten years of imprisonment.

I promise to not increase taxes.

The Grammar of Action

• With declarations we orchestrate new spaces in which we can take action. E.g. We shall put a man on the moon.

• With offers and requests we elicit mutual commitment and coordinated action. E.g. I’ll prepare a report on that for Monday.

• With assessments we evaluate progress and navigate in our projects and worlds. E.g. We are in a mature industry.

• With assertions we build confidence in our judgments and consistent reliable coordination. E.g. Our sales were $4.2 billion this year.

OVERCOMING HEIDEGGER’S THROWN PROJECT

“...we exist as a ‘thrown project’: thrown out of a past we cannot get behind, we project ourselves into a future we can never get beyond. "Existence" is this standing-out into time, a temporal suspension between natality and mortality”

Three Realms that influence our use of speech acts

1. What you know you know: very restrictive for the individual. It deals with the world we are living in everyday, which we know and dominate completely.

2. What you don’t know: which comes to be the realm that draws our attention by means of our anxiety or boredom. Example: When will we die? Will I have a job in six months?

3. What you don’t know you don’t know: this is the realm of freedom, because in it we bear no bias and see ourselves absolutely empty handed, with no constraints from our overwhelming baggage. It is the realm were strategic conversations should be held.

Important Distinctions

• Motivations: concerns behind our actions and the conditions of satisfaction that we are trying to produce, or asking others to produce, to address those concerns. Necessities are no the same as concerns, the latter are implicit the former explicit.

• Actions: the fundamental speech acts of declaration, request, offer, promise, assertion and assessment.

• Structure: the conversation for action, also known as the action workflow (a coherent set of commitments) in which two people propose and complete some future action.

• Roles: the customer and performer of the conversation for action.

“Management is that process of openness, listening, and eliciting commitments, which

includes concern for the articulation and activation of the network of commitments, primarily produced through promises and

requests...” Fernando Flores

Speech Acts

“Speech acts are language rituals that build trust between colleagues and

customers, word practices that open your eyes to new possibilities”

Fernando Flores

“The work of business is making and keeping commitments”

Fernando Flores

Basic Work Cycle

Client Performer

Preparation Negotiation

Acceptance Execution

Conditions of Satisfaction,

time

Request or Offer

Agreement (2 mutual promises)

Declaration of Fulfilment

Declaration of Satisfaction

Preparation

Client Performer




time

Request or Offer

Agreement (2 mutual promises)



Negociación

Client Performer




time

Request or Offer

Agreement(2 mutual promises)



Execution

Client Performer




time

Request or Offer




Basic Action Work Flow (Strategic Conversation for Action)

Client Performer




time

Request or Offer




Strategic Conversations For Action Could Stem From The Strategic Triangle For Creating Public Value

What is public value (PV)?

• PV is an attempt to measure the total benefits which flow from government action (government services, regulations and other actions)

• PV incorporates the benefits derived from personal consumption of public services.

• It also reflects:1. the public’s perception of fairness and distributional equity2. implications of service provision for trust and legitimacy3. the benefits arising from co-production of services4. the benefits arising from taking account of the needs of future

generations

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Ministerio Flores

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