Living Strategy

At the time of writing this book, the rhetoric of “people are our most important asset,” “we are a knowledge-based company,” and “all we have is our people” were becoming fashionable statements.

Despite this, too many people did not feel as if they were treated like important assets. They did not feel their knowledge was understood or used.

Living Strategy shows why and how to design strategies that have meaning and purpose for people. Without this, commitment is nothing more than a drawing on the boardroom wall chart.

This book explains why a new management agenda is crucial and shares my three tenets of human organisational behaviour. The book contains the six-step ‘Living Strategy Journey’ which guides the reader through the implementation of a strategy to grow their organisation and create a business of which they can be proud.

“In this ground-breaking book, Lynda Gratton shares for the first time the “why” and “how” of putting people at the heart of corporate strategy. If companies want to increase their business performance, they need to recognise and develop the soul of the organisation: they need a Living Strategy”.

The basic frames in Living Strategy became the foundation of the executive programme ‘Human Resources in Transforming Organisations’ that I launched around this time. This was my first book to be translated into multiple languages.