The document summarizes Brian Thompson's work developing and promoting the concept of Strategic Doing. It describes how Strategic Doing enables open, collaborative networks to quickly form action-oriented partnerships, work toward measurable goals, and make adjustments. Examples are given of how Strategic Doing has been used to transform regions, develop industry clusters like water technology in Milwaukee, and engage leaders and communities in problem solving. The document asserts that Strategic Doing provides an effective methodology for collaborative innovation, economic development, and achieving positive change.

2. My journey started in a parking garage in
Oklahoma City, 1993.

3. 3
You completely
transformed
OKC with
collaborative
investment with
a discipline of
collaboration

4. You rebuilt this region’s Civic Economy
so the Market Economy could flourish

6. Oklahoma City is now a national model of
transformation

7. Now, let me share my journey since
I left OKC in 2000

9. 9
Strategic Doing is a strategy
discipline designed for open, loosely
connected networks

10. 10
Strategic Doing enables people to form
action-oriented collaborations quickly,
move them toward measurable
outcomes, and make adjustments along
the way.

11. 11
Strategic Doing is an open source
operating system for collaboration,
open innovation and ecosystem
development.

12. What really happened in that parking
garage?

13. High tech optics
factory run by
Chinese military,
1991
From my work in China, I knew
really big shifts were underway

14. A chance conversation with a physicist in
1992 pointed me to the power of open
source software development

15. We are sitting in the midst of a really big
transition between hierarchical and
network thinking

16. Core Question 1: How do we move from
strategic planning to strategic doing?

17. Core Question 2: How do we overcome
fights over turf and get people moving in
the same direction?

18. Stories from Charleston, Milwaukee,
Purdue, New Jersey, Flint, the Hague,
Brisbane , Puerto Rico

19. Meet Ernest. His question in 2001:
“How could we build a dynamic technology
cluster in Charleston ?”
Ernest Andrade

20. The 75th largest metro…
…among the 10 fastest growing in
software and Internet technology

21. “Transform your Workforce
System”
✓13 regions nationally
✓$15 million each
✓3 years to innovate
The federal government

22. We used talent maps that I began
developing here in OKC

23. 0
7,500
15,000
22,500
30,000
Began Training Completed Training Degrees/Certificates
Goal Result
2.7 X
2.9 X
2.7 X
Result: We exceeded goals by nearly 3X…
40% of the national results with 8% of
the money

25. © 2008, Brian D. Thompson, UWM Research Foundation 10/6/08
Funds
Fluid Transport/
Civil & Ind. Engr.
Detection
Materials
Bioscience
Pumps/ Valves/
Components
Analysis/
Measuring/
Control
Water User
Consumer
Products
Treatment/
Processing/
Softening
Utilities
Funding Agencies
Academic Institutions
Private Sector
Public Sector
We launched the Milwaukee Water
Cluster in 2008
DOE
EPA
NSF
USDA
DoD
NOAA/DOC
Interior
World Bank
Foundations
International
Partners
NIH
Greater
Milwaukee
Foundation
UWM
Marquette
UW-Madison
WATER Inst.
Chem & Biosci
School of Freshwater
Science
CEAS
Physics
MSOE
Fluid Power
Rapid Proto Center
M7/GMC
MMSD
City of
Milwaukee
DNR
UNDP
Federal
Government
Municipalities
Water Council
Pentair• Filtering & purification
GE
Badger Meter
• Water meters
• Meter reading systems
Procorp• Water reuse & softening
• Phosphate & radium removal
AO Smith
• Water heaters
Kohler
• Faucets
• Materials, coatings, plating
• Casting technology
Miller Coors• Intake quality, output quality
• Energy consumption
AquaSensors
Thermo Fisher
Scientific
Fall River
Great Lakes Water
• Water treatment equipment Advanced
Chemical Systems• Ind. wastewater treatment
CH2MHILL
• Engineering services
ITT
Sanitarie• Wastewater treatment
design
Flygt
• pumps
SiemensJoy
Bucyrus
Veolia
• Water utilities
Environmental
Energy
Efficiency
Processing &
Treatment
Monitoring &
Detection

26. Milwaukee is now a global hub of fresh
water technology

27. PaulRich
Mayor Governor
Milwaukee follows the lessons of
collaborative investment

28. And remarkable initiatives emerge…

29. 29
How can we transform engineering
education at 50 universities?

30. 30
We used Strategic Doing with our partners to
transform engineering education at 50
universities: over 500 collaborations launched

31. 31
How do we make
space research more
productive?

32. How do we develop a roadmap for
condition-based maintenance?

33. Strategic Doing allows a
business to quickly
identify an interested
ecosystem of local
businesses that have a
collective interest in and
capability to solve a
defined customer
problem.
Todd Tangert,
Former Combat Systems
Architect, Lockheed
Corporation

34. I’ve worked with large
companies trying to do
open innovation, but the
Strategic Doing process
is unique. This is the
most clear an concise
open innovation process
I’ve seen.
Mark Scotland, CEO
4.0 Analytics

36. Strategic Doing gives us
the power to change our
lives, our neighborhoods
and our communities.
AGILE STRATEGY LAB / / APRIL 2017
Bob Brown
Associate Director
Center for Community and Economic
Development
Michigan State University

37. Economic development is
the identification of local
assets for growth and
leveraging them through
collaboration. The best
methodology I have seen
in twenty years for
achieving this is called
Strategic Doing.
Former President,
Australia New Zealand
Regional Science
Association

41. 41
We can teach these skills to anyone

43. Las 10 reglas del
hacer estratégico
ED MORRISON
PURDUE AGILE STRATEGY LAB

44. 44
Simple, but not easy questions
lead us to the other side of
complexity

45. Questions for a
Clear Strategy
Questions to
Design a Strategic
Conversation
Rules to Guide a
Strategic
Conversation
2
4
10

46. We are engaging the next generation
of leaders

47. Thank you!