Wayfinding with Strategic Steerage

Strategy (Greek: stratēgia, generalship of grand design)

Governance (Greek: kubernáo, to steer)

Strategic Steerage is analogous to aspects of a cross-country automobile trip.

Trip Operation

Typical operational activities of the cross-country automobile trip are comprised of actually driving the vehicle:

• placing the key in the ignition,
• turning the ignition on while pressing the accelerator,
• looking both ways, as well as front and back,
• pressing the accelerator,
• steering the vehicle,
• etc.

Trip Strategy

Driving from point A to point B and taking state roads for scenic value and reduced traffic, rather than interstate highways, is a strategic decision.

Designing a path to access certain restaurants could be a different strategic decision.

Trip Steerage

While traveling, one continually checks the changing conditions, e.g., weather, traffic, timing, etc., representing steerage at a strategic level.

News of destination conditions could also change the trip destination entirely, i.e., the original strategy, creating the need to revise the intended destination.

Wayfinding

Strategic Steerage moves forward towards a destination, always ready to change while continually confronting obstacles as impediments or opportunities.

In this analogy, the activities represent acting in a somewhat “ordered system.”

Applying the analogy for a “complex adaptive system” or a “chaotic system” requires more sophisticated approaches to strategy & steerage, of course.

That said, regardless of the system, Strategic Steerage is oriented to purpose while constantly acting, learning, and adapting.