Emergent Strategy Appendix Feedback

[kjscotland]

Also blogged here: https://availagility.co.uk/2025/07/11/strategy-deployment-and-the-scrum-guide-expansion-pack/
Main points copied below:

No reference to Rumelt
Firstly, the Emergent Strategy Appendix explicitly credits Roger Martin and Tom Gilb for their work on strategy. In addition, I would add the work of Richard Rumelt. The Diagnosis, Guiding Policies, and Coherent Action are, for me, key elements of having strategy be emergent. In particular, it’s the Diagnosis of the Crux of a challenge that is particularly powerful. Thus, the Emergent Strategy is context-specific and is designed and created over time. The alternative is a Deliberate Strategy that is selected once up front from some generic framework and analysis.

What is the connection to Scrum?
Next, the Appendix topics all seem to be adjacent fields to Scrum. Although not directly part of Scrum, these bodies of knowledge are highly relevant and recommended. However, it is not clear what the nature of the connection is.

My take on why Emergent Strategy is relevant is that Scrum is a team-level framework. The Scrum Guide explains that the “fundamental unit of Scrum is a small team of people, a Scrum Team”. However, just because you have Scrum Teams (or other Agile Teams) doesn’t make you an Agile organisation.

That means that for a Scrum Team to be effective, it should be part of a Strategy Deployment approach, where the Scrum Team is running small experiments and providing fast feedback to a larger strategic initiative. In other words, as I described in a post on the dynamics of Strategy Deployment, the Scrum Team is the inner loop of a nested PDSA cycle that allows the strategy to emerge.

Emergent Strategy vs. Strategy Deployment
Finally, while the Appendix does make a distinction between Emergent Strategy and Strategy Deployment, I think the difference between the two could be made clearer.

The Emergent Strategy is the determination of where to focus (and thus where not to focus) time and energy. The Strategy enables choices and decisions on what work needs to be done. For the Strategy to be Emergent, we want this work to be small, incremental and iterative, providing fast feedback on progress, and learning about what is and isn’t effective.

Strategy Deployment is then the operating model for how to go about implementing and evolving the Strategy. Strategy Deployment is what allows the propositions of hypotheses and experiments to emerge from the people who are closest to the challenge we are trying to address. In other words, Strategy Deployment is the process by which a Strategy can be Emergent.

[grewski]

i wonder if defining product strategy in the guide would be as beneficial as defining the goal. Just like "value", strategy is one of those words waved around with little meaning, resulting in the Sunday word strategies that Rumelt laments

[ViralGoodAgile]

@grewski - not a bad shout. It might address one of the concerns of @kjscotland also.

@kjscotland I read the Crux after we wrote that text. And I loved the very end of the book, so much that I was inspired to amend this section. So, in essence, we agree. And happy also to distinguish more clearly between emergent strategy and strategy deployment. I also love PDSA, and I have adapted it in some unpublished writings, which I hope to publish at some point. However, essentially, we're with you on PDSA, and we may discuss it further.

[rjocham]

@kjscotland thanks for sharing your thoughts. We are considering in breaking the SGEP into several documents and that would allow to go more into detail. I like your reasoning. Would you be willing to jump on a call with @ViralGoodAgile and myself?

[kjscotland]

@rjocham @ViralGoodAgile Definitely. My calendar is here, or send me your own calendar link. https://fantastical.app/kjscotland/30minutes

[rjocham]

Great. @ViralGoodAgile is on vacation and I am traveling for business right now. Will be a little while. Anyway thanks for your support and flexibility.

[ViralGoodAgile]

@kjscotland invitation sent for 6th August at 4:30 pm UK. We were confused at first, as apparently @rjocham and I won't receive the invitation until you accept also.

[kjscotland]

I've accepted now, so you get the invite with Zoom details. Karl — Karl Scotland ***@***.*** On 26 July 2025 at 11:07:52, John Coleman ***@***.***) wrote: @kjscotland invitation sent for 6th August at 4:30 pm UK. We were confused at first, as apparently @rjocham and I won't receive the invitation until you accept also. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>