Stale ideas, conformity, and lack of imagination stymie strategic planning. Here, Gerald Harris uses seven concepts from quantum physics to pry open minds, eradicate unhealthy groupthink, spur creativity, and revitalize strategic planning.
Explaining quantum concepts in plain language and using real-world examples, Harris inspires innovation while providing practical guidance for applying these ideas in actual planning situations. Just as light has a dual nature—it can be a wave and a particle—so the needs and wants of a customer can be both discrete and continuous, or the market focus of an organization can be both targeted and many faceted. Likewise, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle—that we cannot know both the position and the speed of an electron—reminds us that it is impossible to be aware of every single relevant fact before we make a decision. Planning, he shows, must be a learning-forward process that continually adjusts to new information. Harris’s lessons act as triggers for inquiry, giving you an opportunity to discover more innovative and successful strategies.
“A unique, valuable, and practical guide to the kind of planning that leads to successful organizational breakthroughs.”
—Mitch Kapor, founder, Lotus Development Corporation
"One after another, Harris frames the challenges facing the strategic planner and then provides helpful and practical ways of addressing them with the tools of quantum thinking. This is perhaps only the beginning of a dialog with these ideas."
—from the foreword by Peter Schwartz, futurist and author of The Art of the Long View
“When most people think of strategic planning, they think of boring one- or two-day meetings. Thankfully, we now have a bold, innovative way to direct organizations into continuous, ‘out-of-the-box’ learning and planning. Harris eloquently breaks down the concepts from quantum physics and applies them to organizations in a way that is useful and understandable.”
—Christopher Morris, Manager of Communications and Web Resources, CUNA Councils
