Module 3 — Strategy at This Layer — Setting It, Not Translating It

60-Second Summary

Module 3 of the Advanced Manager-of-Managers program. Theme: Become a source of strategy, not just a translator.
Your function's 12-month strategy doc — the real artefact you produce.
4-hour monthly intensive + biweekly coached practice on real work.
Reviewed by CHRO, VP/Director, sitting CEO, and OB faculty lenses.

As a manager, your job was to translate strategy. At this layer, your job is to set it for your function — and to do so in a way that integrates with the company strategy without being dictated by it. The leaders who never make this shift remain executors. The ones who do become indispensable to the executive layer.

What the evidence says

Rumelt (Good Strategy / Bad Strategy): the diagnostic-guiding-policy-coherent-action triad — most director-level strategy fails at the diagnostic.
Lafley & Martin (Playing to Win): five cascading choices; most functional strategies skip them and become goal lists.
McGrath on transient advantage: at the director layer, strategy is a portfolio of bets with explicit kill criteria, not a 3-year plan.

Pre-read (90 minutes)

Rumelt — Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, ch. on the kernel of strategy — 45 min.
Lafley & Martin — Playing to Win, the five questions — 30 min.
Your function's last strategy doc (if any) and the most recent company strategy — 15 min.

Monthly intensive (4 hours)

Cohort flow with a senior practitioner coach

1
Diagnostic discipline (60 min)
Each leader writes a one-paragraph diagnostic for their function. Coach and cohort attack it. Most fail Rumelt's test.
2
Cascading choices (60 min)
Run the Playing to Win five-question framework on each leader's function. Where to play, how to win, what capabilities, what systems, what aspiration.
3
Bets portfolio (60 min)
Frame strategy as a portfolio: 3–5 explicit bets with hypotheses, leading indicators, and kill criteria. Cohort builds theirs live.
4
Strategy doc draft (45 min)
Each leader drafts a 2-page strategy doc. Cohort reviews.
5
Wrap (15 min)
Who will see this doc this month? Schedule the conversation.

The artefact you produce

Your function's 12-month strategy doc

Two pages: diagnostic, guiding policy, 3–5 bets with hypotheses and kill criteria, and the cascading choices. Reviewed by your manager and at least one peer leader.

Tools at this layer

Layer	Examples (2026)	Use
Strategy frameworks	Rumelt kernel, Playing to Win, Wardley mapping, OKRs (carefully)	Pick one; commit; don't mix
Bets tracking	Notion bets doc, Mooncamp, Quantive, internal portfolio review	Visible, measurable, killable
AI for synthesis	Claude/ChatGPT for landscape research, competitive synthesis, devil's advocate critique	Synthesis aid, not strategy author

Copy-paste AI prompt

Here's my function and current context [scope, team, market position, key constraints]. Help me draft: (1) a one-paragraph Rumelt-style diagnostic, (2) a guiding policy that responds to it, (3) 3–5 bets I should consider with hypothesis, leading indicator, and kill criterion for each, (4) the strongest counter-argument an exec might make.

Between-session homework

Strategy doc draft completed and shared with at least one peer leader for critique.
Bets portfolio defined with kill criteria.
Strategy presented to your manager; one revision incorporated.
Cascade plan to your direct-report managers drafted.

Success signal

By end of this module, you have a written strategy for your function that passes Rumelt's diagnostic test, survives peer challenge, and gives your managers something to translate. Your CEO or your manager can say what your function is uniquely doing in the next 12 months.

Reviewer notes

CHRO (20+ yrs)

Strategy fluency is the single largest differentiator at this layer. Leaders who can write a defensible 2-page strategy doc get pulled into exec conversations; those who can't get treated as executors.

VP / Director (15+ yrs, 3+ scaled orgs)

Write the doc. Even if no one asks for it. The exercise of writing it changes how you make every decision for the next year.

Sitting CEO

When a director hands me a real strategy doc unprompted, that's a candidate for VP. When they ask me what the strategy is, that's a candidate for replacement.

OB / HR Professor (25+ yrs)

Rumelt's diagnostic is the most under-used framework in business. Most 'strategy' documents are goal lists. The diagnostic forces you to name what's actually true about your situation, which is what makes the rest possible.

Written by Pawan Joshi.Sources cited inline.

First published 23 Jun 2026See site changelog →