Think Big with Mentee Insight: Strategic Solutions via Analysis

 Posted on November 24, 2024 in Analysis & Research

Mentee Insight, LLC (www.menteeinsight.com) is a business coaching and consulting company founded in January 2024 by Katsiaryna Zinavenka, New York tax attorney and entrepreneur, with support from Professor Scott A. Boorman, a strategy analyst and social network research expert.[1]

Drawing on diverse contributions to strategy from many civilizations and cultures worldwide, Mentee Insight is dedicated to building a vibrant community of strategists. What sets Mentee Insight apart is its innovative application of sequential strategy and strategic skills to foster a workplace culture of well-being, careers, and business growth.

The need for such an innovative strategy-driven approach is urgent. In today's fast-paced 21^st century world, businesses are in uncharted territory – facing challenges that range from post-pandemic workplace issues and evolving workforce expectations to ongoing disruptive effects of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. In traditional workplace cultures, strategic skills – strategic thinking, strategic planning, and more – along with a strategic mindset have commonly been limited to a few top-level individuals, a committee, or even a single designated "strategist." However, today's organizations face unprecedented challenges that are simply too numerous, too diverse, and too dynamic for strategy to remain the domain of a select few. If these complexities are to be navigated effectively, strategic skills backed by a strategic mindset and implementation capabilities must therefore be embedded throughout the entire organization.

Nowadays, strategy is too important to be left to a few top-level executives.  

Strategy, Well-Being, and Business Results: Developing an Innovative Connection

We can no longer delay the cultural transformation that is needed for the future. Recognition of a close positive connection between strategy, workplace well-being, and business results is an innovative step in that direction that is rarely given its due.

The key analytical point is that strategic skills backed by a strategic mindset, if embedded throughout an organization, make not one but two different constructive contributions to the business landscape.

First, strategic skills directly drive business success, particularly when it comes to addressing challenges posed by digital technology, where mastering a strategic skill-set can provide valuable solutions.

But a second contribution, which is indirect, is equally if not more important. The logic chain here has two parts. First, application of strategic skills backed by a strategic mindset can provide a major boost to individual well-being. Second, that strategy-driven well-being, if sustainably mastered by enough professionals in a workplace, results in a workplace "culture of well-being" that in turn drives positive business results because professionals deliver their best when they are at their best.

Traditional workplace cultures tend to marginalize, if they consider at all, this indirect pathway. Even though its effects are a powerful driver of business benefits, the indirect pathway is widely missed or underappreciated because its first (strategy-driven) part is not clearly understood or, even if understood in the abstract, is not effectively exploited in practice.

Activating the indirect pathway for benefit of a business starts by getting every professional in an organization to boost their own well-being by learning strategic skills and integrating them into everyday practice. "Boosting my own well-being" is a goal that every professional can understand, relate to, and – through mastery of a strategic skill-set – achieve concrete progress in accomplishing. That makes it a feasible organizational task, capable of being implemented on an organization-wide scale.

To fully activate the indirect pathway, teams of professionals must first apply strategic skills to their personal well-being, then to their careers, and then to business productivity—following a sequence that mirrors Liddell Hart's "indirect approach to strategy."[2]     

Amplifying the strategy-driven well-being connection, Table 1 – anchored in a combination of social network and organizational failures analysis – sets forth a menu of workplace well-being issues, paired with illustrative ways in which a strategic skill-set can contribute to managing them.[3]

Table 1. Some benefits of strategic skills for employees' workplace well-being challenges

# & Category	Focal Issues (not exhaustive)	Illustrative Use of Strategic Skill-Set
1. Mental health	Prevalence of stress, anxiety, burnout, and more	Analyzing a current situation through a strategic lens that applies a clear perspective to prioritize objectives, few in number, reducing deleterious psychological pressure to pursue all the rest[4]
2. Job security	Job uncertainty, intensified by AI competition, undercutting morale & mental well-being	Strategic planning to create robust action alternative should job be lost or career be blocked
3. Physical health	Health issues from sedentary work environments & long hours, compounded by lack of sleep and exercise	Recognizing dependence of strategy on sustained logistics support, motivating investment in physical self-care and fitness
4. Bullying and harassment	Toxic/deleterious workplace culture leading to psychological distress among employees	Identifying effective countermeasures, a mix of unconventional & conventional moves
5. Social isolation	Feelings of loneliness & disconnect from colleagues	Applying strategy-based social network analysis insights to network building, long-term network maintenance, and social media strategy
6. Lack of institutional support	Inadequate access to resources for managing well-being (such as counseling or wellness programs)	Devising an effective strategy for forming partnerships with external providers that promote a workplace culture of well-being to bring constructive support into the workplace
7. Work-life balance issues	Need to juggle personal and professional demands (often particularly challenging in remote or hybrid settings)	Strategic planning to create an individual strategic plan to prioritize an individual's well-being in the workplace and to support sustainable allocation of high-quality time, effort, & attention
8. Lack of dignity and meaning at work	Deleterious self-esteem & other psychological effects of repetitive, mechanical tasks, compounded by micromanagement	Fostering a "culture of well-being/of encouragement," which is also a culture of innovation, rooted in cultivating a healthy strategic mindset[5]
9. Feelings of being marginalized in the workplace	Poor communication leading to misunderstandings and feelings of being undervalued or undersupported	Developing and integrating effective communication practices, including accurate interpretation & evaluation of communications in personal & organizational networks
10. Lack of opportunity for growth in job & career	Frustration, loss of incentives, passivity, morale problems	Strategic planning to create & implement robust action response

Applying strategic skills to boost well-being has further, population dynamics aspects. For example, workplaces are commonly shaped by "alternatives to rational choice" practiced by many professionals there.[6][7] To get a visceral sense of what alternatives-to-rational-choice can mean, take an unvarnished look at what goes on in many workplaces, which often brim with: 

• Personalities that call for exquisitely nuanced (read: time-consuming, otherwise unproductive) handling because they have a big say in decisions and can & will block or stymie implementation of decisions they don't happen to like, for whatever reason
•  Out-of-harmony professionals of all stripes who intervene erratically and unproductively in work being done, forcing a team to allocate its limited resources to undoing or mitigating deleterious effects of those interventions
• Poor practices in delegation and communication leading to unnecessary guesswork, consuming team resources without delivering tangible business benefits

Patterns like these tend to create an "oversocialized" workplace that multiplies inefficiencies, with deleterious effects on a business.[8]

While status and strategic competitions will always be present in the workplace, a workplace culture of well-being – rooted in widespread application of strategic skills by the members of the teams there – means that there will be fewer and less acute problems of this ilk. As mastery of strategic skills spreads among individuals within an organization, it will free many employees from daily burdens of coping with unnecessary irrationalities and inefficiencies.

Strategy for Navigating Disruptive Effects of AI

But the benefits of strategic skills, once widely mastered, don't stop there. Building on the exceptionally versatile nature of strategic skills, the direct and indirect pathways reinforce one another to deliver additional constructive business benefits.

Unlike many technical skills, which swiftly become outdated – especially in fast-moving fields like information technology and its applications – strategic fundamentals are few, robust, and readily transferable across contexts, enabling them to be taught, learned, and applied without extensive and costly retraining.[9] For example, mastery of strategic skills provides a deep quiver of resources for successful navigating the effects of the AI revolution on the workplace.

Drawing on a structural analysis of the effects of digital technology on human society derived from four fundamental principles and their consequences, Table 2 unpacks some of the benefits.[10]

Table 2. Some benefits of strategic skills for navigating AI disruptions

# & Category	Focal Issues (not exhaustive)	Illustrative Use of Strategic Skill-Set
1a. Data privacy	Safeguarding sensitive employee and customer data while complying with regulations (which are themselves often rapidly evolving and not always consistent or consistently enforced)	"Triaging" privacy invasions into (a) ones critical to avoid for welfare of victim(s) and/or business, (b) ones best to avoid, if feasible, (c) ones that are minor/trivial, and designing defenses accordingly.
1b. Data security		Spotting subtle anomalies, coincidences, etc. that may provide warning of low-visibility threats (e.g., algorithm sabotage), and devising effective strategic countermeasures
2. Bias in AI algorithms	Addressing potential biases in AI systems that can impact hiring, promotions, & employee evaluations	Implementing strategic steps to identify and minimize algorithmic bias and mitigate deleterious effects of any remaining bias
3. Performance monitoring	Use of AI for performance tracking without infringing on employee autonomy or morale	Designing AI-based performance monitoring that incorporates strategic analysis of business and individual employee goals, avoiding assumptions inherited from traditional workplace cultures
4. Job displacement	Managing workforce concerns about AI leading to job losses and the need for reskilling	Applying robust action strategic framework for a contingency that a current career trajectory is blocked or fails
5. Skills gaps	Addressing need for new skill-sets as AI tools become more prevalent in daily business operations	Implementing strategic communication methods for discussing technical subjects with experts, without first needing to become a technical specialist oneself[11]
6. Integration with existing systems and capabilities	Incorporating AI technologies into current workflows and technologies	Integrating human factors with AI technological effects, while recognizing versatility of AI technology
7. Employee trust & acceptance	Building trust in AI systems and ensuring that employees understand & accept their use, as well as their limitations	Imparting strategic realism framework for navigating AI effects, challenging common assumptions about AI technology, both positive and negative
8. Change management	Navigating the cultural shifts needed to adopt AI technologies effectively	Cultivating a healthy strategic mindset that integrates sustainable strategy-driven innovative practices into the workplace on both cultural and technological levels

Strategy for Navigating Post-Pandemic Challenges

Still other business benefits of strategic skills, broadly rooted in a population of professionals on top of their well-being, grow out of need for businesses to navigate the post-pandemic aftermath and evolving expectations regarding workplaces and remote work. Table 3 itemizes some major issues along with benefits from applying a strategic skill-set to address them. Here again, both direct and indirect pathways actively contribute to driving a positive business result.

Table 3. Some benefits of strategic skills for navigating aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

# & Category	Focal Issues (not exhaustive)	Illustrative Use of Strategic Skill-Set
1. Remote work balance	Finding a right mix of remote and in-office work while maintaining productivity and team cohesion	Fostering a workplace culture of well-being built on application of strategic skills, thereby boosting voluntary return to the workplace because employees actually like being there
2. Employee well-being	Addressing mental health or related issues together with work-life balance issues as employees adjust to new working conditions	Applying sequential strategy rooted in analysis of individual objectives by each employee, supporting successful adjustment to changed working conditions
3. Compliance and safety	Navigating health regulations and ensuring workplace safety for employees	Conducting strategic analysis of complex rule systems (laws, administrative regulations, etc.) & their impact, thereby guiding efficient decision-making within regulatory frameworks
4. Technology integration	Upgrading digital tools and infrastructure to support hybrid work environments	Applying strategic analysis to adapt  lessons from traditional physical logistics to information logistics, thereby enhancing efficiency and smart decision-making in a rapidly evolving digital landscape
5. Communication needs	Maintaining clear communication and collaboration across physically dispersed teams	Leveraging strategic insights into the uses of doctrine as a communication system and guiding doctrine development for new workplace situations, thereby enhancing clarity, consistency, & adaptability in organizational practices
6. Talent recruitment & retention	Competing for talent in a tight labor market, especially one where employees value flexibility and company culture	Investing strategically in building a culture of well-being, boosting a business's brand, making it a magnet for top-tier talent, and fostering long-term success through a motivated and engaged workforce
7. Diversity and inclusion	Ensuring equitable opportunities in a distributed workforce and fostering an equitable, inclusive culture	Cultivating a healthy strategic mindset on the part of each individual in the workplace to address diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, thereby fostering an environment of equity, innovation, and collaboration that boosts long-term success
8. Change management	Adapting to rapid changes in market conditions and employee expectations	Empowering agile leadership, cultivating dynamic appraisal of changing expectations that fosters adaptability and supports effective decision-making in evolving environments

Strategic Solutions at Mentee Insight

As Katsiaryna Zinavenka notes on www.menteeinsight.com, "Strategic thinking skills are learned, not innate. The principles of strategy are simple, but the real challenge is applying them to achieve valuable results."

The starting point of all strategy is thinking big, expanding horizons, defying conventional and unconventional boundaries, and "thinking outside the box" in ways that spot and apply productive combinations of activities or people or capabilities not usually put together. Tables 1-3 illustrate some of the possibilities.

Mentee Insight imparts sequential strategy and strategic skills that empower such thinking big.[12][13] A signature Mentee Insight move is integrating strategy with personal identity analysis, thereby empowering individual professionals with a healthy strategic mindset that understands and leverages their unique strengths and finds strengths in apparent weaknesses.[14]   

For growth- and innovation-oriented companies, Mentee Insight provides employee training programs that build a resilient, innovation-oriented workplace culture of well-being, based on sustainable strategic frameworks for instilling strategic skills at every organizational level from junior staff to senior leaders. In a further signature move, those frameworks embody a core role for logistics thinking, starting with recognition that a workforce empowered with strategic skills is a major logistics asset for any business.

A workplace culture of well-being, once it has taken root, creates a multiplier effect. A company known for its innovative strategic frameworks for boosting individual well-being, careers, and business growth will naturally start to attract top talent (see Table 3, row 6). That company will become known not only for its leadership in competitive business arenas but also for delivering high-quality services to clients and customers that a more productive, efficient environment makes possible. That, in turn, attracts more business. A "virtuous cycle" is born.   

Employee training programs are reinforced by organizational supports. Such measures, which themselves need to be strategically designed, can take many forms, of widely varying efficacy and cost. To impart strategic skills that meet unique needs of specific organizations, Mentee Insight offers organizationally tailored consulting and advisory programs that transform current business challenges into growth opportunities.   

For ambitious professionals and business owners looking to "up their game" and advance their careers or businesses in tandem with personal and professional growth, Mentee Insight delivers group coaching, courses, and one-on-one consultations to impart strategic skills that, combined with personal identity analysis, enhance planning, decision-making, and resilience.

For further information on Mentee Insight activities and programs, see www.menteeinsight.com.

From Business Initiative to Social Movement

The Mentee Insight initiative makes a larger contribution, at once conceptual and practical, to moving away from outdated traditional workplace practices and conventions that may have been appropriate in the past but are no longer beneficial. That transformation is not limited to a specific country, geographic region, or industry. At its core, the transformation involves a sea change in organizational goals and the business values on which they rest. Organizations start to measure their success, not by their place at or near the apex of some ranking of firms based on dominance in a particular line of business (say, M&A), but rather by how successful they are in promoting a strategy-based workplace culture of well-being.

A business initiative then becomes a meme, the driving force for a constructive, pro-social social movement.

References

1. For biographical profiles, see https://www.menteeinsight.com/about-us.

2. Liddell Hart, Sir Basil H. (1967). Strategy. 2^nd revised ed. New York: Praeger. Available as pdf at https://archive.org/details/strategy-b.-h.-liddell-hart (visited November 19, 2024).

3. Table 1's structuring is inspired in part by U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, available at https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/workplace-well-being/index.html (visited November 19, 2024), as further developed with empirical anchoring by American Psychological Association, "2023 Work in America Survey. Workplaces as Engines of Psychological Health and Well-being," available at https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-in-america/2023-workplace-health-well-being (visited November 19, 2024).

4. Cf. philosopher Alfred North Whitehead's observation, "One must omit much to get on with something" (comment sometimes quoted in strategy and military analysis literature).

5. Kennedy, Paul (2013). Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned the Tide in the Second World War ("culture of encouragement" as major driver of innovation and source of comparative advantage for the Allies in World War II). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6761-9.    

6. Boorman, Scott A. (2000). "Alternatives to Rational Choice: Analytical Outline of Substantive Area. Part I." Cowles Foundation Preliminary Paper No. 001013. Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University. October 13, 2000.

7. Boorman, Scott A. (2003). "Alternatives to Rational Choice: Analytical Outline of Substantive Area. Parts II & III." Cowles Foundation Preliminary Paper No. 030116. Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University. January 16, 2003.

8. Cf. White, Harrison C. (1992). Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04304-3. p. 143.

9. Boorman, Scott A. (2009). "Fundamentals of Strategy – The Legacy of Henry Eccles." Naval War College Review. 62 (2): 91-115. The article is available at https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol62/iss2/8/ (visited November 19, 2024).

10. Boorman, Scott A. (2021). "Four Principles Short Analytical Outline." Outline developed for use in Professor Boorman's "Computers, Networks, and Society" course and other teaching.

11. Eccles, RADM Henry E., USN (Ret.) (1959). Logistics in the National Defense. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole. p. 98 ("principle of information"): "The exercise of authority gravitates toward the person or agency which has the most accurate grasp of the significant information." (Italics in original)  Reissue of this book by Admiral Eccles is available at https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/FMFRP%2012-14.pdf (visited November 19, 2024).

12. Wylie, RADM J. C., Jr., USN (1952). "Reflections on the War in the Pacific." United States Naval Institute Proceedings. 78 (4): 351-361 (distinguishing sequential and cumulative kinds of strategy).  

13. Boorman, Scott A. (2024). Three Faces of Sun Tzu: Analyzing Sun Tzu's Art of War, A Manual on Strategy.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 147ff. (citing Wylie's article, with further analysis and examples). ISBN 978-1-108-47103-9. See https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/three-faces-sun-tzu-analyzing-sun-tzus-iart-wari-manual-strategy?format=HB.

14. Identity analysis may be regarded as a 21^st century update to the "know yourself" half of the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu's famous dictum, "Know the enemy [lit., "know the other"] and know yourself."