Integral Strategy 131
as a consultant in strategic management, Lawrence Ackerman emphasizes that
finding identity is about “seeing through” all the layers of the organization—its
organizational charts, numbers, earnings, staffing, and history—to find “the heart,
mind, and soul of the company as a self-directing entity in the purest sense” (2000,
22 ). Mission remains an essential concept, but its meaning as active commitment
to a purpose can be renewed and reclaimed when it grows out of identity. Each
needs the other in leadership, although they are not the same thing.
Strategy as an Integrative Discipline
As we have now been able to see in a variety of different contexts, the dis-
covery and narration of the content and meaning of the story depend in turn
upon methods of reflection, analysis, and synthesis that are critical aspects of
strategic leadership as an integrative and applied discipline. It takes a defin-
able set of capacities and skills to understand and communicate the meaning of
narratives. We associate many of these abilities with the humanities and some
forms of the social sciences, especially as they come to terms with understand-
ing human commitments and values. To find and articulate the larger human
significance of the story depends on an appreciation of the way the imagination
expresses itself in various types of language and systems of symbols. The written
and spoken word is the primary but not exclusive way in which stories are known
and communicated, so an understanding and command of language are powerful
vehicles for leadership.
We have also learned that an institution’s story is a subtext embodied in its
programs and policies, structures and relationships, campus and resources, and
in what has come to be called the culture of the organization. In order to be
effective in shaping strategic decisions for the future, the cultural text needs to
be brought to the surface and read explicitly. The discovery of the defining char-
acteristics and values of the culture takes other kinds of intellectual skills, some
of which we find on the applied sides of fields like anthropology, sociology, social
psychology, and organizational behavior. Now the task becomes more analytical
and less poetic, as a variety of methods of inquiry and forms of information have
to be used to capture the organization’s cultural and structural patterns of identity.
The way the institution sees itself and does its work, sometimes through impor-
tant rituals and practices, forms a backdrop for knowing and telling the story. As
we have seen and shall see repeatedly, numerical strategic indicators represent
another indispensable tool with which to grasp an institution’s identity.
Story and Motivation
As a discipline of leadership, strategic inquiry has a special dimension that
relates to the power of the story to inspire, to motivate, and to guide decisions.
The story in leadership is more than a good tale or a set of propositions to engage
the mind, for it addresses values that create a shared sense of commitment among