Focus areas

The open strategy community is built on four pillars that are inspired by the Strategy-as-Practice perspective and a shared logic for how science and practice come together—not as separate domains, but as mutually shaping activities in real work.

Pillar 1: Practices of openness and inclusion (The “How”)
Strategy is built on shared tools, norms, and procedures—from analytical frameworks to discursive legitimation. From a practice perspective, the key question is not just what tools are used, but how they are used in everyday situations. In practice, this means designing and testing concrete ways to open up strategizing: for example, facilitating workshops where employees can meaningfully contribute, experimenting with transparent decision-making formats, and developing tools that invite participation rather than reinforce hierarchy. We break down traditional closed-door silos by researching and co-creating models where employees, partners, and customers actively participate in shaping strategy.

Pillar 2: Praxis (The “Where”)
Strategy happens in episodes—the actual work: meetings, workshops, offsites, and informal encounters across collaborative ecosystems. This is where strategy either comes alive or falls apart. Our focus is on these lived moments of strategizing: how a workshop is facilitated, how tensions are handled in a meeting, how alignment is (or isn’t) reached in real time. In practice, this means closely engaging with real strategy processes—observing, participating, and iterating together with organizations. Led by a joint force bringing together practitioners and three Finnish universities, we explore how collective action and shared direction emerge in cross-organizational settings, such as strategy workshops and community meetups.

Pillar 3: Practitioners (The “Who”)
Strategy is not just the domain of top management—it is enacted by a diverse and distributed set of actors. The practical challenge is enabling these actors to see themselves as strategists and to act accordingly. In our work, this means focusing on how employees interpret strategy, how they contribute to it in their own roles, and how they bring it to life in everyday decisions. In building the Open Strategy Finland community, we emphasize that strategy succeeds only when it translates into meaningful experiences for those involved—combining science-based insights with hands-on design of participatory processes and a grounded approach to strategic planning.

Pillar 4: Community infrastructure (The “Ongoing Practice”)
To sustain the connection between science and practice over time, we actively cultivate spaces where strategizing continues beyond individual projects. In practice, this takes the form of our Community Feed: biannual meetups, cross-university publications, and informal working groups where external partners can join specific research tracks. These are not just dissemination channels, but living arenas for experimentation, reflection, and continuous co-creation between researchers and practitioners.

We also maintain a Community Feed featuring joint events, cross-university publications, and in the future plan unofficial working groups where external partners can join specific research tracks.