Patterns of Strategy

Summary

Patterns of Strategy models strategy as a dynamic relation among an organisation and other actors, using recurring patterns to explore fit, likely response and strategic manoeuvre.

Implications for practice

It gives the atlas a strategy method which is relational, dynamic and action-oriented rather than a static internal plan, and makes Lucy Loh's co-development visible alongside Patrick Hoverstadt's.

Key distinctions

• strategic fit vs internal plan
• ecosystem relation vs market snapshot
• manoeuvre vs implementation schedule
• co-development vs single-author attribution

Historical development

• Viable System Model
• game and drama theory
• Bateson
• Boyd
• Maturana's structural coupling

Ideas it depends on

• structural coupling
• power
• time
• strategy
• environment

Further developments

• eighty strategy patterns
• strategy radar
• strategic scenario and riposte work

Connections to practice

• competitive strategy
• collaborative strategy
• regulatory and partner ecosystems
• strategic foresight

Common confusions

• it is a collection of generic templates
• strategy belongs inside the organisation
• one actor controls the ecosystem

Further checks

• add book-level page locators
• document cases and criticism
• map the eighty patterns without confusing them with the nine Grammar patterns

Recorded connections

Check the wording, direction, scope, sources, and status of a connection before relying on it.

• Patterns of Strategy was co-developed with Lucy Loh

  Status: accepted · Relation: co developed with

  The wording is limited to the named public sources. Bibliographic inclusion and organisational association do not establish wider intellectual influence.

  Locator: Release 0.12 public practitioner and publication sources

  • Patterns of Strategy (checked)

• Patterns of Strategy was co-developed with Patrick Hoverstadt

  Status: accepted · Relation: co developed with

  The wording is limited to the named public sources. Bibliographic inclusion and organisational association do not establish wider intellectual influence.

  Locator: Release 0.12 public practitioner and publication sources

  • Patterns of Strategy (checked)
  • What is Patterns of Strategy? (checked)

• Patterns of Strategy is taught in SCiO — Systems and Complexity in Organisation

  Status: accepted · Relation: taught in

  The wording is limited to the named public sources. Bibliographic inclusion and organisational association do not establish wider intellectual influence.

  Locator: Release 0.12 public practitioner and publication sources

  • SCiO all courses (checked)

• Patrick Hoverstadt co-developed Patterns of Strategy

  Status: accepted · Relation: co developed

  The wording is limited to the named public sources. Authorship, methodological development, conceptual dependence and practical use remain distinct claims.

  Locator: Release 0.13 public primary, institutional and publisher sources

  • Patterns of Strategy (checked)

• Practice: Patterns of Strategy: model dependence, fit and timing provides a practice route for Patterns of Strategy

  Status: candidate · Relation: provides practice for

  An original introductory relationship exercise. It does not reproduce the book's pattern catalogue or claim that one numerical ratio captures strategic power.

  Locator: Named exercise and its scope statement

  • Patterns of Strategy: model dependence, fit and timing (original material and source boundary recorded)

• Leading Transformation: Original route, 2020–2025 source versions offers a learning route to Patterns of Strategy

  Status: candidate · Relation: offers reading route to

  The module summary names this approach. Selection for practice does not establish theoretical equivalence, intellectual influence or effectiveness.

  Locator: Original module 23; revised module 21

  • Leading Transformation: Original route, 2020–2025 source versions (source scope checked)

• Leading Transformation: Revised route, 6 September 2026 offers a learning route to Patterns of Strategy

  Status: candidate · Relation: offers reading route to

  The module summary names this approach. Selection for practice does not establish theoretical equivalence, intellectual influence or effectiveness.

  Locator: Original module 23; revised module 21

  • Leading Transformation: Revised route, 6 September 2026 (source scope checked)

Sources and passage locators

• Patterns of Strategy (checked)
• What is Patterns of Strategy? (checked)
• SCiO all courses (checked)
• Patterns of Strategy: model dependence, fit and timing (original material and source boundary recorded)
• Leading Transformation: Original route, 2020–2025 source versions (source scope checked)
• Leading Transformation: Revised route, 6 September 2026 (source scope checked)

Cite this entry

Taylor, B. P. (2026). Patterns of Strategy. The Necessary Tangle, release 0.35. https://transduction.systems/entries/method_or_methodology_patterns_of_strategy/

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