Change from the Future: The Merlin Process and Strategy Mapping, with Amie Devero

Summary: In this episode of the Change Management Review™ “From the Field” Series, Brian Gorman interviews Amie Devero, author of the book "Powered by Principle: Using Core Values to Build World-Class Organizations". She focuses her 20+ year coaching practice on founders and executives in small and medium-sized post-revenue startups, with a special interest (although not exclusively) in technology companies. Along with coaching and writing, Amie provides strategy consulting and delivers interactive and keynote presentations calling upon such tools as strategy mapping, balanced scorecards, the Golden Circle, and The Merlin Process. Her background includes ongoing research and inquiry into the impact of mental models, and potential breakthroughs and challenges to our thinking, communication, productivity, organizational cultures, and effectiveness. In this detailed, fast-paced interview, Amie shares her use of the Merlin Process to identify an organization’s long-term (30 years out) outcomes and how that leads to a shorter-term (e.g. 5-year) strategy. Amie then describes the process she uses with her clients to create a strategy map and creates an important distinction for change practitioners and leaders between facilitating a decision-making process vs. coaching that process. Questions Asked: What is the Merlin Process, how do you use it, and what does it mean for organizations that are developing strategies for the future? Will you paint us a verbal picture of what a strategy map looks like, and how you use it? You make an important distinction when developing strategy maps between the role of facilitation and coaching decision-making. Would you tell us about that? How do you communicate the relationship between the individual contributor and the strategic outcomes of the organization?