The Fox and Raven Quadrant

The future drives the present. In our first session, we discussed the Performance Quadrant. The quadrant's goal is to align the short term tactical aspects of your business with the long the term strategic objectives of your business. To do so, we need to examine each quadrant, starting with the longest task in which you are involved. We then work to connect this with the short complex tasks in which you are involved. The goal is to align the strategic and tactical. 

**This month we are going to focus on Q1- The Future Raven**

The images below outline the Performance Quadrant.

We are all motivated to do what is personal, immediate, and certain. The things that are most likely to redefine our performance are organizational, deferred and a gamble. 

Our task is to take the tasks that are furthest out and bring them closer in. We need to define the long-term goals and then align those with our short-term activity. 

Next, we need to explore the vertical axis. On this axis, we address things that are strategic versus tactical. We define strategy as the alignment of outputs objectives, capabilities, and resources, with the environment's opportunities and challenges. 

You can think of strategy is a model. A model is a theory in use. It is your clear plan of action to achieve your goals. 

Tactics are methods. A method is a procedure for accomplishing your goals and objectives. 

The key is knowing when to be strategic and when to be tactical. In our work, we think of it as shapeshifting. Many years ago, our Director of Innovation and Development, Keita Demming was introduced to a concept we now call the Raven (Strategy) and the Fox (Tactics). 

We use this analogy to help our clients understand the role of shapeshifting. As an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia, Dr Demming experienced a very moving talk by an indigenous elder. During orientation, they were invited to the Longhouse. A space dedicated to indigenous peoples of the region. 

At that orientation, an elder explained a beautiful carving of a totem pole within the longhouse. At the top of the totem pole, there was a raven. Then there was a fox. Then there was a raven, and then there was a fox. The elder explained that the Raven represented Wisdom and Knowledge. The fox represented curiosity and exploration. In our work, the Raven would be symbolic of strategy, and the Fox would be symbolic of execution. 

What we need to do, both in life and in business, is learn how to shapeshift between strategy and tactics. Here you are making a distinction between strategy and execution. We have found the Raven and Fox analogy to be very helpful in thinking about how you move between strategy and tactics. 

Now that we have built out the quadrant, you can think about each quadrant as follows:

* Q1: is your Future Raven. 

* Q2: is Today’s Raven

* Q3: is Today’s Fox 

* Q4: is your Future Fox

This month we are going to focus on your Future Raven. 

Throughout the program, we will be focusing on each Quadrant: 

* Q3: Today’s Fox

* Q2: Today’s Raven

* Q4: Future Fox

The objective throughout the program is to align all four quadrants.