AIMS

Besson Patrick, Carton Guillaume
Learning how to Strategize Transformation: A Reflection-on-Action Perspective

By demonstrating that the way strategy is taught has evolved according to the history of strategy, this article explains that our dissatisfaction with current strategy teaching stems from a focus on strategy that has become irrelevant to the current turbulent environment. To move forward, we propose shifting the teaching of strategy to the teaching of strategizing by having students learn the process by which strategy actors deliberately transform their organization to realign it with its environment during transformational projects, because the ability to formulate and implement strategy in transformational contexts has become paramount in today's turbulent environments. To this end, we describe a learning process based on students' reflection on action in which they learn how to strategize organizational transformation. By developing the pedagogical outcomes of the learning process, we contribute to current debates about the teaching of strategy, on the skills that strategists need, and on the practical relevance of strategy research.