Task C5.2: Review your Outside Awareness

What is Task C5.2?

Task C5.2 is part of the "Decide" phase in the Viability Canvas methodology, specifically within the "Innovate" step (Step C5). This task instructs you to "Look at your methods of determining what's happening in the external environment that is directly relevant to your organization. Do you continuously monitor changes in the market? Do you attempt to identify areas in which novelty may have a direct impact?"

Purpose of Reviewing Your Outside Awareness

The purpose of this task is to evaluate how effectively your organization senses and interprets changes in its external environment. This serves several important functions:

1. Identifying sensing gaps: Discovering blind spots in your organization's environmental monitoring
2. Improving signal detection: Enhancing your ability to notice relevant changes early
3. Assessing information quality: Evaluating whether you're gathering the right information in the right ways
4. Strengthening System 4: Enhancing the VSM's "Outside and Then" function that's responsible for future planning
5. Building adaptive capacity: Improving your organization's ability to respond to environmental changes

By reviewing your outside awareness mechanisms, you ensure your organization can detect and interpret environmental changes that might affect its viability, enabling more timely and effective responses.

Understanding Outside Awareness

In the context of the Viable System Model, "outside awareness" refers to the capabilities associated with System 4, which is responsible for:

• Monitoring the external environment for relevant changes
• Identifying potential threats and opportunities
• Interpreting external signals for their implications
• Looking ahead to anticipate future developments
• Bringing external information into dialogue with internal capabilities

Effective outside awareness requires both formal mechanisms (like market research) and informal ones (like networks and relationships), coupled with processes to interpret and act on the information gathered.

How to Complete Task C5.2

To review your outside awareness effectively:

1. Inventory current monitoring mechanisms:
   • What formal research and intelligence gathering do you conduct?
   • What informal networks provide market and competitive insights?
   • What sources of information do you regularly consult?
   • How do you track technological developments?
   • What processes exist for monitoring regulatory changes?
2. Evaluate coverage and quality:
   • Do your monitoring activities cover all relevant aspects of your environment?
   • How timely is the information you receive?
   • How accurate has your intelligence proven to be?
   • Is information gathered at an appropriate level of detail?
   • Do you have effective ways to separate signal from noise?
3. Assess interpretation capabilities:
   • How effectively do you make sense of environmental information?
   • Do you have processes to identify patterns and implications?
   • Are multiple perspectives considered in interpretation?
   • How are assumptions and biases challenged?
   • Is future-oriented thinking encouraged and supported?
4. Review integration with decision-making:
   • How well does environmental information flow to decision-makers?
   • Is external intelligence effectively incorporated into planning?
   • Are insights from the environment valued in strategic discussions?
   • How responsive are decisions to changes in the environment?
   • Is there a healthy dialogue between Systems 3 and 4?
5. Identify improvement opportunities:
   • What environmental aspects need better monitoring?
   • Which interpretation capabilities should be strengthened?
   • How could information flow to decision-makers be improved?
   • What resources or structures would enhance outside awareness?
   • How might organizational culture be shifted to value external perspective?

Example Application

In a technology company review, the task might produce:

Current monitoring mechanisms assessment:

• Quarterly competitor product analysis
• Annual customer satisfaction surveys
• Informal tracking of industry news
• Participation in two major industry conferences
• Ad hoc monitoring of technological developments

Coverage and quality evaluation:

• Strong awareness of direct competitors but limited insight into adjacent markets
• Customer feedback focused on current offerings with little exploration of emerging needs
• Technology tracking concentrated in current product areas with minimal horizon scanning
• Regulatory monitoring reactive rather than proactive
• Social and cultural trend monitoring largely absent

Interpretation capabilities assessment:

• Analysis tends to confirm existing views rather than challenge assumptions
• Limited structured processes for making sense of market signals
• Technical expertise well-represented but user perspective often missing
• Short-term implications emphasized over long-term trends
• Competitive moves interpreted primarily through current business model lens

Integration with decision-making review:

• Market intelligence reviewed quarterly in executive meetings
• External information often overwhelmed by internal operational concerns
• Strategic planning primarily extends current trajectory rather than considering alternatives
• Limited dialogue between market-facing and strategic planning functions
• Customer insights filtered through multiple layers before reaching decision-makers

Improvement opportunities:

• Establish systematic horizon scanning for emerging technologies
• Develop formal processes for competitive intelligence gathering
• Create cross-functional sense-making forums to interpret market signals
• Institute regular scenario planning exercises
• Improve direct connection between customer interactions and strategic planning

Strategic Considerations

When reviewing your outside awareness capabilities, consider these strategic factors:

1. Balance breadth and depth: Monitor broadly enough to catch unexpected developments while providing sufficient depth on critical areas
2. Differentiate information sources: Use diverse approaches to gather intelligence, avoiding over-reliance on any single method
3. Separate sensing from responding: Ensure environmental monitoring isn't biased by current strategic priorities
4. Create feedback loops: Regularly assess the accuracy of your environmental interpretations
5. Connect sensors to decisions: Design processes that ensure environmental intelligence reaches those who can act on it
6. Value minority perspectives: Encourage contrarian views that challenge dominant interpretations
7. Establish rhythm and discipline: Create regular processes for environmental scanning rather than ad hoc approaches

Strong outside awareness is fundamental to organizational adaptability and innovation, ensuring your organization can detect and respond to environmental changes before they threaten viability.