Open strategy is beneficial but challenging. A key concern relates to how organizations navigate the potentially conflicting objectives of increasing both inclusion depth (extent of participants’ influence on strategy) as well as inclusion breadth (diversity of participants influencing the strategy). A related concern is the ability of organizations to sustain open strategy and inclusion breadth and depth over time. Through a longitudinal analysis of one organization’s implementation of open strategy principles over several years, we identified different patterns of open strategy practices over time. These included fortifying patterns whereby openness complexities are responded to through strategy practices aimed at further increases in inclusion breadth and depth, and diluting patterns where openness complexities are responded to through strategy practices that reduce inclusion breadth and depth. Based on this, we propose the notion of ‘tipping points’ as theoretically useful for explaining when organizations shift and adjust their strategizing in responding to the complexities and challenges that open strategy creates. We also identified numerous combinations of open strategy practices that together enabled it to concurrently increase both the depth and breadth of inclusion of community members in its strategizing.
