Decision Sprint: The New Way to Innovate into the Unknown and Move from Strategy to Action

Breakthrough methods to solve for the unknown on the path to innovation, creativity, and business growth, while avoiding bureaucracy and stagnation

What sits above any person, project, function, or strategy in your organization? What impacts your company’s performance for years and decades? What shows up in nearly every interaction and decision in your organization? Like it or not, there are systems at work in your organization that standardize how people think, collaborate, and make decisions. These systems affect everything, yet they’re rarely discussed, managed, or even thought about.

In Decision Sprint, innovation and growth expert Atif Rafiq argues that while talent is critically important to any company’s success, the systems through which collaboration and decision-making happen are what separate industry leaders from the rest—and that systems designed to embrace unknowns are quickest and most enduring way to foster growth, continuous innovation, and realization of strategy.

This groundbreaking guide walks readers through the process of embracing unknowns from the start of a bright idea, strategic project, or new initiative through the steps of alignment and decision making with sponsors and executives. He distills his knowledge into 13 “superpowers” that rewire how people think, collaborate, and decide in order to foster fearless interaction with the unknown, constructive questioning, team-based problem solving, and a collective IQ lift for everyone involved in strategic or innovation initiatives.

These superpowers include:

Moving Upstream—to feed and smooth the way for downstream execution

Establishing Decision Sprints—to tap into the power of questioning, gather the right input and defeat the fear of unknowns

Crafting Workflows--to bring Decision Sprints to life and streamline meetings and collaboration

Socializing Knowledge—to solidify buy-in, creating alignment and “drama” free decision-making for important initiatives

Landing and Expanding to Achieve Adoption—to drive change one initiative at a time, starting at the team level

Leveraging Digital Tools--to utilize game changing software to enable Decision Sprints and pave the way for a goldmine of data about upstream work

Preparing for AI--to assist leader and management with new level of radar and signal about the momentum or lack of it when it comes to translating strategy into action

Distilling years of experience working in the upper echelons of both long-established corporations and Silicon Valley organizations, Atif Rafiq has learned that when a system works to embrace the unknowns that come with new growth and market opportunities, the results can be extraordinary.

Leverage Rafiq’s superpowers to make innovation and creativity part of your company’s DNA—and build your organization into an industry leader that constantly makes the leap from identification of whitespaces, innovation, and growth opportunities to taking decisive action on them.

About the Author

Atif Rafiq has blazed trails in Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500 for over 25 years. After rising through digital native companies like Amazon, Yahoo!, and AOL, Atif held C-suite roles at McDonald’s, Volvo, and MGM Resorts. Rafiq was the first Chief Digital Officer in the history of the Fortune 500, a pioneering role he held at McDonalds, and he rose to the president level in the Fortune 300.

While leading business units, teams, and growth for companies, Atif has built a large following as one of today’s top management thinkers. Over half a million people follow his ideas about management and leadership on LinkedIn, where he is a Top Voice, and his newsletter Re:wire has over 100,000 subscribers.

Atif is passionate about helping companies push boldly into the future. He accomplishes this through Ritual, a software app revolutionizing how teams innovate and problem-solve, and through his work as keynote speaker, Board member, and CEO advisor.