Chris Paton is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines and a Strategic Adviser to the Ministry of Defense. With a wealth of experience in successful strategy execution, he has been published in Strategy Magazine on achieving strategic agility. Chris has extensive operational experience, including serving in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, and Georgia. In 2008, he led the planning for operations in Afghanistan's Helmand province, overseeing thousands of individuals and significant resources. He later provided advice on Afghan Strategy to various government offices and played a crucial role in designing the drawdown of the UK presence in Afghanistan.
In addition to his military background, Chris has 8 years of experience working with prominent corporations such as Unilever, Shell, Mercedes, Waitrose, Linklaters, Lloyd's insurance, Heineken, and HSBC. He co-authored a Harvard Business Review article on planning in fluid situations and is highly sought after as a speaker on strategy, planning, change management, and effective implementation of change. Chris addresses the gap between strategy and execution, emphasizing the importance of high-quality planning that can withstand stress. He draws on real-life examples from both military and business contexts to illustrate what effective planning in fluid situations looks like.
Chris is a leading practitioner of corporate wargames, using this approach to stress-test and evaluate plans before implementation. He has worked with Shell on their North Sea Brent Decommissioning program and continues to support them with strategy wargames, team coherence, change programs, and planning workshops.
During his speaking engagements, Chris focuses on making strategy "sticky" within organizations through intent-based leadership. He explores topics such as managing delegations and freedoms without losing authority, and the importance of empowering teams to think creatively while leadership focuses on decision making. He also discusses how military concepts like mission command can be applied to increase creativity, innovation, and tempo in transnational organizations. Chris highlights the value of gaming strategies and plans to identify risks, setting up games to avoid damaging relationships, and the importance of gaming the entire strategy. These games help prevent costly mistakes and act as catalysts for change and transformation.
Chris is available for booking as a speaker on various topics, including stress-testing plans, planning in fluid situations, strategic planning for concrete results, and developing strategy in highly complex environments.
