The value of strategic thinking

To find a better balance between overthinking and underthinking, we need to apply best parts of design thinking to the strategic discipline of. Strategic thinking exercises more than 200 strategic. Current research suggests that strategic planning and strategic thinking are different sides of the same coin and each one on its own is necessary, but not sufficient for an efficient strategic management framework. Strategic thinking and strategic planning are both essential to an organizations health and future relevance.

Strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect a companys direction. Design thinking is still a good tool, but it is no master key. Without formally recognizing the value of developing strategic thinking officers, the army will. Peter senge, expert on organizational learning, best describes this as systems thinking. Key elements that develop strategic thinking skills are undervalued in the current officer development timeline and a change in culture must occur in how the army educates, promotes, and develops its officer corps. We will teach you the shortcuts that we have learned from many years of doing deals. To do it, strategic thinking uses internal and external data, qualitative synthesis of opinions and perceptions. Multiply your value with strategic thinking skills presented. I often hear people say whats the digitalprogrammeproject strategy.

The value of strategic thinking in shaping the future of. Basil henry liddell hart, probably the foremost thinker on military strategy. Strategic thinkers are sought after and highly valued, often fast tracked to managerial and executive roles. Strategy has never been more challenging, or more important, than in todays environment of global. Strategic thinking is the ability to think on a big and small scale, long and short term, and into the past and the present. Sep 05, 2014 to find a better balance between overthinking and underthinking, we need to apply best parts of design thinking to the strategic discipline of considering alternatives, tradeoffs and opportunity.

Your organization is using strategic thinking if it can look at the past and present, take the best from both, and decide what course to take for the future 3. Ask if an idea is rational, with a credible source and any proof to support its value. A framework for strategic thinking understanding a certain business pretty much comes down to understanding the inherent structural characteristics and the fundamentals impacting the revenues, expenses, and thus profits, and in the end the return that the business is able to generate on its invested capital. Its best done in a lowstress environment where you can freely think and not be easily distracted. Strategic thinking skills strategic management training. Taking action to showcase your strategic thinking skills.

Presentations and are a great chance to show your strategic thinking skills off. Jul 07, 2017 leadership, strategy multiply your value with strategic thinking skills. For this reason, its important for company leaders to possess a healthy understanding of the value of strategic thinking and how it helps in creating a strategic roadmap for growth. Strategic thinking skills in your organization strategicthinking skills are essential for all levels of the organization in todays business world. Strategic thinking has to do with finding alternative ways of competing and providing customer value.

A strategist is always looking for opportunities to win at low or, better yet, no cost. Oct 03, 2019 taking action to showcase your strategic thinking skills. Also movietv reference to help you get a tastei understand many of these are fictitious, its for motivation or inspiration. The real value of strategic planning mit sloan management. When applied in an organizational strategic management process, strategic thinking involves the generation and application of unique. Strategic thinking and planning in a learning culture. Each strategic thinking exercise poster had four or five brand dimensions on the yaxis. The value of strategic thinking, written by frank ferrante the best ceos i know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy. Here are ideas without the lecture of ooooh you should apply it anywhere. Productive strategic thinking exercises are at the heart of the brainzooming group methodology.

Apr 26, 2017 strategic thinking is the mental process you go through when pondering an openended question. You must develop strong strategic thinking skills to effectively navigate change and deliver exceptional value to your firm and clients. Multiply your value with strategic thinking skills. Good strategic thinking uncovers potential opportunities for creating value and. Success comes as a result of thinking about how you can proactively accomplish your. In conjunction with updating our creating a strategic perspective workshop, were sharing both the structure and links to a subset of the relevant brainzooming content underpinning our strategic thinking workshops. Ideally, youll be presenting, but even if you arent, think about the strategic questions you can ask of the presenter and the group to demonstrate your new valueadded way of thinking. What careers value someone with excellent strategic. To live more sustainably, we must appreciate the process by which the solutions of the past have become the problems of today. Cmoe offers customized strategic thinking exercises and learning initiatives designed to support your companys strategic vision and growth. Obviously, strategic thinking is essential in competitive games and military operations. What careers value someone with excellent strategic thinking. When you use the business model canvas you get to examine one model at a time. Strategic thinking skill guide definition and examples.

How to master strategic thinking skills in 5 simple steps. Regardless of size, all businesses require strategic thinking to grow. Strategic thinking helps the company avoid costly mistakes, such as. Strategic thinking is an essential skill to both short and longterm planning. Thinking strategically will increase your value in communication. Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals in a game or other endeavor. They did, however, know a lot about the businesses, customers, and markets they served. Strategic planning is the channeling of business insights into an action plan to achieve goals and objectives. The center for applied research gives the following definition of strategic thinking. All in all, strategic thinking is valuable if you want to. We identify gaps, provide solutions and accentuate your companys value proposition to increase the likelihood of achieving a successful outcome.

Many leaders consider strategic thinking and the subsequent execution of their strategic plan as one of the most challenging leadership tasks. Design strategy a guide to strategic thinking toptal. We found that few truly strategic decisions are made in the context of a formal process. Strategic thinking is usually indirect and unexpected rather than headon and predictable. Second, mergers require a consistency and alignment among three levels of strategy. Strategic thinking basically means an organization is thinking how to better position itself among its competition for future success 2. Leadership, strategy multiply your value with strategic thinking skills. In this strategic thinking training course, you learn to plan and implement change to meet stakeholder needs, create an innovative culture that takes advantage of the departments core competencies, and gain the leadership skills to effectively integrate strategic thinking with.

While strategic thinking is a necessity at all levels of the organization, it may be even more critical to invest in developing your highpotential junior talents ability to think strategically. Strategic thinking training for operational management. However, the ultimate value of strategic thinking is that it is looking out for the future of your. The value of strategic thinking in the construction industry. They should not accept generalized theories of economic behaviour, and they should try to understand the underlying specific dynamics relevant for their business in an unbiased way. Topping the list of many ceo surveys on key leadership attributes is the ability to think strategically and develop that capacity in others. The discipline of strategic thinking in healthcare jon chilingerian introduction this chapter has been written for those who lead healthcare services or hope to in the future.

Strategic thinking, even in design, is a process that may seem a bit uncomfortable at first, but with a bit of persistence, it will create a stronger bond between the client and the design team, and show the value of design in an entirely new light. More than half of finance executives in a global study by the association of chartered certified accountants and institute of management accountants identified strategic thinking as critical to professional development for chief financial officers. Strategic thinking is not only reserved for senior executives, it can, and should, happen at every level of an organisation. At ideation stage, design thinking uses the business model canvas tool, while strategic design thinking uses the strategy table tool, which enables the comparison and evaluation of the various alternatives to find the best from the risk and value point of views. Multiply your value with strategic thinking skills lokhorst. In the late 1970s, fred gluck led an effort to revitalize mckinseys thinking on strategy while, in parallel, tom peters and robert waterman were leading a similar effort to reinvent the firms thinking on organization. Strategists should be uncomfortable with vague concepts like soft synergy. I tell people who ask about how we developed the brainzooming group methodology that a big motivator was business people i worked with who didnt know how to fill out strategic planning templates and worksheets. The foundation of strategic thinking is establishing the ability to think strategically. Creating value through strategic thinking north ridge partners. Here are a few techniques to help you become a better strategic thinker.

Learn the essence of strategic thinking, how it differs from strategic planning, and ways to integrate it with traditional planning activities. The value of strategic thinking in the construction. The nook and cranny strategic thinking exercises term popped into my head during a brainzooming client workshop. Some of the conceptual and methodological challenges associated with good strategic thinking are considered. A strategic leader must foster open dialogue, build trust, and engage key stakeholders, especially when views diverge. This is regarded as a benefit in highly competitive and fastchanging business landscapes. The value of strategic thinking, written by frank ferrante. Here are a few of the reasons you should adopt it as one of your thinking tools.

Approach to understanding strategic thinking in these arab organizations would involve evaluating the vision and mission, evaluating the political and cultural dynamics, slicing and dicing the. Strategic thinking helps you plan, become more efficient, maximize my strengths, and find the most direct path toward achieving any objective. Great brainstorming and strategic planning questions encourage and allow people to talk about what they know including factual information, personal perspectives, and their views of the future. If you arent ready, or we think you wont maximise value, we will tell you. In his book fifteen things common to great achievers, author israelmore ayivor shared, a dream is the frame or portrait or a construction or focus of ones vision by means of perception, based on what he or she knows and settles within via strategic thinking. Group strategic thinking may create more value by enabling a proactive and creative dialogue, where individuals gain other peoples perspectives on critical and complex issues. Strategic thinking is characterized by an allpervasive unwillingness to expend resources. Strategic thinking in management also requires us to recognize and navigate the complex interdependencies in the business world. The importance of strategic thinking blog procurious. Exercises and strategic thinking business innovation brief. Why is strategic thinking important to the success of business. In scenarios where strategic thinking is employed, the planning process provides a critical value even though strategic planning is still required to handle. In scenarios where strategic thinking is employed, the planning process provides a critical value even though strategic planning is still required to handle strategic work efficiently. A key distinction between strategic thinking and strategic planning is that the former occurs on a regular basis, as part of our daily.

Sep 26, 2018 here are ideas without the lecture of ooooh you should apply it anywhere. Strategic thinking is a more comprehensive planning model that covers innovation, strategic planning and operational planning. Applying strategic thinking comes down to building human connections and really listening to others. Our own research on strategic planning supports mintzbergs observation. Strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect an organisations direction, i. Strategic thinking focuses the management team on markets that are most likely to succeed.

The purpose of strategic thinking is to create a strategy that is a coherent, unifying, integrative framework for decisions especially about direction of the business and resource utilization. Strategic thinking is defined as coming up with alternative viable strategies or business models that deliver customer value. A company needs to compete, it needs a strategy to compete. Add value to your organization by aligning department goals with your organizations strategic vision and mission. Strategic thinking requires you to question everything you see or are told. Futures thinking values thinking systems thinking strategic thinking futures thinking means thinking about how the past and present influence the future. Can strategic thinking and strategic planning be accommodated within the same strategic management regime. Strategic thinking is the motor that drives longterm success, with individuals looking out beyond the immediate needs of an organization to determine the path forward. Strategic thinking seeks hard, factbased, logical information. Strategic thinking is the mental process you go through when pondering an openended question. Jun 17, 2005 traditionally, strategic planning omits the step of innovative thinking that is so critical to business success. Given all that strategic thinking content, its a good time to update our framework. The important step is to accept that strategic thinking is part of your job and begin to focus on developing your abilities. When we take the time to listen to our customers, peers, direct reports and leaders, they feel.

Creating value through strategic thinking north ridge. The first published product of glucks strategy initiative was a 1978 staff paper, the evolution of strategic management. What is strategy and the importance of strategic thinking medium. Strategic thinking helps your business achieve its goals more rapidly. Role of strategic thinking in business planning business. In this strategic thinking training course, you learn to plan and implement change to meet stakeholder needs, create an innovative culture that takes advantage of the departments core competencies, and gain the leadership skills to effectively integrate strategic. Thinking strategically will enhance the value you generate for your organization and will create more forward momentum for your own career. But we also found that, when approached with the right goal in mind, formal planning need not be a waste of time and can, in fact, be a real source of competitive advantage. All businesses have a neverending list of goals, from constantly releasing new products that increase sales by resonating with customers to providing better customer support. In essence, the divergent results of strategic thinking are only operational through convergent strategic planning.