An Introduction to Strategic Thinking
An Introduction to Strategic Thinking
An Introduction to Strategic Saturdays
“Strategic thinking is a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals. As a cognitive activity, it produces a tyoe of thought designed specifically for problem solving.
What are the principles of strategic thinking, and what are the 5 key elements of strategic thinking?” Read on to learn more…
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A 3-Minute Read
I recently had a long conversation with one of my life coaching clients about intuition versus rationality in decision making. They expressed that I tend to be too “granular” for their taste. The expressed that they would rather depend on intuition when making decision then just the facts.
I’m a big proponent of intuition, but I also think strategic thinking is essential to avoid the ripple effect blowback from misguided choices. One cannot think strategically without knowing the facts, and then organizing them in PEEPPASA ways (practical, effective, efficient, precise, productive, accurate, and self-aware) for making decisions.
If you Google Strategic thinking, these are the question that are most frequently asked…
What is meant by strategic thinking?
What are the 5 key elements of strategic thinking?
What is strategic thinking and why is it important?
What are the principles of strategic thinking?
Let me answer each of these (though not necessarily in the order in which they were asked.)
What is meant by strategic thinking?
Strategic thinking is a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals. As a cognitive activity, it produces a tyoe of thought designed specifically for problem solving.
What are the principles of strategic thinking, and what are the 5 key elements of strategic thinking?
According to Jeanne M. Liedtka is an American strategist and professor of business administration particularly known for her work on strategic thinking, design thinking and organic growth there are five key characteristics of strategic thinking.
These are…
systems perspective,
intent focus, thinking in time,
hypothesis driven
… and intelligent opportunism.
Let’s explore each of these…
Jeanne M. Liedtka, an American strategist and academic observed five “major attributes of strategic thinking in practice” that resemble competencies:
Systems perspective: This refers to being able to understand implications of strategic actions. "A strategic thinker has a mental model of the complete end-to-end system of value creation, his or her role within it, and an understanding of the competencies it contains."
Intent focused: This means more determined and less distractible than rivals in the marketplace. Also called strategic intent this is"the focus that allows individuals within an organization to marshal and leverage their energy, to focus attention, to resist distraction, and to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal."
Thinking in time: This means being able to hold past, present and future in mind at the same time to create better decision making and speed implementation. "Strategy is not driven by future intent alone. It is the gap between today’s reality and intent for the future that is critical." Scenario planning is a practical application for incorporating "thinking in time" into strategy making.
Hypothesis driven: This is an approach for ensuring that both creative and critical thinking are incorporated into strategy making. This competency explicitly incorporates the scientific method into strategic thinking.
Intelligent opportunism: The process of being responsive to good opportunities. "The dilemma involved in using a well-articulated strategy to channel organizational efforts effectively and efficiently must always be balanced against the risks of losing sight of alternative strategies better suited to a changing environment."
Why is strategic thinking important?
When applied in an organizational strategic management process, strategic thinking allows the generation and application of unique tactical insights and opportunities intended to create competitive advantage for any individual, or organization.
It can be done individually, as well as collaboratively among key people who can positively alter an organization's future. Group strategic thinking may create more value by enabling a proactive and creative dialogue, where individuals gain other people's perspectives on critical and complex issues. This is regarded as a benefit in highly competitive and fast-changing personal and business landscapes.
What do professional strategist do?
Most professional strategists see strategic thinking as having a standard definition (a Term of Art). The generally accepted definition for strategic thinking, a common agreement as to its role or importance, includes a standardized list of key competencies of strategic thinkers. There is also a consensus on whether strategic thinking is an uncommon ideal or a common and observable property of strategy. It includes…
finding and developing a strategic foresight capacity for an organization, by exploring all possible organizational futures,
challenging conventional thinking to foster decision making in an ever changing environment..
Research on strategic thought indicates that the critical strategic question is not the conventional "What?", but "Why?" or "How?".
Advanced strategic thinkers draw a clear distinction between strategic thinking and strategic planning, another important strategic management thought process.
General Andre Beaufre, a French Army officer and military strategist wrote in 1963 that strategic thinking …"is a mental process, at once abstract and rational, which must be capable of synthesizing both psychological and material data. The strategist must have a great capacity for both analysis and synthesis; analysis is necessary to assemble the data on which he makes his diagnosis, synthesis in order to produce from these data the diagnosis itself—and the diagnosis in fact amounts to a choice between alternative courses of action."
Most agree that traditional models of strategy making, which are primarily based on strategic planning, are not working, in today’s increasingly algorized world, where random events, and Black Swans have a greater impact than ever before.
Strategy in today's competitive business landscape is moving away from the basic ‘strategic planning’ to more of ‘strategic thinking’ in order to remain competitive. However, both thought processes must work hand-in-hand in order to reap maximum benefit. It has been argued that the real heart of strategy is the 'strategist'; and for a better strategy execution requires a strategic thinker who can discover novel, imaginative strategies which can re-write the rules of the competitive game; and set in motion the chain of events that will shape and "define the future".
There are many tools and techniques to promote and discipline strategic thinking. The flowchart to the right provides a process for classifying a phenomenon as a scenario in the intuitive logics tradition, and how it differs from a number of other planning approaches.
Strategic Thinking vs. Strategic Planning
In the view of most experts on the subject, strategic thinking and planning are different, but complementary and interrelated and thought processes that must support and sustain one another for effective strategic decision making. There are many different models on how this play out in real-time situations. One model states that the role of strategic thinking is to seek creativity and innovation as very different and futures that may lead the decision-maker to redefine their core strategies and even the environment where the decisions are to be made. Strategic planning's role is "to realize and to support strategies developed through the strategic thinking process and to integrate these back into the business".
Henry Mintzberg a Canadian academic and author on strategic thinking in business and management ...wrote in 1994 that strategic thinking is more about synthesis (i.e., "connecting the dots") than analysis (i.e., "finding the dots"). It is about "capturing what the manager learns from all sources (both the soft insights from his or her personal experiences and the experiences of others throughout the organization and the hard data from market research and the like) and then synthesizing that learning into a vision of the direction that the business should pursue."
Mintzberg argued that strategic thinking cannot be systematized and is the critical part of strategy formation, as opposed to strategic planning exercises. In his view, strategic planning happens around the strategy formation or strategic thinking activity, by providing inputs for the strategist to consider and providing plans for controlling the implementation of the strategy after it is formed
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
Here is a famous story I often share with my coaching clients that integrates strategic thinking, common sense, and intuition, simultaneously.
Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter Two
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes me a long time to get out.
Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in…It’s a habit…but,
my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter Five
I walk down another street.
— Portia Nelson, There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery
So Where are We Now
Historically, critical thinking (called philosophy) encompassed all bodies of knowledge such as psychology, sociology, linguistics, political science, and economics. and a practitioner of this type of thought was called a philosopher.
Today (2022) various areas of investigation that were traditionally part of philosophy have become separate disciplines, including the formal sciences, computer science, the natural sciences and social sciences.
Today, critical thinking may include:
metaphysics, which is concerned with the fundamental nature of existence and reality;
epistemology, which studies the nature of knowledge and belief;
ethics, which is concerned with moral value;
and logic, which studies the rules of inference that allow one to derive conclusions from true premises.
Critical thinking may also include notable subfields that may include religion, aesthetics, language, and the philosophy of mind.
Is Everyone Capable Of Deep Thinking?
Unfortunately no, and this is the source of many of the problems that plague humanity.
The majority of humankind is not interested in anything deeper than a tea cup. They are not interested in anything they cannot directly perceive, or have blind faith in. They are certainly not interested in anything abstract.
I am not judging them, however, most would rather follow orders and submit to rules and regulations and do as they are told to do, rather than think for themselves. In other words they are voluntarily sheep!”
The reason for this is simple and twofold.
Thinking requires both intelligence and effort, and can be mentally, emotionally, and physically difficult, and exhausting. Most people would rather focus their energy on day-to-day life, short-term gratification, what they can perceive on a surface level, and receiving and accepting the information their senses bring to them. Their sphere of thought is restricted to their immediate family, their immediate neighbors and their immediate society. They simply think, “I don’t know and I could care less of knowing.”
They are more concerned with their social status than knowledge, wisdom, or any type of awareness, never mind self-awareness.
I can tell you from personal experience, and not with any ego, or sense of superiority, that critical thinkers aren’t popular: They are visionary loners, eccentrics, weirdos, and freaks. Being a deep thinker is not going to raise your social status but rather is likely to stigmatize you.
I remember having a deep passion for a very beautiful woman, when I was in my late 20s. We became lovers for a short while. I was ecstatic. I asked her if she was happy being with me, and she responded emphatically “No”! She added, “When I am with you, I always have a headache. You think too much and make me think too much.” Then she broke up with me.
Interestingly we have kept in touch over the years, and I think that the trials, travails, and tribulations of life have given her a deeper appreciation of critical thinking and the benefits that come with it.
Why Those that Don’t Attempt Deep Thought Suffer?
Most people don’t care about self-improvement and personal development. If they do, they don’t connect that interest to reading quality news. They don’t watch plays. They do not watch movies outside the mainstream popular ones. They don’t go to concerts of different types of music – rock, hip-hop, classical, opera, jazz, toots-music, blues, folk, minimalist, chamber, or “world music.
They don’t care about history, art, culture, or politics. If they vote, they vote what for what is currently is popular, or for people who are idiotically ideological. Most people even vote against their own self-interests.
They do not participate on debates or discussions in the Internet. What they do is to watch TV, maybe party, and perhaps follow social media on the Internet. They do not understand any foreign languages, cultures, ideas, or societies, and don’t want to. They may even tell you, “It gives, me a headache”.
What they watch on television or on their smart device is sports, reality TV, music videos, soap operas, lowest common denominator sitcoms, and anything amusing, entertaining or stimulating in the moment. If TV is a drug, for them TV is essentially heroin, not Ayahuasca.
To be an original, critical, and deep thinking thinker requires many forms of intelligence. What the developmental psychologist Howard Gardner called the Multiple Intelligences.
Gardner introduced eight different types of intelligences consisting of:
Linguistic,
Logical/Mathematical,
Spatial,
Bodily-Kinesthetic,
Musical,
Interpersonal,
Intrapersonal,
Naturalist.
Over the years many critical thinkers have added other forms of intelligence to this list. Most people explore one or maybe two of these.
5 Steps to Becoming a Deep Thinker
Create the right environment. The brain and the mind are affected by colors, sounds, shapes, textures, and the placement of “things” in a space. Naturally, noisy and highly distractive environments do not promote deep thinking. Be conscious about the design of your living and work space. Read a bit about interior design, Feng shui, and such.
Eliminate distractions. Distractions prevent you from concentrating on quality thoughts.
Learn to concentrate. This can be done by sitting in a mantra meditation when you awake, once in mid-day. A mantra meditation can be as simple as focusing on a meaningless word as it is repeated over and over. You can use the word “One” or “Ohm” to start.
Entertain higher-quality thoughts (find food for thought). I do this in a number of ways.
Political reasoning: We do live in a political world. Each morning I review some issue (Abortion, Gay Marriage, Libertarianism, Socialism etc.) from two diverse perspectives. I may choose a respected politically conservative voice, (The National Review), and then a progressively liberal perspective (The Daily Kos). To this, I add a non-politically aligned fact checker (Politofact.com).
Read about positive things that are happening in the world. For this I go to NiceNews.com
I Read a bit from some respected “deep thinker”. Lao Tzu, Plato, Confucius, Kant, Spinoza, Cato, etc.,
All of this take me about 30 minutes in the morning. I do it right after I do my “intuition” building routine of stretching, Tai Chi, and “Laughter Yoga”.
Final Thoughts.
I always tell my prepper and life hacker friends, especially those who are a bit extreme or paranoid in their thinking, that deep thought and critical thinking is important for mental and emotional health.
There are 7 Benefits of Critical Thinking
It encourages curiosity.
It enhances creativity.
It reinforces problem-solving ability.
It's a multi-faceted practice.
It fosters independence.
It's a skill for life, not just learning.
Improve decision making skills
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A side note: December 1 was the 42 anniversary of the murder of John Lennon.
I was directly across the street from the former Beatles, musician, artist, and social activist when his life was snuffed out, in a moment of madness.
In my December 5, newsletter “Memoir Monday” I will describe my experience of that event.
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Author: Hey there. My name is Lewis Harrison, and I created this newsletter. I am a transformational coach, teacher, and prepper. I am a proponent of entrepreneurism and also a writer and seminar leader. The author of over twenty books, and numerous self-improvement, business success, and personal development courses, I am the former host of a talk show on NPR Affiliated WIOX91.3 FM.
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This article is an excerpt from a seminar I taught based on my book “Beyond Thought”.
Here is the link to this book.
https://www.amazon.ca/Beyond-Thought-Introduction-Practical-Philosophy/dp/1079737219
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