The Art Of Thinking Strategically

If you read any corporate job description, you will undoubtedly find that the job calls for a ‘strategic thinker’. ‘Strategic’ has become one of those catch-cry words of the corporate world. It is used so frequently it has almost become meaningless. A strategy is a plan or scheme, but how do you think ‘strategically’? What do people mean when they refer to a strategic thinker?

Thinking strategically is not just about making decisions or managing people. Strategic thinking involves looking at the big picture and taking a very long-term, holistic approach, but can you learn how to think strategically? I say yes, here are the steps to get there!

1. Think

The Harvard Business Review says this about strategic thinking: “Strategic people create connections between ideas, plans and people that others fail to see.”

2. Converge and diverge

The first step in thinking strategically is to allow yourself time and space to actually think. Ask yourself what really needs to happen at work or in your business or career to create real and lasting change? How often do you devote time to thinking about this? Where do you do your thinking? At work or home? Walking or swimming? Do you return to problems to see if you’ve found a new approach?

Strategic thinking requires two types of thinking: divergent thinking, where you look at the big picture and generate ideas, and convergent thinking, where you arrange your ideas rationally and create big picture solutions. Studies show that the most innovative thinkers have the ability to rapidly switch between these two styles of thinking. If you want to teach yourself to think strategically, begin by setting aside time for divergent thinking and then set aside time for convergent thinking. Consciously switch between the two.

 One popular method to encourage divergent/convergent thinking is called the Six Thinking Hats technique. This was pioneered by Edward De Bono. De Bono said you need to tackle a problem wearing six different ‘hats’: a green hat (which focuses on possibilities and new ideas), a red hat (feeling and intuition), a yellow hat (optimism), a white hat (information), a blue hat (thinking) and finally a black hat (judgement).

3. Use your life experiences

Often good leaders have had a great deal of life experience and they draw on their life experience to think strategically. When stuck with a problem, think about other places you’ve worked at and other countries you have visited. How would this problem be tackled in those places? Think about some of the creative and clever people you’ve met. Pretend to be those people. How would they solve the problem? Also read widely about successful leaders, new ideas and relevant experiments overseas. This will also help you to generate new strategic solutions. Remember also to attend seminars and conferences, so you can learn from other people’s thinking patterns.

Some experts believe that the best strategic thinkers think in a T-shape. The top of the ‘T’ represents the breadth of their knowledge, while the stem represents an understanding of their own expertise and how to apply it to their work.

4. Have empathy

A key part of strategic thinking is the ability to put yourself into other people’s shoes. How is your plan going to impact others? Will the people around you support or oppose you? It is always easier to achieve a goal if you are supported not opposed! Remember to discuss your ideas with people who think differently to you. You will learn the most from people who think differently to you. If you are someone who is great at coming up with big creative ideas but neglects detail, then consult someone who is careful, cautious and pays attention to detail.Bring people with different skills onto your team – don’t recruit or work with people who think like you (I call those mini-me’s).

5. Do your research

Pretend you are an investigative journalist and look for alternative solutions and new sources of information. What are your competitors doing? What are the latest industry trends? Who can help you brainstorm? Friends? Family members? The more minds you have generating ideas for you, the more likely you are to find the right solution. If you are working with others, build a culture where everyone is encouraged to think strategically. Encourage people to come up with ingenious ways of doing things. Act as a mentor and encourage people to think outside the box.

Always be open to other people’s ideas. That means you have to be flexible and willing to consider that you are wrong! You also need to be prepared to act quickly if you see a new opportunity or a new way of doing something. And working with other people requires you to communicate your plan or direction to others. Let them know what challenges lie ahead and how working together will help overcome these.

6. Set a course and stick to it

Never lose sight of where you are going and what you want to achieve. Be prepared to make decisions and stick to them. Yes, you are going to make mistakes along the way, but that can’t stop you making decisions. Document the reasons behind your decision and then get on with it! The biggest mistake you can make is to let your strategic thinking go to waste because you aren’t prepared to make a decision and follow it through. Strategic thinking is about building a framework for the future that gives you the best chance of achieving long-term success and then acting on it!

Strategic thinking is like putting a puzzle together. You need to look at your project broadly. Pretend you are in a plane looking down on a landscape – take everything into account. If you are working with other people, take their strengths and weaknesses into account. What tasks should they be given? Think of your project as a puzzle. When you put in one piece, it will change and shape the whole puzzle. Every decision you make is a new piece of the puzzle that will impact on the other pieces either directly or indirectly. When you can think of all areas impacted by your decisions then you see the big picture. That is strategic thinking.