Strategic Thinking
In my first article in this series, based on the book “Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty, it was clarified that strategic leadership is the sum of all of one’s thoughts, actions and interactions that are deliberately focused on creating sustainable competitive advantage for the organisation. This suggests something rather important – that strategic leadership is an iterative process, rather than a linear process of events. We have developed some unfortunate habits around strategy that has it as an “event” that takes place once a year, with a bigger “event” taking place every 5 years or so.
When we say that strategic leadership is iterative, we are saying that it doesn’t really have a specific starting point or a specific end point, and it is repetitive. In fact, if we agree that strategic leadership is really a learning process, then it starts almost anywhere in our holographic picture, and extends into the other places in the picture and back and around and so on. Strategic action begets strategic learning which begets strategic thinking, which may beget the creation of strategic teams, which may beget some new strategic relationships in which strategic influencing takes place, and this may beget a whole new line of strategic thinking. It is an alive, evolving, exciting process in which great people with great minds in good relationships think great thoughts which lead to great actions which create great opportunities for learning which result in new and greater thinking – all of which make the business stronger, and give it a sustainable competitive advantage.
When we say that strategic leadership is iterative, we are saying that it doesn’t really have a specific starting point or a specific end point, and it is repetitive. In fact, if we agree that strategic leadership is really a learning process, then it starts almost anywhere in our holographic picture, and extends into the other places in the picture and back and around and so on. Strategic action begets strategic learning which begets strategic thinking, which may beget the creation of strategic teams, which may beget some new strategic relationships in which strategic influencing takes place, and this may beget a whole new line of strategic thinking. It is an alive, evolving, exciting process in which great people with great minds in good relationships think great thoughts which lead to great actions which create great opportunities for learning which result in new and greater thinking – all of which make the business stronger, and give it a sustainable competitive advantage.
Having said this, this series needs to have a starting point, so I have picked Strategic Thinking as the place to start. Of course, the big questions are “What do strategic leaders think about?” and “What kinds of thoughts do they have about these things?”
Most executives asked on their views of strategic thinking say it involves “vision” and good “long-term planning”. This may well be true – but more than that, it illustrates that strategic thinkers are good at two very different types of thinking. They appreciate that strategic thinking comprises both art and science. It has both a hard side and a soft side. The hard side of strategic thinking involves rigorous analysis of the external environment of markets, competitors, the industry, and governmental and social influences, as well as analysis of the organisation’s own capacity, products and services, market position, customers, systems and processes, leadership and culture. The soft side of strategic thinking is more qualitative. Carly Fiorina (CEO of Hewlett Packard, 2000) said of this balance “At any one moment in time you often can’t see where your path is heading and logic and intellect alone won’t lead you to make the right choices - won’t in fact take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also master listening to your heart and listening to your gut.” This gets to the core of the multifacetedness of strategic thinking. It uses analysis, but also requires synthesis; it is linear and non-linear; it is verbal, but it is also visual; it is implicit as well as explicit; and it engages both head and heart. All of these facets are brought to bear on the core strategic thinking competencies of scanning; visioning; reframing; making common sense; and systems thinking – which we will discuss in our next newsletter.
So, before reading the next article in this series, become aware of your habits in terms of strategic thinking and try to incorporate the opposite as well – if your tendency is to be logical and analytical, tune into your heart and your guts. We can then engage your new awareness next time.
Recommended Read
If you are interested in reading more about strategic leadership I recommend “Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (ISBN 0-7879-6867-6).
Most executives asked on their views of strategic thinking say it involves “vision” and good “long-term planning”. This may well be true – but more than that, it illustrates that strategic thinkers are good at two very different types of thinking. They appreciate that strategic thinking comprises both art and science. It has both a hard side and a soft side. The hard side of strategic thinking involves rigorous analysis of the external environment of markets, competitors, the industry, and governmental and social influences, as well as analysis of the organisation’s own capacity, products and services, market position, customers, systems and processes, leadership and culture. The soft side of strategic thinking is more qualitative. Carly Fiorina (CEO of Hewlett Packard, 2000) said of this balance “At any one moment in time you often can’t see where your path is heading and logic and intellect alone won’t lead you to make the right choices - won’t in fact take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also master listening to your heart and listening to your gut.” This gets to the core of the multifacetedness of strategic thinking. It uses analysis, but also requires synthesis; it is linear and non-linear; it is verbal, but it is also visual; it is implicit as well as explicit; and it engages both head and heart. All of these facets are brought to bear on the core strategic thinking competencies of scanning; visioning; reframing; making common sense; and systems thinking – which we will discuss in our next newsletter.
So, before reading the next article in this series, become aware of your habits in terms of strategic thinking and try to incorporate the opposite as well – if your tendency is to be logical and analytical, tune into your heart and your guts. We can then engage your new awareness next time.
Recommended Read
If you are interested in reading more about strategic leadership I recommend “Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (ISBN 0-7879-6867-6).