I recently had the privilege of writing a guest post over at Michael Carty’s XpertHR blog. He’s doing a series called “If I Could Change One Thing about HR…” One thing that occurred to me while writing my piece is, there’s a difference between creating a strategy and being strategic. Just because someone can create a strategy doesn’t mean they can think strategically.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, a strategy is a detailed plan for achieving results. There are many different kinds of strategies – marketing strategies, compensation strategies, recruitment strategies, social media strategies, even strategic plans. You get the point.
Thinking strategically means a person is capable of a thought process that allows them to facilitate a dialogue of critical thinking and innovation. There’s a terrific comparison chart on Wikipedia showing the differences between strategic planning and strategic thinking.
This isn’t to say that the two aren’t interrelated. Creating strategy is important for business. But strategic thinking is a competency that needs to be developed. Jeanne Liedtka penned a fascinating article on the five elements of strategic thinking that really deserves a read. As business professionals, I wonder how much time and emphasis are we placing on these elements:
- Systems perspective (i.e. having the ability to see the entire picture).
- Intent-focused, which is being able to create a focus for employees to concentrate on the goal.
- Intelligent opportunism reminds me of the conversations happening about the opportunity economy and being open to new ideas that are good for business.
- Thinking in time refers to the view of referencing the past to create the future. And using the proper analogies to create linkages and anticipate trends.
- Lastly, being hypothesis-driven. Yep, the old scientific theory rears its head. Being able to reason and test a hypothesis is key to strategic thinking.
For business pros, this means relying less on gut instinct and more on analytics. What a concept! We need to shift our focus from a “been there, done that, so I know the answer” to a “been there, know what happened, now apply the learnings to our current situation”.
I can easily see the value in strategic thinking. Being able to effectively apply our theoretical knowledge and in-the-trenches experience will serve us well. The question becomes where and how to educate our future workforce on these competencies.
Image courtesy of pshutterbug
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Benjamin McCall says
Agree a lot. Thinking and acting strategically is an intuition that needs to be practiced more!
Anne Perschel says
Great list to be referenced as needed. I’d add one more. Strategic thinking involves seeing the pattern of an emerging future through the fog. For how to do this -http://germaneconsulting.com/good-leaders-see-into-the-future/
Sharlyn Lauby says
@Benjamin – Thanks for the comment!
@Anne – Nice addition to the list. Thanks for sharing!
Cathy Missildine-Martin says
Sharlyn:
This post is so spot on! it is one of my favorite posts! My favorite is:
For business pros, this means relying less on gut instinct and more on analytics. What a concept! We need to shift our focus from a “been there, done that, so I know the answer” to a “been there, know what happened, now apply the learnings to our current situation”.
I think that is the crux of why we have struggled with both strategic planning and strategic thinking in HR. I agree how are not just HR but all professionals going to get this skill set? I teach at 3 major universities and I don’t see that on the curriculum in a way that transfers to the business world.
Cathy
Ginger says
Very good points! That’s also a great comparison chart on Wikipedia.
“Been there, done that, so I know the answer” would probably never actually lead to further progress – it would simply “guarantee” a continued satisfactory result. Applying your knowledge to a current and unique situation would lead to increased success (and perhaps some stumbles along the way, but you would learn from those as well, and then apply that knowledge the next time!).
Michael Haberman SPHR says
Sharlyn:
A superb post. I like intelligent opportunism. Much like Senaca’s quote: Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
I think one way to train people on strategic thinking is a lot of scenario training. Once a month managerial training session where someone presents the managers/supervisors with a scenario about what may happen with their business and have them work through the issue.
Sharlyn Lauby says
@Cathy – So true. All business pros need to develop this skill set. I teach as well and it’s not getting enough emphasis within the curriculum.
@Ginger – Thanks for the comment. I like your point about increased success versus just a satisfactory result.
@Michael – Thanks for sharing the quote and the case study idea. Great way to learn using real situations.
Breanne says
Love this post! Also, great link to the Wikipedia chart for the comparison between thinking strategically and creating a strategy. I hadn’t seen that before. The key to training strategic or critical thinking is consistent coaching and lots of practice. When given the right tools, and time to learn how to use those tools, people can absolutely improve their thinking ability.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the comment and the suggestion about coaching. I can see how coaching conversations could be very valuable toward developing strategic thinking in a safe environment.
Anne Murguia says
Thank you for this post! Your point is something people throughout an organization need to understand: “there’s a difference between creating a strategy and being strategic.”…and then we all need to know how to be strategic in what we do every day. Too often, there’s a crevasse between strategy and execution. It’s a given that the world will continue to change after a brilliant strategy is conceived; but if the organization has many people who are strategic thinkers, the strategy can be adapted to be meaningful (and effective) where the rubber meets the road.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the comment Anne. You are so right about the importance of execution. Innovation and ideas are important…but, they have to be implemented.
Joshua Bryan says
I love this web sight. I’ll certainly be reading up regularly. I just got a bartender job at a country club and I’ve bartender a little before. But I’ve been a waiter for 10 years now. Some of the waitresses have been their for 2 years and they don’t even know how to carry treys. The problem lies, for me in the Intent focus part. I need others to share the strategy in order to keep from becoming like the last bartender.Jobless. They wont take on the a wait station and write out a ticket for the drinks. Instead they just throw a napkin on the main part of the bar and walk away if they’re not too buissy screaming in front of customers. for me to hurry and serve them out of turn. they don’t even care about order. It’s been my second day there and the manager is home sick. I’m the only one who can mix drinks. and the manager is just as clueless as to how these things work. I think I’m just going to have to be an ass hole and stop making drinks for anyone who hasn’t wrote their order down on a ticket and left it in order at the wait station of the bar. which really is just the edge of the bar. But I’ve got to get them out of my face and their butts out of the customers faces, who sit right there. What if they cut cheese wile their flippin’ out. I hate it but I’ma start being an asshole. Do I have any support or advice out there.