{"id":2738,"date":"2013-04-01T17:10:36","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T09:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/?page_id=2738"},"modified":"2016-11-15T15:32:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T07:32:55","slug":"thinking-strategically-how-about-just-thinking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/thinking-strategically-how-about-just-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Strategically? How about just THINKING? 01 Apr 2013."},"content":{"rendered":"
Download the pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>In many ways, people seem to think of strategy and execution as two very different things. \u201cStrategy\u201d seems to conjure up an impression of castles in the air, ivory towers and those sorts of things. \u201cExecution\u201d seems to have more sympathy with the majority, who seem to think of themselves as those who \u201cMake Things Happen\u201d, and without whom those giving strategic direction could not possibly function, let alone thrive. Generally, people seem to prefer clear-cut boundaries, \u201cThis or that\u201d, \u201cUs or Them\u201d, \u201cNow or later\u201d sorts of thinking. Dealing with continuums and flexible courses of action based on the Unknown is, surprisingly, quite unthinkable to most. Perhaps that is understandable, for thinking is one of the hardest of tasks, is it not? Think of all the times you have heard someone say things like \u201cI prefer it like this, no need to think\u2026\u201d Perhaps you have that line of thinking yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n Thinking \u201cstrategically\u201d, or perhaps just simply thinking, isn\u2019t the province of the anointed few whose business cards include the words \u201cBoard\u201d or \u201cExecutive\u201d or \u201cChief\u201d. If you serve customers at a McDonald’s restaurant, thinking strategically could go beyond the \u201cHow about some fries to go with your drink?\u201d that you\u2019d been trained to do. It could very well be discerning that a weary mother of three young children would simply like to sit down in a cool place for a while, hopefully with something to keep the kids occupied at the same time. What could you offer her to meet that need? How about if you sell real estate? Thinking strategically in this case could be recommending a wedding planner, interior designer, renovation contractor, geriatric care specialist, doula, or any number of a host of related trades that you don\u2019t need, but which your clients might. Of course, you would want to ensure that the people you recommend who ply those trades be dependable, trustworthy and deliver sterling service. Have you done that before? What if you happen to be a Learning and Development Co-ordinator and your Boss has asked you to put a team-building workshop together? Thinking strategically would cause you to ask for your Boss\u2019 intentions, and, if possible, what the intentions of your Boss\u2019 bosses are. Once you have that direction, quickly put together a few options, all of which will fully support the Boss\u2019 intentions, and put forth your recommendation, with all YOUR reasons why. Needless to say, or perhaps it IS needful, the reasons for your recommendation ought to be in the best interests of your Boss, or the company, whichever is higher up the ladder.<\/span><\/p>\n I would like to share four aspects of being that I think are important in order for anyone to be able to start thinking strategically, or perhaps to start thinking at all! They are:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>The word \u201ccreative\u201d is so much a buzzword these days that people have ascribed it to all manner of folly. So much of what is quirky, what is grotesque, what is downright horrible, has been called \u201ccreative\u201d that most people would probably not recognize creativity if it came up to them and barked in their face! Creativity is a much-needed quality if one is to think in a strategic manner. However, unlike the Creator, we humans do not possess the ability the create something out of nothing. We can, however, construct new things by combining the same parts in different ways, using different parts, working from another perspective or viewing point, folding things over each other, and in a myriad different ways. Here, I do not speak only of physical, tangible things but include thought patterns as well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n All of us have a storehouse of knowledge and experience that is being continually added to and built upon, or it ought to be. In the process, we continuously throw out \u201cold\u201d stuff or we renew it. One of the greatest fallacies of this age is the thinking that just because something is old, it is no longer \u201cvalid\u201d or applicable. Be careful. In the future, if someone happens to invent an antigrav vehicle, it does not mean that gravity is no longer valid. A parallel fallacy is that if two documents which talk about the same thing are discovered, the older document is more \u201cvalid\u201d because it is older. Beware of such thinking. Examine each piece of evidence and come to your own conclusions, not what the popular media wants you to believe.<\/span><\/p>\n If you are already in the top echelons of leadership in any particular organization, growing your storehouse of knowledge and experience is actually even more crucial. Many in your position have \u201cno time\u201d to sharpen the saw because they are too busy putting out fires and dealing with minor crises which ought to be the bailiwick of subordinate leaders. You need to make time to grow your storehouse, and it has to be scheduled or you won\u2019t get around to it! Growing your storehouse doesn\u2019t mean that you need to know intimately everything that happens in your organization, because there are simply too many details for one person to master in one lifetime. Having said that, you MUST be acquainted well enough to have a working understanding of how things work in various Divisions or Departments. You don\u2019t need to know everything, but you need to know when and how to look for information you might need.<\/span><\/p>\n One way of ensuring that your storehouse of knowledge and experience doesn\u2019t get old and stale is to subject your assumptions, beliefs, paradigms, etc, to rigorous debate. By that, I do not mean choosing as your debate partner someone who is like you or likes you, or simply likes to be agreeable and nice. No, you choose a good antagonist, someone who will do his level best to tear down the strongholds of your thinking, and in doing so strengthen you even more. Whatever the case, none of us has any excuse for not building upon this storehouse. It is entirely up to us, not our teachers, trainers, managers, consultants or gurus.<\/span><\/p>\n Another way of fostering strategic thinking is to develop the ability to think in terms of analogies, in terms of parallels. I am constantly astonished by how much this is lacking. So often, I hear of clients asking that the workshop or other intervention be \u201ccontextualized\u201d to the \u201cneeds\u201d of those who are to participate. Also, I have often been asked to \u201ctailor the presentation down to their level\u201d. I simply do not agree that we ought to dumb down our audience! We ought to be levelling-up, encouraging and inspiring strategic thinking! Just to illustrate, which is something you ought to be doing on a regular basis, by the way, scientists tell us that the workings of a single cell of our body would be so mind-boggling as to rival the workings of the entire universe. Do you think this would be impossible to visualize? Yet there are many videos and animations showing us how the insides of a cell actually work! I find that <\/a>even a child can understand those animations, so why shouldn\u2019t an adult? Yet, so often we limit our thinking by asking that \u201ccorporate\u201d examples be used when we are delivering a presentation to a \u201ccorporate\u201d audience, ad nauseum<\/i>. What is wrong with using the illustration of a spider in a large web when describing Operations Hubs? Are you able to see similarities, or do you have difficulty connecting the two?<\/span><\/p>\n We need to break out of how schooling has taught us not to think. Start using analogies. Start using parallels and start using illustrations when presenting your ideas next time.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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Storehouse of Knowledge and Experience.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
Thinking in Analogies and Parallels. Using Illustrations.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
Intimate Understanding of Operating Principles for Effective Application.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n