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The Steps of Strategic Thinking

I recently taught a course on strategic thinking. While the materials were great, it was also strange that there weren’t any actual steps of stategic thinking.

That is, what exactly do you do to be “strategic”?

I talk a lot on this website about creative thinking, even a few times about the comparisons between creative and strategic thinking.

But a proper list of steps for strategic thinking has evaded me, or at least finding a usuable list has been difficult. It’s rare to find one place that details every step.

So, I created a hybrid list of my own from a variety of sources I trust, namely an old strategic planning workshop by Geoff Nightengale during my time at Burson-Marsteller (now BCW), some research background from the research and consulting firm Gartner, a few articles in the Harvard Business Review and some friends who shared research from strategy courses at Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois, USA.

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I also must give credit to two gentlemen who I think stand tall in the area of strategic leadership:

George Steiner, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, and the author of the excellent 1997 book A Step-By-Step Guide to Strategic Planning and

Roger Martin, the former dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.

Eight Steps of Strategic Thinking

When someone at work tells you to go be strategic, here are eight steps to guide your way.

  1. Articulate your goals, outcomes and measurement *
  2. Assess the current situation, in particular to understand the potential problem(s) *
  3. Talk with stakeholders, both inside and outside your organisation, to understand your competition
  4. Determine your current resources and capacities
  5. Define and prioritise your problems
  6. Write your plan
  7. Get started
  8. Tweak as you go along

Two Notes

  • Sometimes you might reverse the first two steps, by assessing the overall situation (#2) before you determine the most suitable goals (#1).
  • Sometimes it’s helpful to review the organisation’s vision, mission and values first, particularly if you’re using strategic thinking at a macro-level for the organisation.

Here’s each step with a more comments and thoughts.

As a reminder – sometimes as a pre-step – review the organisation’s mission, vision and values.

Strategic thinking (more so if you’re using strategic thinking to do strategic planning) must align with where the organisation is going.

1.  Articulate your goals, outcomes and measurement.

Oftentimes, these are the “non-negotiables” with senior people in your organisation. Or, if you aren’t sure, ask how ‘negotiable’ they are if you have a different opinion or alternative solutions.

What must be accomplished? (See SMART.) And, most of all, by when? (The ‘T’ in SMART.)

How will you measure your success?

Will you need milestones along the way?

2.  Assess the current situation, in particular to understand the potential problem(s).

What’s the current strategy? Does it need to change in or for the future?

What’s happening outside of the business environment?

What’s happening internally within the organisation?

Two excellent tools to consider here:  a SWOT Analysis or a PESTEL diagram.

3.  Talk with key stakeholders to understand both the problems as well as the ‘competition’

Talk to as many people to get balanced perspectives and/or feedback about two things (among others): the problems the organisation is facing inside and outside, and the competition, also inside and outside.

As much as possible, focus on two types of stakeholders above all others:

  • Internal: constructive devil’s advocates, those who can be precise about their concerns and give suggestions on how to fix or improve your thoughts
  • External: your end users or customers

Again, the key is to get constructive and specific feedback so you can adapt and improve your strategic thinking. That said, some people are remarkably negative, so if they only provide destructive comments, ask: “Thank you, can you also tell me what may be good about my (strategic thinking, proposal, idea, recommendation)?” Also, “What could be better, and how would you suggest improving it?” If they can’t give you positive feedback, listen for only what’s helpful and move on.

Secondly, understand the ‘competition.’ Externally, it’s not just the obvious ones. Sometimes your competition is non-traditional competition. I remember working on the AT&T account in the US. They considered Hallmark and its greetings cards as competition because if you might choose to send your mother a birthday card, instead of giving her a phone call.

Finally, know your internal competition as well: such as, someone else at the organisation who wants the money for their project at the expense of yours, or someone with a different process or way to be more efficient. Don’t be blind-sided by something right in front of you.

Again, if you’re working at a macro-level, consider Porter’s Five Forces or a VRIO exercise to help understand the competitive forces  (Porter’s) and whether or not your resources give you competitive advantage (VRIO). 

4.  Look at your internal capacities and resources.

Do you have what’s needed to reach your goal? Remember, resources fall into a number of basic categories:

  • Financial, capital, funding
  • Infrastructure, facilities, equipment, materials
  • People, staffing
  • Information, intellectual property
  • Technology, computers, hardware/software
5.  Define and prioritise the problems.

Once you have a thorough 360 degree perspective, outline and prioritise the problems which need to be solved. Which ones – and in what order – are standing in the way of you achieving your goals?

Never a bad idea to also make sure you’ve define the right problem. (In other words, don’t solve the wrong problem.)

And, if it’s not obvious, don’t try to solve unsolvable problems. At the very least, try to re-position the problem into something you can address or influence.

6.  Write your plan of action.

Depending upon the situation and who’s involved, draft your plan.

Good plans always include a Plan B … if not a Plan C if you’re working in a tough situation or with a tough supervisor. (As Nana Eklund used to say: “Plan for the worst, don’t plan for the best.”)

Review your first draft, ask for feedback from constructive people, adjust to improve your plan, finalise … and …

7.  Get started!

More so, don’t wait for everything to be perfect. Sometimes, it’s more important to get started and …

8.  Tweak as you go along.

There’s an excellent video by Roger Martin on Strategic Planning (yes, not necessarily strategic thinking, but there are many parallels to both). He makes some excellent points of tweaking the plan as you go along at the end of the video..

Any other steps you’d suggest in strategic thinking?  Please add any thoughts or comments below.

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