Strategic Thinking

Let’s confirm terms.

tactic: A specific prescription of how something will be done.
strategy: A philosophy of what is valued and consists of guidelines or boundaries that shape what actions to take.

Strategic thinking is an imperative for senior leaders to shape the future business environment and to steward their resources.^[1] Strategic thinking is valuable in all levels of leadership.^[1] It is important to take time to think of the overall view and to make decisions that set the stage for plans lasting years.^[1] Strategic thinking generates a cohesive understanding of situational dynamics presenting options of advantage and long-term organizational success.^[1] Thinking skills and activities directed at outcomes that produce an overarching approach or plan to achieve a particular aim characterize strategic thinking.^[1] In this case strategic describes the type of thinking rather than organizational strategy. In contrast to thinking following traditional problem-solving steps, strategic thinking is not looking to solve a bounded problem but is creating a set or pattern of decisions to achieve future success.^[1]

Clearly, strategic thinking is an important skill for senior leaders who must establish high-level goals and broadly scoped policies.^[1] However, strategic thinking is also important for lower level leaders when they address recurring problems and consider enduring, robust solutions.^[1] The earlier leaders are exposed to strategic thinking, the more likely they will try it, apply it, and, over time, get better at it.^[1]

Strategic thinking can be broken down into several activities:

Situational understanding.
- Understanding is enabled by scanning the environment for recurring, novel, and key cues that are integrated and used in sense-making, predicting, and testing what exists.^[1]
- Visualization is a related activity used to fill in gaps of knowledge about what exists or used to consider what will exist in the future.^[1]
- Sub-skills include discriminating among relevant cues, integrating diverse information, applying mental war-gaming, and modeling.^[1]
Questioning.
- Asking questions demonstrates an openness to different perspectives and a desire to consider alternate or unconventional assessments.^[1]
- Questioning is also a key component of thinking critically by improving the thoroughness of judgment.^[1]
- Consistently demonstrating a willingness to shift perspective, to look for alternate explanations, and avoid mindsets and fixations characterize cognitive flexibility.^[1]
Systems thinking.
- Systems thinking involves considering the factors of a situation or a solution as a system of interrelated parts with inputs, processes, outputs and feedback.^[1]
- A systems orientation operates from a view that an understanding or model can be created or used to explain—or improve upon what occurs (as applies to situational understanding) or what could occur (as applies to problem solving).^[1]
Analogical reasoning.
- Thinking that deals with complex problems with unfamiliar or unknown conditions and outcomes occurs by drawing on current knowledge.^[1]
- Analogical reasoning is a specific approach where known or similar concepts and relationships map to what is yet not understood.^[1]
- Historical comparisons are useful in strategic thinking to consider what has occurred under one known set of conditions.^[1]
Self-awareness.
- Since strategic thinking involves unknowns, multiple paths, trials of what might exist in a situation, and possible results of a solution, an ability to manage personal thought processes is important.^[1]
- Metacognition is being aware of what oneself is thinking, what one knows, progress toward a conclusion, and in testing strategic approaches and conclusions about them.

The development of strategic thinking occurs largely by addressing complex, dynamic challenges and practicing critical and creative thinking.^[1] One learns strategic thought by working in context and becoming skilled at basic aspects of situational understanding and visualization.^[1] Leaders can accelerate the development of junior leaders’ thinking by assigning projects or duties with opportunities for strategic thinking.^[1]

1. U.S. Army Leadership Development Manual, FM 6-22

Updated on 07 Oct 2019