The Value of Strategic Thinking

5 Steps to Help Your Company Start Thinking More Strategically to Be Ready for Challenges and Opportunities

The value of strategic thinking in today’s corporate environment is of critical importance. In order to stay in the game, companies and employees must constantly be thinking ahead by identifying trends and questioning assumptions of the status quo. Yet, too many managers and employees viewstrategic thinking as more of a foreign concept.

In fact, without a corporate culture that highly encourages thinking about the “what” of a situation before the “how”, companies will be constantly fighting an uphill battle. Instead, companies must shift to a strategic thinking model allowing them to be ready for the unexpected and adapt more easily when difficult circumstances arise. When it comes to strategic thinking, you either use it or you lose it!

There are 5 ways to help you start thinking more strategically today…
1) Before you start trying to figure out how to accomplish your goal, decide what first needs to be done to meet your objective. When people try to think of the “how” first, often times they get pulled into a discussion of the past or current and future obstacles.

2) Always keep track of the overall picture. This will enable strategic thinking to become more automatic.

3) Stay up-to-date on current trends in your industry. Knowing what best practices are outside of your company will help you better handle internal issues.

4) Maintain a focus on the future. Think about future challenges and opportunities so you are well prepared.

5) When in a group environment, ask leading questions that will help to test conventional thinking. This will help enhance your decision making quality.

The more people are around strategic thinking the more natural the skill will become. Once strategic thinking takes root in your corporate culture, your company will be better able and more prepared to successfully handle challenges and opportunities. For more information, contact Todd Weyandt at todd@laihr.com or 770.248.0401 ext. 20.