I've talked with 2 CEO's in the last 24 hours and in both conversations there was a theme.
That theme was the idea of 'connecting the dots'. It's another of those ill-defined terms that gets thrown around, and that people understand, kind of, but not very precisely. It's also another of the skills that people want to be able to do, or want others to be able to do, but that is very hard to actually describe how to do.
So what does connecting the dots actually mean? Let's clear this up…
One CEO was talking about how he loves to be chatting to a wide range of people and that he's always listening and looking for what might be interesting or relevant in what they're saying. He described seeing patterns and trends emerge - like hearing that stakeholders have been chatting about a certain thing, then a few months later seeing a change in their decision-making that reflects this. There are certainly some dots being connected in this example - between data points. But that's not what connecting the dots needs to mean for it to be an effective strategic thinking skill.
The real gold is in connecting data points, and then connecting those data points to the decisions you are making, or might need to make, in your own organisation. In other words, it is more about the inferences you make about the connected data points. That CEO was describing how he's learnt to look for weak signals that might become strong signals when connected together. He was looking for not just connections between data points, but connections that might be meaningful and therefore have implications for his own decision-making.
Of course, we can't draw a tidy three-way diagram of this. Data point to data point to implication. Some data points might seem irrelevant at the time. The CEO I was talking to described listening purely out of curiosity. That means a lot of the data he's gathering is just stored away. The dots might get connected weeks, months or years down the track. He was building a picture of his context, and constantly evolving it. He was also always looking for connections and implications as they emerged.
This is a great example of how fluid and flexible strategic thinking needs to be. A lot of people come to me mainly wanting the nice tidy framework that I offer. They want a concrete answer to their question about what they're supposed to be doing when they're thinking strategically. I can give them that, but it's not the full story. There's an art to applying it in the real world that has to be taught as well, and this is one great example of that.
What about that second CEO I mentioned? He was an experienced CEO, yet he said to me, "Even after all these years of being a CEO even I still wonder sometimes, how do all the parts of strategy fit together??" This was such an interesting conversation! It reflects the thoughts of a lot of others I've spoken with as well.
Most people learn to create strategy on the job, often without a teacher, just by osmosis. When it is taught deliberately, whether in a classroom on a course, or on the job though, the way it is typically taught is in parts. You're taught to do things like a SWOT analysis, a strategic environment scan, create a mission and vision, come up with strategic goals. Some use strategic themes or pillars. Looking back at my first introduction to creating strategy, I didn't realise it at the time, but the reason it felt hard to get my head around, and hard to feel confident with, was that no one was showing me how the parts were supposed to fit together. Or telling me that I was supposed to work that out if I wanted a coherent, impactful, inspiring strategy that I could be confident about and that others could get behind.
Seeing how the parts of strategy fit together is another way of describing the term 'connecting the dots'. It's about connecting your thinking in to useful unified whole, drawing logical inferences, articulating the why behind your strategies.
My very simple, fundamental definition of strategic thinking is this:
This definition shows that, in strategy, the ultimate dots to be connected are between actions and goals.
When we know what the connection is between what we choose to do, and where it is going to take us, we have a strategy. There are many more connections to be made in between and around this though, and connecting context to strategy as described by our first CEO is just one of them.
These two conversations reminded me about why I do what I do. Once I realised that strategic thinking is not a mechanical, fill-in-the-box exercise, it is a nuanced, fluid and flexible, and very human thinking skill, I knew I needed to share this with others. Once you understand what strategic thinking really is, and what your role is as a strategic thinker, strategy makes so much more sense! 👏🚀
If you liked this, sign up for my articles straight to your inbox, check out my website, follow me on LinkedIn, or contact me on nina@ninafield.co.nz to discuss how I can help you with strategic thinking and strategic leadership development.
留言