I know how you feel. I was in your shoes once. I was starting with the question “What even is strategy??” I read books, and I looked around for people to help and was fortunate to find many very experienced people who were generous with their time and willing to help me. It took some time, but I pieced together all the advice and came up with something that was good. Then I got curious about the psychology behind the process I’d just been through. What made it hard? What made it happen? My conclusion was that you need a process, but not only a process, and that the process is not the hero of the story.
A strategic thinking process gives you some steps to follow that will guide your thinking. Something to actually do when you sit down to think, and something to structure what you end up writing on the page. Strategic thinking processes are a dime a dozen, and some people just use their own naturally, but a good one is worth its weight in gold. A good strategic thinking process will help you develop a meaningful, insightful strategy and articulate why it is your chosen approach.
There are two other things that you need. The first is a clear definition of your pursuit. What are you trying to produce? What could you produce that would actually help your organisation? What does your strategy need to achieve? Why do you need a strategy at all? What is strategy in the context of your role and your level in the organisation? Being clear on these fundamental questions will guide what you need to think about and what your output needs to look like. If you’re feeling lost at this point, it may help to seek advice to answer these questions before you go any further.
The final thing you need is the make or break factor – it is the human element. This is about the person (that’s you) and the people. The human element of strategy is about working out how to be a strategic thinker, and depending on your role and what you need to produce, how to take others on your journey so you can leverage their insights, their perspective and their energy. If you are responsible for developing a strategy, it is in fact you that is the hero of the story.
When learning to think strategically, each of us starts at a different point and we all have our individual traits that can enhance or hinder our ability to think strategically. Self-insight can help all of us to better understand our thinking processes, styles, tendencies, strengths and challenges. Simply asking for feedback or reflecting on your own ways of thinking is one way to gain self-insight, or you can take a more scientific approach and do an assessment.
Understanding a few cognitive psychology fun facts about how we make decisions and process information doesn’t go astray either. Having the time and head space in our lives so that we can think, free of both internal and external distractions, is essential, but often the hardest to achieve.
All of these things are about the ‘thinker’ and are just as important, if not more so, than the ‘thinking’ that needs to be done to produce a good strategy. But the real magic happens when you introduce a hero to the story and weave together the human element with a thinking process designed to leverage your strengths and overcome your personal hurdles. Then you are both doing strategic thinking, and becoming a strategic thinker.
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