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The big question - can strategic thinking be taught?

Updated: Jun 22, 2022

One of the most common questions I get asked after introducing the CPP is – can it change? In other words, can you teach someone to improve their strategic thinking skills? In a nutshell, here's how I answer... Can I take someone with a low level of cognitive horsepower who is quite comfortable ticking off assigned tasks rather than thinking about complex problems – and turn them into a strategic thinker? Probably not. Sorry. (Although I’m sure that bursts no-one’s bubble). Can I take someone with a proven level of cognitive horsepower who has always worked in operational, reactive roles with limited scope, or has some thinking or working habits that keep them in the weeds – and turn them into a strategic thinker? YES! Absolutely, and it’s such an exciting process to see people going through.

Here's the slightly longer version... The reason I get the question about whether strategic thinking can change is that most cognitive assessments out there are assessments of cognitive ability, and not only does cognitive ability decline with age, improving it is complex. Cognitive ability is an umbrella term for a whole bunch of specific and general abilities that include different types of reasoning (numerical, verbal, abstract, spatial), problem-solving, planning, and complex comprehension. In general, cognitive ability is not something we expect to change a lot, especially in the short term, hence why when I introduce a cognitive assessment of strategic thinking, I get asked - can it change? The important thing to know is, when it comes to strategic thinking, cognitive ability is only part of the puzzle, which is why the CPP measures more than pure cognitive ability (we know this from validity studies). As well as raw ability, our thinking is also characterised by our cognitive styles, which are our thinking processes and habits - how we go about getting to the answer, rather than what answer we get to, and this is what the CPP digs into. Also, a certain aspect of strategic thinking is pure learnable knowledge and skill, as in, "what am I actually meant to do when I think strategically?" Many people progress through their career without any formal training in this area, and they are just expected to pick it up. Even if they do, they often can't describe what it is they are doing - which makes it hard to teach to others below them. The way I explain it to people is it’s a bit like a personality profile - a profile is not a sentence. If a leader’s profile tells them they are an introvert, they will probably will always be an introvert. However, with the benefit of insight, they can learn to recognise the pros and cons of introverted behaviour at work, and to a large extent, choose and modify their behaviour in order to be a better leader. In the same way, the cognitive profile of a strategic thinker is certainly an indicator, but it is not a sentence. Cognitive ability is difficult to change, yes, but cognitive style is to strategic thinking what personality is to behaviour. Once we have a better awareness of our cognitive styles and our thinking habits, we can get to work on modifying them to suit our work better. Combine this with some practical skills, and you can really shift the needle in terms of helping people to shift their thinking in ways that make their perspective more strategic. Very few people have ever been taught to be aware of their thinking. Yet it’s an incredibly important skill because it has a direct impact on our work – the way we think flows on to the way we solve problems and make decisions, which is, after all, what most of us are paid to do.

 

Opportunities to learn strategic thinking

Meta-cognition, or thinking about our thinking, is foundational to the learning that happens on all of my programmes, but none to the same extent as my Strategic Thinker Development Programme. We use the CPP to get an insight into each participants' individual thinking patterns, and practice on a business problem as we learn the learnable stuff – the mechanics of strategic thinking. It doesn’t get much more applied, personalised, and practical than this programme!


 

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