[T]he greater the sum total of strategic thinking and thinkers in the organisation the more readily and effectively it can respond to and take advantage of the vast array of changes occurring in today’s … environment.
—Iraj Tavakoli and Judith Lawton1
How can this strategic thinker use everyone's input? Photo: iStockphoto
Can an organization’s entire staff and its stakeholders think strategically even when individuals don’t have the necessary competencies? Yes. Leaders can aid their own strategic thinking and foster it in others by compensating for individual deficiencies. They can use small pictures, free people from distractions, and keep data in the room.
Why involve people outside the leadership circle at all? Why consult your staff and your stakeholders? Darden Graduate School of Business Professor Jeanne Liedtka writes, “[F]ar-sighted leaders are finding ways to make planning processes more open, creative, and inclusive and, in the process, are linking strategic thinking and strategic planning more powerfully.”2 Strategy writers long have urged organizations to seek input from staff closest to the stakeholders, but why bother with that extra layer when you can reach stakeholders directly with a One-Day Consensus Conference?
The strategic thinking leader draws as many people into her or his organization’s strategic thinking as possible. But strategic thinkers have competencies not everyone in the organization possesses. The strategic thinker must see the forest and the trees, focus intently on goals, and think experimentally. We can look at each of the competencies to see how we can involve people who don’t have them—and discover that in doing so, we make the strategic thinking leader’s job easier. The strategic thinker’s competencies are:3 Continue Reading…
