How to Think Strategically. Greg Githens
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fast-growing entrepreneurial companies, family businesses, large businesses, government agencies, military, universities, and nonprofit community and professional organizations. I’ve worked with those at the top of the organization and those on the front line.
The role of an explainer and a coach has been my most-rewarding professional activity. Like other teachers, I gain great satisfaction when the student applies her learning to make a positive impact on the world.
One of the more interesting influences on my strategic thinking is my regular participation in financial markets as a trader of options (more specifically buying and selling puts and calls). Most of those
trades have been profitable, but some have not. My most important lesson has been in managing my own habits of mind.
It’s also customary, with book bios, to list the author’s previous publications. It’s a fact that I have been published before. The most important learning to offer is that good, insightful writing reflects good, insightful thinking. If you want to improve your strategic thinking, share your ideas: write more, speak in public more, and use social media.
Greg Githens
Lakewood Ranch, Florida, USA
email: [email protected]
Follow: Twitter: @GregGithens
Follow: LinkedIn.com/in/greggithens/
* I will use the pronoun she throughout the book as a convention when referring to the individual. Although there are mostly males in my examples, I sincerely believe that women are fully capable of achieving excellence in strategic thinking.
PART I
The Nature, Purpose, and Scope of Strategic Thinking
PART I DESCRIBES the nature, purpose, and scope of strategic thinking. You will learn that strategic thinking is not a system of subsystems but rather a loosely integrated cluster of concepts. I suggest reading the nine chapters in order, since early chapters establish principles and examples that are further developed in subsequent chapters.
Chapter 1 (Are You Strategic?) introduces ambiguity as a fundamental challenge that is usually neglected in the work to craft strategy. I introduce the strategic-thinking narrative technique and apply it to Billy Beane and the Moneyball strategy. The narrative reveals the importance of confronting the reality of a dire situation, of being curious in seeking new strategic logics, and of coordinating the organization during implementation. The chapter concludes by encouraging readers to adopt the beginner’s mind.
Chapter 2 (Cleverness) shows that using adjectives like good or clever allow you to better characterize the quality of a strategy. I return to the Billy Beane Moneyball story to show that it was clever because a relatively weak organization was able to accomplish brilliant results. I introduce one of the most popular and effective tools in the book, the five-part template for writing strategy.
Chapter 3 (Big Ideas) uses the Christopher Columbus strategic-thinking narrative to reveal essential principles of competent strategic thinking. This includes a four-pillar definition of strategic thinking, the four X-factors, and six important lessons for Columbus’s success with his big idea.
Chapter 4 (Twelve Microskills of Strategic Thinking) introduces a set of specific conceptual skills. As you make the microskills of strategic thinking a habit of mind, you will improve your capacity for thinking strategically. If you adopt only one thing from this book, I recommend practicing the Ben Franklin technique to highlight and practice one microskill each week.
Chapter 5 (Why Strategic Thinking is Rare) explains that strategic thinking is rare because individuals tend to pay attention to the map of operational thinking. The prevailing culture enhances that attention. The consequence is that operational thinking tends to crowd aside strategic thinking. The path to better strategic thinking is to orient yourself toward the navigational beacons of the core challenge, the future, and insights. This chapter introduces the microskills of devalorization and contrarianism to help you distance yourself from the map of operational thinking.
Chapter 6 (The Fuzzy Front End of Strategy) introduces the strategy funnel, which is a three-phase framework. The first of the three phases is the fuzzy front end of strategy. It involves sensing and interpreting weak signals. The strategist then practices sensemaking and synthesis, resulting in a set of beliefs about the situation. The second phase is the structured back end. It’s here that the strategist identifies a core challenge, the dominating ideas of strategy, and makes strategic decisions. The third phase involves programming. It is the application of resources and methods to address that core challenge. This chapter introduces the microskills of high-quality questions and abductive reasoning.
Chapter 7 (Pockets of the Future) introduces the idea that you can find weak signals in the present that have significant implications for the future. Things that we presently consider curiosities can become dominant in future systems. You will find useful the three horizons framework for describing the dynamics of qualitative change in future systems. This chapter introduces the microskill of anticipation. Strategic thinkers must be oriented toward the future and consider their anticipatory assumptions.
Both Chapter 8 (Strategic Decisions) and Chapter 9 (The Spark of Insight) feature the strategic-thinking narrative of Lou Gerstner and his time as CEO of IBM, when he led the company’s turnaround and transformation. Chapter 8 explains the criteria for strategic decisions and tactical decisions, using Gerstner’s decision to keep IBM together as an example of a strategic decision. The chapter also provides another example of written strategy using the five-part model similar to that provided in Chapter 2. Insights are the secret sauce of strategy, and Chapter 9 unpacks its mechanisms. The chapter introduces the microskill of reframing and suggests techniques for increasing the quantity and quality of insights.
CHAPTER 1
Are You Strategic?
An Introduction to the Nature, Purpose, and Scope of Strategic Thinking
The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing.
— Shunryu Suzuki
Q: What is one characteristic of strategy that is essential to understand, yet is mostly overlooked, even by expert strategists?
A: Ambiguity
THE LATIN ROOTS of the word ambiguity suggest wandering, uncertainty, and multiple meanings. An example of ambiguity is found in Figure 1-1, a graphic that many know as “the young lady and the old lady.” It is one of many examples of a quaint form of graphic design known as pictorial ambiguity. Some people can only see the old lady, and some can only see the young lady. (Hints: The young lady is looking away from you, and the old lady is looking downward. The young lady’s chin is the tip of the old lady’s nose.) It takes an effort to resolve ambiguity.
Another example of ambiguity is multiple definitions