Strategic thinking exercise creating the picture in a small group of 34, select one person to be the client one person is the facilitator one person is the clients recorder the facilitator guides the client through the questions in the strategic thinking model. They refer to strategic thinking as crafting strategic architecture but. What the majority of organisations and management forget, is that strategic thinking to a great. Strategic thinking can be more implementation friendly when you use words that you understand. Great brainstorming and strategic planning questions encourage and allow people to talk about what they know including factual information, personal perspectives, and their views of the future. Strategic thinking can force you to face uncomfortable realities. Strategic thinking basically means an organization is thinking how to better position itself among its competition for future success 2. Strategic thinking is a powerful and invaluable skill, one that leads to greater chances of success in whatever professional and personal projects youre involved in.
Strategic thinking exercises more than 200 strategic planning. Your organization is using strategic thinking if it can look at the past and present, take the best from both, and decide what course to take for the future 3. In conjunction with updating our creating a strategic perspective workshop, were sharing both the structure and links to a subset of the relevant brainzooming content underpinning our strategic thinking workshops. A strategic thinker has a mental model of the complete endtoend system of value creation, and understands the interdependencies within it. Through case studies and practical thinking exercises, youll stimulate your strategic thinking, learn to recognize patterns that impact strategy and enhance your abilities to generate new insights and ideas. Pdf strategic thinking skills course guidebook researchgate. Managers like yourself can trigger strategic thinking among their employees by creating certain exercises that stimulate new ideas and innovative plans.
By pryor learning solutions august 24, 2015 categories. This training course is designed to help managers develop efficient ways to achieve strategic thinking for their organisations. Strategic thinking, planning, and plan execution are key to maximum mission impact and sustainable growth. Creativity, innovation and critical thinking in strategic management. Strategic thinking training icebreakers, energisers and. Strategic thinking and strategic planning are concepts that are not clearly defined both in the literature and in the practice of business organizations and sometimes they are used interchangeably. Strategy is also a bridge between the present current situation and future ideal situation. Therefore all that has been said earlier about the principles behind scenario thinking is applicable also to strategic thinking. If you believe that strategic thinking is only for senior executives, think again. I tell people who ask about how we developed the brainzooming group methodology that a big. Strategic thinking exercises more than 200 strategic. In the same way, practicing skills such as reflecting, questioning, systems thinking, and thinking into the future and doing so repeatedly is essential to becoming a skilled strategic thinker. Reproduced from 50 activities for developing critical thinking. In strategic thinking, the future should be created based.
Once there is a consistent definition of strategy enterprisewide, organizations should include strategy skills into their leadership development programs. Strategic management is a point of view and set of actions. Components of strategic thought and action in simple terms, strategic thinking andor planning consists of three phases that. The comprehensive course manual has been designed to be practical, and easy to use. While strategic thinking is a valuable skill for everyone in an. Make it a routine exercise to explore and synthesize the internal trends in your dayto day work. Observe children as they work in order monitor their problemsolving skills. What will your company look like and how will it compete in the year 2030 or 2035. Encourage strategic thinking with these exercises skillpath. Our strategic thinking training course modules, games and activities gives you the tools you need to train your staff. Strategic thinking training materials, activities, course. The coming competencies ann herrmannnehdi ceo herrmann international 794 buffalo creek road lake lure, nc 28746 summary creativity and strategy are no longer optional in todays rapidly changing business environment. In relation to those questions, ask your team to come up with a list of ideas, statements, or activities. As a cognitive activity, it produces thought when applied in an organizational strategic management process, strategic thinking involves the generation and application of unique business insights and opportunities intended to.
Work on some skills using metaphor and choosing words carefully with this fun, challenging exercise. We all know that developing strategic thinking skills is important, but many dont realize how critical it is to your career advancement to show these skills to your boss and other senior. All leaders of the organization must be adept at strategic thinking. It can, and must, happen at every level of the organization.
Strategic analysis of your industry and environment. Execution planning in reality, eff ective strategic planning requires two very diff erent ongoing processes and teams if youre going to generate the kinds of results worthy of the eff ort that goes into a serious planning process. You may cnd some of the ac vi es in this months issue to be dilcult for you, especially seng aside me for strategic thinking, which you may consider to. We initiate and accelerate learning journeys through interactive assignments, presentations, group exercises, buddy coaching, discussions, personal case studies and action planning.
Our objective is to understand the modes of thinking these youth developed and the role of this informal learning context in facilitating their development. On a business level, strategy thinking means that you are able to come up with effective plans to resolve a situation or to achieve a companys goal. The strategic thinking manifesto strategic thinking institute. Strategic thinking training icebreakers, energisers and short exercises that provide ideal openers and warmup sessions, team building and training games for training courses and workshops. For porter, strategy means choosing a different set of activities to. But strategic thinking in not only a leadership quality, it is an important. The strategic thinking mindset test stmt was designed to use reallife scenarios as a base for assessing an army. Yet many managers are unclear on exactly what is and isnt strategy, and how to explain it to others or know how to apply it to their daily activities. In his thank you note to our audience, alex mentioned sitting alongside other influential strategic thinkers like rita mcgrath, steve blank, and eric ries. The strategic thinking framework is a good place to start when deciding on a common approach to strategy.
Enhancing strategic thinking skill building exercises. Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal or set of goals in a game or other endeavor. Simon sinek on how to improve strategic thinking youtube. Or, maybe youve heard that strategic thinking will help your career. Finally, the team executes through disciplined action. Abstract this paper will explore strategic thinking as a threshold concept and. Strategic thinking course outline postclass assignments day 2 day 1 prework homework all our courses are based on learning by doing. Together, this group represents a new wave of dynamic strategic thinking that will encourage organizations to. Exercises and strategic thinking business innovation brief. Now considered essential to maintaining a competitive edge, many organizations are seeking. Each strategic thinking exercise poster had four or five brand dimensions on the yaxis.
The art of war by sun tzu, good strategy bad strategy. Participants will assess their current strategic thinking skills and develop a personal action plan to better incorporate strategic thinking into their daily. The theme of this post is critical thinkingand the kinds of puzzles that can be constructed around it. Strategic thinking is a thinking in the organization that links the past, present and future to each other. Strategic thinking exercisecreating the picture in a small group of 34, select one person to be the client one person is the facilitator one person is the clients recorder the facilitator guides the client through the questions in the strategic thinking model. But moving from scenarios that is, pictures of the business context. Strategic teaching of strategic thinking horizon research. Become a strategic thinker with creative thinking games. What trends do you need to consider in your planning. Think big picture, no matter where you sit on the org chart.
Strategic thinking quiz continued answer key if your answers were primarily as, your tendency is to wear the technician hat. Users guide for the strategic thinking mindset test stmt. Survey respondents strategic thinking institute new york times and thinking. These sentiments are echoed by two other leading theorists in the field, prahalad and hamel 1989, who describe traditional approaches to planning as form filling. Imagine you live in a world where there are only 10 words. Strategic thinking is a foundational skill and the same principles can be equally applied to peoples personal lives and their work responsibilities. Creative, games, leadership, management, strategic thinking become a strategic thinker with creative thinking games. Its amazing to me how often we read strategies that. Welcome different strategies for solving the problem. Make it a routine exercise to explore and synthesize the internal trends in your daytoday work. Groupthink occurs when there is a homogenous group of people with little influence from outside sources and a high level of pressure to conformity.
Luckily, asking the right questions, having new experiences and listening to other perspectives ignites strategic thinking. Learn how to strengthen your strategic thinking skills and encourage it in others. Its time to apply strategic thinking to your business. Inspired by his observations, here are four strategic thinking exercises to better envision future strategy for your organization when success depends on breaking as best possible from a historical perspective. Given all that strategic thinking content, its a good time to update our framework. Productive strategic thinking exercises are at the heart of the brainzooming group methodology.
Scenario thinking is by nature strategic, in the sense that it deals with the big picture. This term is used frequently in psychology and education. The same thinking approach is relevant to all levels of responsibility throughout the organization. Doing any of these exercises once or twice will not transform you into a strategic thinker. This kind of thinking requires a wide range of strategic thinking skills that every good leadership have to possess. Youve been told you need to become a more strategic manager. It often shakes up your assumptions but its necessary in order to anticipate and plan, to play where the puck is going rather than where its been. What is strategic thinking strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving success in a game or other endeavor. Strategic thinking is built on the foundation of a sys tems perspective. With more responsibilities and fewer people to han dle them, many managers are overwhelmed with activities.
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