made bets and investments.
• You’ve visited museums.
• You know stories.
None of the above are exactly strategic thinking, but each of them provides a useful analogy to its practice.
Learning is not solely the acquisition of new knowledge but is also the expulsion of misconceptions. Often, the biggest challenge for meaningful learners is unlearning invalid rules, tools, and assumptions. Watch for the discussion of the confusion of goal setting and strategy, as an example.
Take your time with this book. Find the personal relevance in the examples and questions. You will be rewarded with a personal competency and mastery that will benefit you in all areas of your life.
What to Anticipate
I intend this book to strike a balance between examples and application versus principles and theory. I’ve kept each chapter short, aimed to use familiar terms and examples, and used graphics to illustrate concepts.
The “How to” in the title of this book is not a promise of a prescriptive, step-by-step methodology. Rather, I instruct by using frameworks and examples, knowing that your application of meaningful learning will shape your use of the tools.
The book has two parts. Part I is titled “The Nature, Purpose, and Scope of Strategic Thinking.” Its nine chapters establish foundational concepts and principles, supported by real-world examples.
Part II is titled “Personal and Interpersonal Mastery.” Its four chapters will help you mature your perspective and talents. The issues addressed include trust in self and others, confidence, regulating your thoughts and behaviors, influencing others, high-quality conversations, and the courage of leadership.
The book contains six appendices. In each, you’ll find useful supplemental information, including unified lists of key concepts like microskills and strategic thinking landmarks.
About the Author … and His Perspective
In the spirit of applying unorthodox ideas, I write this biography in the first person. I write with the purpose of engaging, rather than impressing the reader. I hope that you can detect authenticity in this nontraditional approach.
I’ve had the good fortune to work, as an employee and as a consultant, for a diverse array of organizations: 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
