Someone is building a business out of nothing and making money, one might say, out of thin air, and someone even bypasses a worthwhile idea, considering it futile. Why it happens? Everything is simple! Some people have strategic thinking. They are able to assess and predict the development of events, but someone does not possess such thinking. So it turns out that some people will carry out routine actions all their lives, while others will live happily ever after, successfully planning important events.
Just do not have to hang your nose. Strategic thinking is an acquired mental process, and not a gift of God, the main thing is to learn how to develop it. How to develop strategic thinking will be discussed.
Strategy and Tactics
Strategic thinking is a thought process that a person applies in the context of success in any undertakings. The result of such thinking is an understanding of how to behave now in order to get something later.
One who knows how to develop strategic thinking often asks himself, “What? Why? How?" He thinks for many years to come, plans his life, but is able to change. The strategist knows exactly what he wants and how to achieve it. He can also make mistakes, but he notices and corrects them in time.
Many people tend to confuse the concepts of strategy and tactics. As Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War:
Strategy without tactics is the slowest path to victory. Tactics without strategy is noise before defeat.
More simply, the strategy determines long-term goals and ways to achieve it. Tactics focused on smaller steps and short time frames. It includes specific plans, resources, practices, etc. Tactics may change, but the strategy remains unchanged. In fact, the right tactics are a strategic resource for achieving goals.
Principles of thinking
So, the basic concepts are presented, you can move on to the main topic, namely, how to develop the skill of strategic thinking. First, you need to follow the basic principles of strategic thinking:
- Search for trends. You need to see the big picture of the world. Due to the accumulated work and constant stress, people often do not notice what is happening. Therefore, they miss key information. To develop strategic thinking, somehow you need to learn how to receive this information. So it’s worth daily consciously looking at the big picture and looking for trends in everything. For example, you can watch economic news and record how the price of oil changes or determine what problems people most often face.
- Complex issue. Only the one who does not want anything from this life thinks with answers, strategists constantly ask themselves: “Where will I be in a year?”, “What kind of person will I become in 5 years?” etc. Questions can be difficult and inconvenient, but they need to be asked and they must be answered.
- Behavior. Since developing strategic thinking is not easy and often takes a long time, you can accelerate this process by appropriate behavior. One who can think strategically even speaks that language. In oral and written speech, a structure is necessarily present, the main points are grouped and logically ordered. The thought is directed so that a person can talk both about the details and the overall picture.
- Thoughts No matter what a person does, he needs to find time to think. It is impossible to change something if you do not reflect on the upcoming opportunities and necessary actions. Thinking is the most valuable work.
Books
As already mentioned, strategic thinking is an acquired skill, not an innate quality.
The main thing is to constantly work on yourself: to assimilate the theory and apply it in practice. A lot of books have been written on the topic “How to Develop Strategic Thinking”, but you should pay attention to the following items:
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
- The "48 Laws of Power" by Robert Green.
- “Good strategy, bad strategy” Richard Rumelt.
- "Effective Leader" Peter Drucker.
- "Game theory. The Art of Strategic Thinking in Business and Life. Avinash C. Dixit and Barry J. Neilbuff.
- The Game of Victory by Alan Loughley and Roger Martin.
- “Book of decisions. 50 models of strategic thinking ”Michael Krogerus and Roman Cheppeler.
This is exactly the initial base on which strategic thinking will be formed.
Skills
In addition to the theoretical basis, it is necessary to develop a certain set of skills in oneself and, accordingly, constantly do practical exercises. It will not work to develop strategic thinking as if by magic - it is a long and hard work. True, the result is worth it.
So what skills will be required:
- Different types of thinking. It is necessary to develop cognitive flexibility in oneself, learn to switch from logical thinking to creative.
- Prediction. There is nothing mystical here at all, you just need to learn to see the connections between events and understand how they develop.
- Work with goals. Learn to develop a strategic action plan for each task and subtask.
- Flexible thinking. This means that you need to be able to change your plans in the course of the development of events, to introduce guidelines in them that help you notice errors.
- Susceptibility. You need to learn to see the clues that the surrounding world throws up.
- To study constantly. It is not enough to create an action plan, you need to constantly learn, only then it will be possible to talk about competence in strategic thinking. How to develop it? Use every opportunity to gain knowledge!
- Relax. You need to find time for your favorite pastime, and not just make plans to capture the world.
- Unbiased opinion. Sometimes I really want to wishful thinking, but strategists do not. They may refuse their opinion if it is contrary to new facts. You can amuse pride another time, the main thing is achieving the goal. So they think.
Think
The fact that thinking plays a paramount role in developing a strategy has already been mentioned, but this point is so important that it is worth talking about it separately. Strategists are able to create connections between ideas, plans and the people who surround them. You need to abstract from everything and allow your mind to turn in a completely different direction. The easiest way is to plan time for reflection, pick up paper and pen and write down all the ideas that are worth attention. This is best done in the evening or in the morning.
Develop horizons
It is difficult to be a strategist if you are not interested in events that occur in the world. It is worth noting that logical thinking plays a significant role in strategic planning. So how to develop logical thinking?
In strategic thinking and planning, important processes are the understanding of human psychology, the study of the brain and the processing of relevant information. The more experience, information and ideas a person has, the easier it is for him to determine cause-effect relationships between events.
New acquaintances, travels, nature studies, specialized seminars and conferences - all this is extremely important for the development of strategic and logical thinking.
Make decisions
Having common sense for developing a strategy is important, but no less important, to fulfill our plan. As soon as a person has a goal and a chain of successive steps, how to achieve it, it is necessary to make decisions and act. Very often there may be limitations in the form of time, money and other resources, so you need to prioritize correctly.
If a person thinks strategically, he sometimes has to make difficult decisions. For example, in order to increase profits, you need to fire someone or close some kind of production workshop. The worst that could be is the inability to see the right path and let things go by their own accord.
Focus attention
It is very important to find the line that will allow you to see not only the situation in general, but also all its details. If you generalize too much, you can miss important points, and if you delve too much into the details, you can go the wrong way.
Therefore, it is extremely important when considering the situation to maintain balance. This is exquisite workmanship that comes only with experience.
To ask
Questions are important. They help to find out the reasons for what is happening, to focus attention on important points, to notice problems and see a way to solve them. There is no need to be afraid to ask yourself what works in my strategy, what I need, what I need to become better at, etc. Only by identifying my weaknesses can we make the strategy more effective.
Substitution method
Any strategy created, to one degree or another, relies on other people, and if you incorrectly interpret the characteristics of human nature, you can make many mistakes.
It is not enough to assemble a team of professionals, you still need to motivate them and direct them in the right direction. One must be able to resolve conflicts and make compromises.
Give up prejudice
The ability to admit one’s mistakes will be useful in all spheres of life, even in the lending process. To develop strategic thinking, as has already been said, the rejection of one’s ideas will help if they do not coincide with confirmed facts. If a person admits his mistakes, this does not affect his authority in any way, on the contrary. Only when people are open to checking the facts and their thinking, then can their mind develop.
Effects
Each decision made has certain consequences. After the strategy is formed, you need to think about what consequences this or that action can bring. This will help make the right decision.
Starting to develop strategic thinking, a person may feel at ease. He will have to pass through too much information. But the main difficulty is that what used to be the big picture turns out to be just a minor detail. Only after some time the mosaic will begin to take shape, and a person will be able to apply strategic thinking in all spheres of life.