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Research Outline

Prepared for Louisa | Delivered July 20, 2019

Strategic Thinking

Goals

Define and provide information on strategic thinking in the workplace by identifying key articles and educational resources on the topic. For each resource identified provide the resource title, description, format, author, publisher, and key insights.

Early Findings

  • Strategic thinking is "an ability to plan for the future."
  • Strategic thinkers are continually learning, soliciting and implementing advice, taking calculated risks, and staying true to their purpose.
  • In order to improve strategic thinking skills, one can be proactive in planning for the future, can learn about and try to understand opposing viewpoints and ideas, can continually try to improve their work process, and by keeping up wit new developments, news, and trends.
  • One article identified was "The 7 Critical Skills Of Successful Strategic Thinkers," which was written by Paloma Cantero-Gomez for Forbes. The article defines strategic thinking as "the ability to know what you want to achieve and how to achieve it" and offers an analysis of seven skills necessary to be a strategic thinker. These skills are vision, framework, perceptiveness, assertiveness, flexibility, emotional balance and patience. Key takeaways include that strategic thinkers are able to see the big goal (vision) and break it down into the multiple steps needed to achieve the goal. Additionally, strategic thinkers are able to understand and incorporate different viewpoints and perspectives into their own.
  • An additional resource identified was "Strategic Thinking - A Definitive Guide For Business" by Tom Wright on the Cascade Strategy website. This resource offers a description of strategic thinking, a set of questions to determine if you are a strategic thinker, and steps one can take to become more of a strategic thinker. These steps include focusing in on the outcomes, staying calm, staying informed, and looking for patterns, big-picture ideas, and common themes throughout one's work.