Strategy versus Strategic Thinking (day trip or quest?)

Strategy versus Strategic Thinking?

If ‘strategic thinking’ is our ability to navigate, and ‘strategy’, are the coordinates we might choose on a GPS, then it looks to me as if it’s way more significant to consider our capacity for navigation of self and others, than it is to print out a copy of the destination, or even the detailed instructions our mapping software might create.

The latter is nice to have, but it’s a product of a decision about where we want to go, and our capacity to imagine destinations, be able to set a course, and then an alive, responsive intelligence that accompanies us moment by moment.

Let’s Define…

In the discussion on this topic yesterday, I wanted, right from the words on the event page, to make a very clear distinction between strategy and strategic thinking.

If 'strategy' is a single output the moment we publish or produce it, or even think it, then strategic thinking is the capacity to practice and attune to what allows us to create and adapt that 'strategy' whenever we need to. And so,

Good strategy isn’t our ability to describe a single outcome, it’s being able to be strategic.

The Horizon Game

We played with a few aspects of what that means in practice, and what kinds of things we should be thinking about when we want to facilitate relevant change in an organisation. One of them is what we called the horizon game, and it started with this question:

At what point on the 'horizon' or anywhere between and beyond do you usually look?

I find that we all have a place we are habitually looking, often it's the place right in front of us, the detail! Which doesn't mean that we can't look at different points—you all know there is a physical horizon when we look into the distance in a landscape, that there is somewhere beyond that and many places between, including those behind us.

It's exactly the same with 'strategic thinking', there are many places to look, and when you look at those different places, you see different things, and, therefore, different actions will suggest themselves to you.

An Example…

Let's take an example that came up on the call (and thank you to the person who raised it).

If I, or we, take on the task of creating a strategy for online teaching, we will probably see things related to technology and participation, perhaps content, perhaps medium. What I see directs what action I take, what I want to research, who I talk to, and what outcome I’m aiming for.

When I look a little more beyond the immediate, though, I might see things related to engagement and community building (and can you see how this would impact the work I do, the people I involve and the outcomes I aim for?).

If I look 'beyond' again, I will, again, see something different, perhaps I will see high quality subject matter education, and beyond that I might see world-class practitioners in that subject, I might even see systemic change, and, beyond that, I might see a more equitable way of being in the world, a feeling of humanity and wholeness.

The point of this activity, like the others we played with, isn't to find a definitive right path, a right method, or even an end point, but to feel into a natural ability we all have to see and make sense of different perspectives, and different points in the landscape, as we look forward.

Day Trip or Lifetime Quest?

It’s like hill-walking. If I see the wood in front of me, I will prepare myself for a woodland walk. If I know there is a mountain beyond, with icy slopes, I have a different awareness, and if, beyond the mountain there is a wide river to cross, then that creates different scenarios again for me.

Depending how much time and resource I want to ‘spend’ on this walk (which is effectively what we are doing when we decide on strategy), I’ll prepare and pack my bag differently, take different guides, and inform people according to what makes sense to me.

And, it doesn’t stop there. The really cool part is that I get to change my destination and mode of travel any time I want because I am bringing my capacity for navigation with me!

We all all are doing this sub-consciously all the time, but we put a label like 'strategic thinking' on it and suddenly it becomes a 'thing'.

That's fine, we label many things in our lives, it’s normal, but don't think the label provides anything other than a little focus and even, a veneer of mystique that can be quite freeing to see through.

Always look to the capacity, your inner capacity, and that of others if you are in a leadership role, because the more you nurture that, the more easily the outcomes will create themselves.

With love,

Cathy