Strategic Thinking

Session 2

AGENDA

• Attitudes in Strategic Thinking (Passive,

Reactive, Proactive)

• Scenario Screening

• Micro and Macro Thinking

• The Anatomy of Business Strategy

Attitudes in Strategic Thinking

• There are generally three types of attitudes in the Strategic Thinking:

• Passive: change happens.

• Reactive: wait for change before reacting to it.

• Proactive: anticipate change and, if you can, even bring about desirable change.

Scenario Screening

•A scenario is a sets of assumptions in a preset conditions which might be taken place due to assumed triggers resulting in definable sets of course of action!

• Scenario Screening helps strategist to predict the possibilities and consequences in the future, while they ain’t taken place.

Key Issues in Scenario Screening

• Think but do not expect to find out what will happen in the future.

• The scenarios should be Thought together and as a whole.

• They are basically about possible directions.

•The unforeseeable is not included.

•Above all, the scenarios are frameworks for action.

•In the light of the above, the strategic thinker should not forget that mapping out the scenarios is just one more step in a process of strategic thinking.

Micro and Macro Thinking

Macro Thinking

• The macro view is the “big picture” way to look at things. Large in scope and concerned with the final result, this is the mindset you want to have as you take stock of where you’ve been and where you want to be in the future. This type of thinking is ideal for setting your goals, identifying the skills that you would one day like to have, and creating a long-term plan to acquire them.

Macro Thinking

• Macro thinking would include goal setting, visualization exercises, time management, scheduling a practice routine, and thinking in a larger time frame – months and even years ahead. Basically, this is the planning stage before you start the dirty work and once you’ve begun, it’s a mindset that you can return to that will give you a continuing sense of perspective.

Macro Thinking

• A macro mindset is best applied at times

when you are away from your business

tools and outside of the practice

environment. Remember, you’re setting

your goals here so stick to planning where

you want to be in the future and keep your

sights on the end result.

Micro Thinking

• The micro view on the contrary, is focused on the specific details of the task at hand. You’ve already identified your big goals, so here you are zeroing in on the daily tasks and skills that will eventually get you to this goal. With micro thinking you are not concerned with the big picture, instead you have a small, well-defined task that you focus on intently and strive to master.

Micro Thinking

• With micro thinking, you break those big goals apart, separate them into manageable pieces, and identify the individuals skills that are required. This is the type of mindset to use as you approach your daily routine; you have a limited amount of time, you’re dealing with small units of information, and you have a specific goal to achieve at the end of each action or task.

Micro Thinking

• A micro mindset is crucial when you enter the office. You need to be focused on details and have a specific time frame in which to accomplish a task (e.g. 30 minutes or an hour). Don’t worry about the ultimate goal, so much as the immediate task at hand.

Micro Thinking Skills

• Focusing skills: attending to selected bits and pieces of information and ignoring others

• Information gathering skills: skills used to bring to consciousness the content to be used for cognitive processing

• Remembering skills: activities or strategies that are used to store information in long-term memory and to retrieve it

• Organizing skills: arranging information so it can be understood or presented more effectively

Micro Thinking Skills

• Analyzing skills: clarifying existing information by examining parts and relationships

• Generating skills: using prior knowledge to add information beyond what is given

• Integrating skills: putting together the relevant parts or aspects of a solution, understanding, principle, or composition. New information and prior knowledge are connected and combined.

• Evaluating skills: assessing the reasonableness and quality of ideas

Anatomy of Business

Strategy

Every Business Strategy Should :

• Define the Arenas

• Describe the Vehicles

• Indicate the Differentiators

• Determine the Stating

• Have a proven Economic Logics

Micro Thinking Skills

Assessing your Strategic Thinking Skills