Overview

Learn how to strengthen your strategic thinking skills and encourage it in others. Through case studies and practical thinking exercises, you’ll stimulate your strategic thinking, learn to recognize patterns that impact strategy and enhance your abilities to generate new insights and ideas. Come to your next strategic planning session with the best possible strategic ideas—and help your business move forward in an increasingly competitive world.Who Should Attend:Individual contributors, managers, directors and other leaders who need strategic thinking skills to gain better business insights and identify trends that can contribute to a more successful business strategy.How you will benefit:Explore ways to challenge your assumptions and view your business in a new lightLearn and apply different thinking methods to avoid groupthinkControl reactive fixes to problems even in an uncertain business environmentGenerate new ideas and evaluate future scenarios before your competitors doKnow when to embrace necessary risk, even if resources and information are limitedLearn to create better short-term goals that support long-term strategyWhat you will cover:Introduction to strategic thinking: a new way of thinking and looking at the worldIdentifying trends and patterns in the macro environmentReviewing the business and industry environment; assessing your current organizationPracticing strategic thinking calisthenicsGenerating ideas and creating plans with a big-picture perspectiveBuilding an action plan to expand the strategic thinking skills of yourself and colleaguesCourse Outline:Learning ObjectivesLeverage New Skills to Support Your Strategic Thinking Every DayApply a Process to Envision Your Organization’s Desired FutureRecognize the Influences Within and Outside Your Organization That Could Support or Derail Your Future GoalsIdentify the Changes Necessary to Reach Your Future GoalsExpand the Number of Perspectives That Influence Your Moves ForwardCreate a Plan for Building Skills and Testing Your IdeasContext of Strategic ThinkingDefine Strategic Thinking and Recognize How It Can Be Used in Your Day-to-Day WorkCompare and Contrast Strategic Thinking to Analytical Thinking, Critical Thinking, and Inductive and Deductive ReasoningIdentify the Characteristics of Strategic ThinkersStrategic Thinking Process and SkillsExplain a Model for Strategic Thinking in Day-to-Day Activities and Work ApplicationsList Skills and Tools That Can Be Used to Support Strategic ThinkingAssess the Current StateIdentify the Influences and Relationships at Different Levels of an Organization That Can Impact a StrategyRecognize and Identify Patterns of Interaction and Development That Are Likely to Influence the Effectiveness of a StrategyIncorporate Multiple Perspectives on a Possible Strategy, and Assess Different Influences on the Potential SuccessEnvision a Desired Future StateEnvision a Desired Future StateRecognize and Use Thinking Skills That Support Imagining New Ways of Relating to the Market and CustomersBuild Your Path on PaperIdentify and Sequence the Multiple Steps to Move from the Current State of the Issue/Opportunity to the Desire Future StateAnticipate the Reactions/Responses of Others in the Larger Systems Impacting Your SituationIdentify and Conduct Experiments and Tests That Point Your Way ForwardImplement Your Strategic Knowledge and SkillsAssess What You Gained from Applying Strategic Thinking Tools to Your ProjectAnticipate Pitfalls You May Encounter as a Strategic ThinkerCreate an Action Plan for Development of Strategic Thinking Skills