Competent strategic thinkers are exceptions to the rule and rare in the business world, writes executive coach Greg Githens. “Aiming to change that, his new, comprehensive playbook, How to Think Strategically, is excellent and insightful, coming with a healthy dose of authoritative advice and a multitude of examples,” says Barry Silverstein in Foreword Reviews. The book, released today, is available at local and online bookstores.
This book will help readers understand what it means to “be strategic” and how to craft strategy that’s effective, powerful, and clever. According to Githens, “a competent strategic thinker tolerates ambiguity, notices weak signals, defines the core challenge facing the organization, and designs effective responses with a winning strategic logic.
One of the keys to becoming a competent strategic thinker, says Githens, is to remove all preconceptions:
- Let go of rigid distinctions between right and wrong
- Let go of expectations
- Be curious in order to understand more deeply
- Be open to new possibilities
- Ask simple questions
Githens guides readers in developing the skills that they should regularly practice to enhance their strategic thinking competency. Some of the microskills they will learn to internalize include:
- Curiosity
- Pragmatism
- Ambition
- Sharpness
- Analogous reasoning
- Storytelling
- Open mental stance
- Skepticism
- Reflection
- Empathy
- Personal resilience
- Conceptual mapping
Organizations need extra-ordinary leaders to explore beyond the edges of the known, familiar, and conventional, according to Githens. These leaders reflect the four X-factors of strategic thinking that lead to personal and organizational success: drive (ambition for themselves and others), insight (imperfectly seizing the unknown), chance (embracing risk), and emergence (searching for ideas that have the potential to profoundly influence the organization in the future).
