You can become more strategic starting today
Use what I learned in my time as a chief strategy officer
Just about everyone could benefit in career and daily work, and probably in personal life, from being a little more strategic. That is, taking a moment to think about the big picture when making daily choices that are rarely as inconsequential as they seem. (Cruel fact.) And there’s no doubt that most employers would love it if their people practiced a little more strategic thinking. So what do you do?
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The truth is, opportunities to be strategic are all around. Think about your work. Perhaps there is a line of business that’s struggling, a program offering with shrinking margins, an internal process that’s been outgrown, or simply a low-value group habit that has hardened over time. Any of those scenarios or hundreds of others like them would benefit from a fresh round of questions. Questions like:
What ultimate aim is this serving?
To what degree is it effective?
How does it advance goals we’ve agreed to?
Is it causing any unwanted side results?
Might there be a better / more efficient / more elegant / more lucrative way?
To pose these kinds of questions and see them honestly explored, withholding the fear of inconvenient change, is to be strategic. And the behavior is available to people at every level of your organization. Not just “strategists.” Executive leaders, master jugglers more often than not, are the first to say they wish they had more time to be strategic. Yet being strategic is in no way the sole responsibility of people in leadership roles. Managers and others who are closer to the front lines often are in an optimal position to spot the possibility of a better way.
But how exactly does someone who doesn’t remotely identify as a “strategist” put strategic thinking into daily practice? There is certainly a way, and it’s not that hard. I spent time as a chief strategy officer for a diverse global business. Here’s what I learned:
1. Ask little-kid questions. Take a lesson in unadulterated curiosity from children. Be the person on your team who asks, “Why?” Or “How do we know?” Or “Why not?” Ask such questions early in the germination of an idea, and ask them about things that are long established. You don’t need to be lawyerly or negative. Ask with respectful curiosity and be genuinely eager to see where the conversation goes. Nina Bowman in Harvard Business Review writes, “Questions are the language of strategy.” Strategic conversations are begun by people who are willing to leave no question unasked.
>> Pro tip: Ask, “What’s the best we might achieve if we were to go this route?”
2. Seek patterns. Pursue and find what might be revealed in data and trends, both internal and market-wide. Key relevant insights likely lurk in performance indicators such as utilization rates, engagement levels, or average order value. Or they are available for detection out on the marketplace horizon. Paul Schoemaker suggests, “Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industry.” Data-born insights and trends don’t often hold the complete answer to strategic questions. But they tend to serve as terrific clues.
>> Pro tip: Ask, “What unmet pain point does the data suggest is available for us to address?”
3. Think in terms of dominoes. When approaching a decision, take the time to game out all that might result from it, including well down the road. Might a seemingly straightforward product-feature adjustment that seems opportune today set in motion a customer expectations that in time would be difficult to meet? It doesn’t mean you need to become preoccupied with what could go wrong. The intent is to ensure that implications of today’s choice are fully understood and accounted for. You can help make that happen.
>> Pro tip: Ask, “What’s one thing that might result from this that none of us would ever have guessed?”
4. Keep what might be in your embrace. Be optimistic that ideas that seem farfetched today may very well be very possible three years from now. Believe that your team is adaptable, responsive, innovative and capable. Use your imagination to think about what the future might hold and what your business might look like. Cultivate that conversation and be unapologetically enthusiastic. This is a way to do your part to plant the seeds of routine strategic inquiry.
>> Pro tip: Ask, “If we were starting from scratch to formulate a solution to what we foresee happening five years from now, what would that solution be?
5. Be an ambassador for strategy. Raise your hand to take some responsibility for interpreting what strategy means for your team’s or department’s work. Be the individual who constantly reminds others around you of strategic decisions made. Be generous in helping others see how their responsibilities or projects might be shaped. Help managers and frontline workers think through and articulate how their work might adapt based on new strategic decisions.
>> Pro-tip: Ask, “We’re taking action on X as a result of strategic decision Y made on Z date. Does anyone have any new clarifying questions or other points of view about how these things are connected?
All of the above behaviors require suspending fear of change, at least for a bit at a time. There’s no doubt that comes more easily for some personality types than others. But it’s worth pushing through the fear, if you can, if you’d really like to meet the need for strategic thinking that likely is all around you.
Another thing I learned: it’s best to practice going beyond posing questions or even successfully driving strategy formulation. When the strategy-setting is done, be someone who interprets it, facilitates aligned action, and executes in a way that is on point. It’s a lot to do, but strategy is ultimately only as good as its implementation. Terina Allen puts it this way in Forbes: “Strategic leadership is what happens when leaders move beyond the role of having and communicating a vision to fully understanding, thinking about, planning and executing the necessary strategies to realize it.
Let go of the idea being strategic is someone else’s job. Or that it’s the domain of “strategists.” Strategy needs more people! Be one of them. There’s a good chance you’re more capable and ready than you think.