Watch my summary or read the full article below.
You don't need me to tell you things are changing rapidly.
Trends used to emerge over decades and years, but now form and evolve in months.
Consequently, change management has never been a hotter topic for boards all the way down to middle management.
This poses an obvious question: How do you get better at change management?
Answer: You invest in becoming more strategic. You become a Strategic Thinker.
Yet, the understanding of what this is, what it looks like, and what the behaviours of a Strategic Thinker are tend to be warped in most organisations.
I have formed this view from direct conversations with CEOs, Executives, and HR Leads across many sectors over the past few years.
Here is what I have found...
The Realities of Strategic Thinking
If you tell me your leaders are "not strategic enough", you'd better be ready to explain:
What are they not doing?
What would you like them to do?
What outcomes are you looking for if they were to become more strategic?
And, the killer questions are the core of this entire topic:
Do you really want that?
Are you willing to pay the price for people being more strategic?
This last question is the big one because it speaks directly to culture - and how a culture supports the way ultimate results are achieved.
There is a big, hairy, menacing elephant sitting in your metaphoric room you may not have realised:
Strategic thinking is actually not valued in most organisations.
The Inconvenience of Strategy
Strategy sounds great, but the practice and outcomes of being strategic are not all roses and wonderfulness. Here is why:
Strategy is not "productive" - We operate in 'task-orientated' cultures where getting sh!t done is the priority. 'Urgent' tends to beat 'Important'. Reflection, deep thinking, being considered, consulting, and facilitating group problem-solving do not get tasks done in the moment.
Strategy takes time - If done well, it doesn't take much time. But when leaders barely have time for lunch, journaling, meditation, and getting their day-to-day tasks done, strategy becomes "just another thing to do" on top of an overloaded calendar.
Strategy takes attention - Screens, meetings, office politics, and a noisy world pull our attention in all directions. Learn more here. When higher-ups, senior stakeholders and key clients dominate our bandwidth, there is no room left for strategy.
Strategy is dangerous - It is a risky business to diagnose core issues, validate initiatives, and build strategies to invest into. It can expose poor judgement and mistakes, shine a light on incompetence, and offers zero guarantees that your strategy will work.
Strategy puts noses out of joint - A good strategy will inevitably p!ss someone off. It exposes hidden risk or costs, steps on someone's toes, and filters out the rubbish. Big egos do not like being shown up. Good strategies are clever, and do not take prisoners. It can get intense.
Connected cultures thrive on belonging, trust, cohesion, vulnerability, and safety. None of the five points above fuel those feelings in the short term. As a result, strategic thinking becomes inconvenient - marginalised or ostracised entirely.
Do You Value Strategic Thinking?
The hard reality is that most of us - both as individuals and as organisations - don't value this behaviour. Values get scoffed at (see Wankernomics for key insights 😉). They are rarely spoken about, sitting quietly on a website or an office wall with little attention paid to them (with rare exceptions).
By stating company values, we are literally declaring the behaviours we hold up as valuable. Think about the word value - it represents what we look for every time we buy a burger, a subscription, or a concert ticket. We pay for things we believe are a beneficial exchange for our resources. We invest in what we believe is good, strong, and even precious.
Yet, these company values are tested thousands of times a day. If "Curiosity" is on the wall, then standing up in an All-Staff Town Hall to ask an uncomfortable question to the CEO should be celebrated. Yet, in practice, we all know it rarely is.
And that is the point: what it takes to be strategic, what it looks like, and the daily behaviours of a Strategic Thinker are rarely rewarded, encouraged, or supported.
Even as individuals, while we may aspire to be more strategic, we struggle to connect how strategic thinking gets us to where we want to be day-to-day. (I teach this stuff and speak on this very topic in keynotes, and I still struggle with it!)
Until we truly value strategic thinking - and are willing to pay its inconvenient costs - we will see very little of it.
Now For The Good News...
After going behind the curtain of over a thousand businesses, the above passage is my "hot take". No academic references, no formal research - just a real-world observation I hope gives you food for thought.
The big question is:
Does your organisational culture value strategic thinking?
If yes: I'd speculate it is tough, demanding, rewarding, and ultimately pretty fun to be part of.
If not: There is a gaping opportunity (ironically, a strategic opportunity).
Currently, some of the largest organisations on the planet are spending massive sums restructuring, re-hiring, and navigating major technology shifts - causing huge amounts of waste, unnecessary cost, and compounding risk in their business.
I have first-hand experience with non-profits spending considerable budgets on operational upgrades, infrastructure, and ambitious initiatives with little to no strategic process behind them. This isn't to say the initiatives themselves lack merit, but without a rigorous strategic process, the foundation is shaky.
A missing strategic process inevitably leads to conflict, unintended consequences, low buy-in, and constant operational headaches. Execution ends up being far harder and more painful than it needs to be (sound familiar?).
If you truly want your leaders to be more strategic, ask yourself three questions:
Do we have a culture that values and supports strategic thinking?
What proof do we have that it does (or doesn't)?
What is the minimum viable action to value 'strategic thinking' in our people?
Investing in and feeding a culture where strategic thinking is genuinely valued ensures that any investment in leadership training or strategy coaching will actually stick.
You may even create that aspirational environment where people are - finally, "more strategic"!
