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1. Usethechatfeature
Where are you
presently located?
What’s the weather
like there?
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2. GrabYourNotepad
Strategic Thinking: A Rare and Valuable Competency
Expand your influence by
demonstrating strategic thinking.
Why operational thinking is common and strategic
thinking is rare.
The microskills of strategic thinking and the Ben Franklin
technique.
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3. Usethechatfeature
Why did you select this
topic and speaker?
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5. “I hear oftentimes,
‘you must think strategically,’ or
‘you aren’t strategic enough,’ or ‘
so-and-so doesn’t see you
as a strategic thinker.’
I don’t even know what that means!”
@GregGithens

6. Usethechatfeature
What is strategic
thinking about?
9

8. “The need for thinking skills that were
once the purview of top leaders is
moving deeper into the organization.”
- Margaret Wheatley

9. Fourpillarsdefine
StrategicThinking
I II III IV
Pillar I – Individual capacity
Pillar II – Using cognition
Pillar III – Arrange resources
Pillar IV – Success in the future

10. Usethechatfeature
Do you have any
questions?
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11. Strategy&Resourcefulness
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13. Timeis aresource
that is consumed.
and
Timeis aplace where opportunity
isfound.

14. StrategyasaLensforUnpackingResourcefulness

15. Design-of-Strategy
involvesconfiguringandreconfiguring
ofanorganization’sresources.
Acquisitions
Divestures
Capital budgeting
Treasury
Workforce
Talent development
Intellectual property
Budget
People’s skills
People’s energies
Customer insights
Contractors and subs
Technology and know how

16. Ends→Ways→Means

17. Resourcefulness is
your ability to cleverly combine [ways]
your existing resources [means]
with new resources [means]
to achieve success in the future [ends].

18. Resourcefulness is also
your ability to spot new opportunities [ends]
to apply [ways]
your strategic resources [means].

19. Usethechatfeature
Does this perspective
on resourcefulness
make sense?
Do you have any
questions?
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20. Thestrategicthinkingmicroskillofhigh-qualityquestions
The question-betterment technique
– any question can be made better.

21. What are our strengths?
What are our strategic resources?
Where might we find new strategic resources that will
give us capability and power that we do not presently
possess?
A better question
A still-better question
A mediocre question
See page 106-109 of How to Think Strategically

22. Anexampleof
strategicresources
Intellectual property
(patented adhesive)
Insight
(Why users want to communicate with
others in a less formal way and how
they experiment to accomplish
results.)
Know how
(manufacturing)

23. Usethechatfeature
Based on what you’ve
learned so far, do you
believe that strategic
thinking is rare or
common in your
organization?
Why?
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24. Whyisstrategicthinkingrare?

25. “My organization is filled with managers who are very good at operations, but
not good at creating or supporting strategy……
…….Our managers, directors and VPs need to think and operate at a more
strategic and less tactical level….
How do I get people to move from a hands-on, day-to-day
mindset to a more strategic one?”

26. Insight

27. The opposite of
strategic thinking
is operational thinking

28. Usethechatfeature
What prevents people
from thinking
strategically?
31

29. “I’m too busy”
@GregGithens

30. Unless you take the time to
think strategically,
you will always be in fire-fighting and crisis-
management mode.

31. Analogy: think like a
traveler
Analogy: think like a
driver

32. BenFranklin’sTechnique

34. Microskills
Curiosity – An individual’s thirst for knowledge about people, about how things work, and about the implications of weak signals. A choice to be in learning mode.
Pragmatism – A person who is guided by pragmatism desires to solve problems by applying an understanding of how the world works.
Ambition – Motivation to make an impact for oneself or for others. Desire to express oneself, to achieve, to pursue excellence.
Sharpness –A person’s attentiveness to and sensemaking of nuance. It implies that the person is open minded, but also skeptical, about the importance of a weak signal. A strategic thinker has a sharp mind
in touch with the situation.
Analogous reasoning – Imagining the similarities and dissimilarities in objects, events, and ideas. A tool for characterizing relationships and expanding creativity.
Storytelling – An important microskill related to leadership, insights, and culture. The strategy of an organization follows a narrative arc that involves characters, situations, tensions, and resolution.
Open mental stance – A mental attitude that is receptive to novelty and recognizes that others have differing points of view. A tool of broad framing.
Skepticism – This microskill helps individuals to avoid belief in the faulty claims of others and to pursue truth.
Reflection – This microskill is sharpness applied to one’s own experiences, values, and preferences. It’s an essential part of learning.
Empathy – The ability to discern the mental state of others: their emotions, their logic, their intentions.
Personal resilience – The ability of the individual to bounce back from adversity or bounce forward into the future. Grit is a synonym. Displayed in the person’s willingness to be inventive and innovative.
Conceptual mapping – The making and using of maps that explain the relationships of concepts. A map is helpful for orientation and for navigation.
Devalorization – Using imagination to take away value and worthiness from an otherwise venerated idea. Willingness to make the profane sacred and make the sacred profane.
Contrarianism – Choosing actions that are opposite the majority’s choices or conventional thought.
High-quality questions –Strategic thinkers ask more and better questions. This microskill is the ability to formulate and ask questions that uncover nuanced and deeper truths.
Abductive reasoning – The practice of inferring possible causes or consequences of an observation, similar to educated guessing. Abductive reasoning yields hypotheses that can be tested with evidence.
Anticipation –The recognition and use of anticipatory assumptions, which is the way that we contemplate the future in the present moment. The three general approaches to anticipation are planning,
preparation, and discovery.
Reframing – Uses the imagination to synthesize new frames by deleting, strengthening, or weakening anchors. Four lenses for reframing are narrative, abstraction, projection, and partitioning (NAPP).
Reframing increases the probability that you’ll generate insights.
Meta-cognition – Awareness of your own knowledge, skills, and thoughts; awareness of cognitive bias. Includes ability to regulate your thinking, feelings, and behavior towards your preferences.
Courage – A choice to act despite one’s anxieties. It is a manifestation of one’s integrity and perspective. The opposite of courage is conformity.

38. Ourgoalshouldn’t
beto“bounceback”
…itshouldbeto“bounce
forward”

39. Usethechatfeature
Does this perspective
on strategic thinking
make sense?
What are your
questions?
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40. Action-TakingResource
List of 20 Strategic Thinking Microskills
Recall that Greg explained that there were 20 microskills
of strategic thinking and he also explained the Ben
Franklin technique of practicing 1 microskill/week on a
rotating basis.
A list of the microskills and a brief explanation is
included.
You are encouraged to join the LinkedIn Group,
Practitioners of Strategic Thinking Microskills to sync
your practice of the Ben Franklin technique with others
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41. ThankYou
Greg Githens
GregoryDGithens@cs.com
www.StrategicThinkingCoach.com
/GregGithens
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