Earlier this year I was conducting an SES Focus Group meeting on leadership responsibilities and during the discussion one of the SES said “… as to the requirement for strategic thinking I don’t actually know what it means, can anyone tell me?”.

My initial, inner, reaction was one of shock because ‘Shapes Strategic Thinking’  is one of the five key requirements of the Australian Public Service (APS) Senior Executive Leadership Capability Framework.  In the limited time available the other participants discussed what it meant to them and the tenor of responses was around the concept of a strategic vision and having a high level strategic plan. They went on to reflect a view I hear regularly from senior leaders (and not just those in the APS), that really they are too busy to spend time on strategic thinking. Clearly they did not see it as an integral part of their day to day leadership work.

In my coaching work with people transitioning from the Executive Level of the APS to the Senior Executive I also find that people frequently confuse strategic planning with strategic thinking. I believe this occurs because, in large organisations, we easily get caught up in the process of identifying a vision for the organisation and then documenting an underpinning annual business plan.  It’s a treated as a transactional process and in truth we are glad when it’s done and dusted and we can get on with the real day to day work.  We have our strategic vision and a glossy document that describes a high level five year plan of what we are going to do and believe we have now satisfied the obligation to be  strategic.

Strategic thinking, however,  is much more than the process of establishing a strategic vision and an annual business plan.  The APS Leadership Capability Framework articulates it as having the following elements:

• inspires a sense of purpose and direction
• focuses strategically
• harnesses information and opportunities
• shows judgement, intelligence and common sense.

There is a lot of literature on this subject and I personally find a definition used by Erika Andersen in her book ‘Being Strategic’  a useful touchstone.  Andersen says that “Being strategic means consistently making those core directional choices that will best move us toward our hoped-for future”.  The question for leaders then to ask themselves is,  “Is this what I am doing?”

Strategic thinking does require we have clarity of purpose or vision but that isn’t enough, it has to be an ongoing state of mind and leadership behaviour.  There are two points of emphasis worth adding to the definitions above.  First is the need to be constantly aware of the external environment.  By external environment I mean (in an APS context) other areas of our own organisation, across government more broadly, in the political sphere, acoss the community and with our stakeholders generally.   My second point of emphasis is that strategic thinking needs to be creative, being able to think imaginatively and intellectually to take maximum advantage of new opportunities and information as they arise.  Strategic thinking should be a constant process of ensuring we are always:

• mindful of the end goal or vision;
• making decisions and choices, on an ongoing basis, that are consistent with the vision;
• alert to the environment around us and how we might need to creatively adapt our strategies in light of changing conditions; and
• focussed on how to maximise information, resources and opportunities to achieve our strategic vision.

Strategic thinking is not something to find time for once a year, or from time to time throughout the year.  Strategic thinking needs to be a part of the mindset leaders bring to their work each day.

Photo: Piotr Adamowicz, Shutterstock.com

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