Enhancing Your Strategic Thinking and Planning Skills
Even in today’s ever-changing organizational environment, successful leaders are able to envision a coherent future that doesn’t exist today. Their ability to see beyond tomorrow begins with the process of strategic thinking. Strategic thinkers embrace a broad perspective of their organization, build strategic partners and alliances, and are acutely aware of the trends and developments that impact their present and future realities. Successful leaders not only manage the day to day objectives of their organization, but they also strategically position themselves for tomorrow. These are only but a few of the key strategic thinking attributes that will define a leader. Without this foundation, how can your organization develop a strategic plan, see the process through and accomplish goals?
Thinking strategically requires both technical and tactical skills. Technical skills such as metacognition are rarely discussed around the management or leadership table, and are not widely understood by even those who are responsible for the strategic path. Similarly, tactical factors such as environmental scanning are often overlooked and not used to strategically build alliances which can position your organization to take advantage of time sensitive opportunities.
Now more than ever with local and global influences, like changing demographics, technology, and emerging markets, strategic thinking is an absolute necessity for organizational success. Those leaders that can think strategically, develop a strategic plan and energize their organization to implement the necessary processes, will out maneuver, out distance, and out perform their competition.
In this 3 day program through discussions and case studies, you will enhance your strategic thinking and planning skills in order to ensure the long-term success and survivability of your organization.
Three Day Program Content
Understanding Strategy & Strategic Thinking
- What is strategic thinking
- Recognizing the difference between strategy & strategic thinking
- Identify tactical versus technical strategies
- Why are both strategy and strategic thinking so important
- Identify the strategies process
- Balancing the current and future states
- Defining the levels of Strategic Thinking
Thinking Strategically
- Developing your Strategic Thinking ability
- Understanding how mental models shape thinking
- Designing creative processes that enable multiple futures
- Using divergent and convergent thinking
- Beyond systematic thinking – thinking systems
- Developing a strategic perspective
- Overcoming critical thinking barriers
- What is metacognition and how does it work
Being a Strategic Leader
- Why strategy & leadership are indivisible
- Developing a tolerance for ambiguity
- Creating a competency toolkit for strategic leadership
- Understanding risk as part of your strategic thinking
- Using the power of questions to think strategically
- Understanding organizational culture as an ever or impediment to strategic change
- Utilizing communication for strategic leverage
Assessing Organizational Capacity
- Environmental scanning – why is it critical to organizational success
- Identifying critical threats
- Knowing your organizational capacity for strategic change
- Understanding the scope of your organization’s challenge
- Identifying capacity opportunity through potential strategic alliances
Constructing Futures
- Holding multiple futures simultaneously
- Conceptualizing ‘what if’ scenarios
- Positioning your organization in continuous change
- Anticipating future demographic
- Leveraging turning points to create urgency and action
- Developing coherent stories of the future
- Creating a value-proposition for your organization
Ensuring Strategic Alignment
- Aligning mission, vision and values
- Aligning strategy, tactics and operations
- Ensuring internal and external consistency
- Developing alignment throughout the value chain
- Engaging supplier and service providers in your organizational strategy
- Managing alignment expectations and communications
- Critically assessing outlier or non-core opportunities
Creating a Team Strategic Journey
- Raising strategic awareness in your management team
- Utilizing strategic team problem-solving processes
- Identifying strategic thinker within your team
- Why ‘adopters’ can be successful strategic thinkers
- Understanding the change process
- Building con census and commitment
Implementing the Strategic Planning Process
- Knowing who to involve & why
- Asking the fundamental question
- Using strategic planning frameworks
- Positioning your organization in a fluid organization
- Ensuring tactical and operational alignment
- Developing your ‘storyboard’
- Building the strategic path and creating a plan
Assessing the Strategy
- Understanding the need for assessable strategies
- Creating critical metrics and milestones
- Validating realities
- Using system-thinking measurement
- Creating a ‘picture’ of progress through the ‘Balanced Scorecard’
- Developing contingencies to adapt to change
General Information
Why should you attend?
- Small interactive hands-on programs
- Role-playing and simulation of real workplace situations
- Group activities, open discussions and case studies
- Experienced program presenters who are leaders in their field
- Practical content and information that you can use in your everyday work environment
- You will not be pressured to purchase books or videos as all program materials are provided at no additional cost
- Program satisfaction guaranteed!
Who Should Attend?
- Managers and supervisors
- Human resources and Labor relations specialists
- Directors and board members
- Administrators
- Members of the negotiations team
- Future managers, supervisors and those in leadership positions
General Program Information
- Breakfast and lunch are included daily
- Program materials will be provided
- Certificates will be presented upon completion of the program
- Program is in session from 9am to 4 pm
