Your team lacks strategic thinking. How can you cultivate a culture that values and practices it?

Start by fostering a culture of curiosity, which drives the desire to understand the bigger picture. Encourage your team to ask questions about processes, customer behavior, and industry trends. Regular brainstorming sessions, where no idea is too far-fetched and every question is worth exploring, can help.

Organize meetings and warm-up sessions and ask your team to share any new learnings they have learned. This will encourage your team to increase the curiosity of learning new about technologies, industries and many more.

-Trust the team to handle delegated tasks effectively. -Regularly hold brainstorming sessions to generate and discuss strategic ideas. -Allow team members to experiment with new ideas without fear of failure. -Encourage open discussions about challenges, opportunities, and strategic directions. -Align individual and team goals with the organization’s strategic objectives. -Use performance metrics that emphasize strategic contributions and long-term impact.

To cultivate a culture of strategic thinking, set clear, long-term goals and ensure all team members understand and are aligned with these objectives. Foster open communication and encourage diverse perspectives by creating an inclusive environment where all ideas are valued. Provide ongoing training and development to enhance strategic skills, and regularly review progress to ensure alignment with the overall strategy. Recognize and reward strategic contributions to reinforce the importance of strategic thinking in daily activities.

The goal will be the one that will roam into every employee's mind in the team. Which will be simple and clever. Present your ideas with visuals and videos that will be more effective in remembering the target rather than scripts.

Always arrange small and short meetings once a week. try to cover the points by providing guidance to fellow team members, which increases their trust in you and your strategy. IF you have a very clear vision of your goals and explaining majestically, it will affect your team and they will take it as an example of consideration in the training meeting.

Celebrating small wins and innovative suggestions together helps ensure your strategic discussions stay in the positive space - which in turn continues to encourage further discussion and participation

Reflecting regularly is essential to cultivating a culture that values and practices strategic thinking. By setting aside time for your team to reflect on past projects, successes, and failures, you create opportunities for valuable insights and learning. Encourage team members to ask critical questions, analyze what worked and what didn’t, and consider how they can apply these lessons to future strategies. In my experience, regular reflection not only enhances individual growth but also fosters a collective mindset geared towards continuous improvement and strategic innovation. This practice instills a forward-thinking attitude, allowing your team to make more informed decisions and drive long-term success.

Encourage team members to share their insights, experiences, and knowledge regularly. Create platforms for easy exchange of ideas. Organize activities that strengthen relationships and trust among team members. Activities can range from casual social gatherings to structured team challenges. Combine talents and perspectives from different departments to work on joint projects. Create regular opportunities for open discussions where all team members can voice their thoughts and feedback. Encourage a respectful and inclusive environment where everyone feels heard. Lead by example by being open to ideas and collaboration. Recognize and reward collaborative efforts and successes in the team.

Creating a collaborative atmosphere in strategic thinking is a crucial part of driving innovation and achieving strategic goals. Everyone has different communication styles and therefore you need to foster an agile and inclusive environment for these conversations to be meaningful and productive

Strategy is goal/purpose driven. Does your team have a clear goal or purpose? Do your team members understand the 'why' behind the goal and/or purpose? With clarity, work backwards. Identify what is needed for the team to achieve its goal and purpose. As leader, you can consider the following to enable: 1. Foresight: Get market intelligence and trends. A business analyst can help interpret the data. 2. Pre-emptive Frameworks: Consider SWOT Analysis and Scorecards. Identify the markers of actions. 3. Team development: Include simulation games, creative activities and experiments to stimulate the mind. 4. Scenario planning: Devise "If...then..." plans. Review, reflect and revisit periodically.

Strategic Thinking is a skill that is lacked many a time not due to competence but the permission to do it! Sounds odd ? At a very general level, you have to give your leaders the courage to not be busy! Free of immediate delivery pressures, being "hands-on", having "attention to detail" or even simply being seen as being busy. When your regular work is taken care off and you have plenty of time to calmly focus on future, strategic initiatives take shape. These are nebulous and need a lot of effort to put into tangible visions. Using an Eisenhower Matrix is a good way to channel your "free" time on strategic endeavors. By eliminating the urge to do tactical tick mark activities, you graduate your team to being strategic.

A growth mindset is something I think is important to have for strategic discussions - you need to have a culture in your team of continuous learning - this helps everyone feel encouraged to learn from and challenge each other - as well as develop new skills that can contribute to your goals