How can you use strategic thinking to anticipate and respond to emerging IT trends?

1 Understand the context

The first step to strategic thinking is to understand the context of your IT environment, both internally and externally. This means assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your IT capabilities, resources, processes, and culture, as well as the opportunities and threats posed by the market, competitors, customers, and regulations. You can use tools such as SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, or Porter's five forces to help you with this. By understanding the context, you can identify the gaps and challenges that you need to address, as well as the potential benefits and risks that you need to consider.

2 Define your vision and mission

The next step to strategic thinking is to define your vision and mission for your IT function. Your vision is a clear and inspiring statement of what you want to achieve in the long term, while your mission is a concise and specific statement of how you will achieve your vision. Your vision and mission should align with the overall goals and values of your organization, and reflect the needs and expectations of your stakeholders. You can use tools such as SMART goals, OKRs, or balanced scorecard to help you with this. By defining your vision and mission, you can communicate your direction and purpose to your team and other stakeholders, and motivate them to support your initiatives.

3 Explore the trends and scenarios

The third step to strategic thinking is to explore the trends and scenarios that are relevant to your IT function. Trends are the patterns and changes that are happening or likely to happen in the IT industry, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. Scenarios are the possible outcomes and implications of these trends, based on different assumptions and variables. You can use tools such as trend analysis, scenario planning, or futures thinking to help you with this. By exploring the trends and scenarios, you can anticipate the opportunities and challenges that they may create for your IT function, and prepare for different contingencies.

5 Create and execute action plans

The fifth step to strategic thinking is to create and execute action plans for your IT function. Action plans are the detailed steps and tasks that you need to take to implement your chosen options, while monitoring and adjusting to the trends and scenarios. You can use tools such as project management, agile methodology, or change management to help you with this. By creating and executing action plans, you can ensure that your IT function delivers the expected results, while adapting to the changing IT environment and stakeholder demands.

6 Learn and improve

The sixth and final step to strategic thinking is to learn and improve your IT function. This means collecting and analyzing feedback and data from your action plans, and using them to measure your performance, identify gaps and errors, and make improvements. You can use tools such as KPIs, surveys, or audits to help you with this. By learning and improving, you can continuously enhance your IT function's efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and value, and foster a culture of innovation and excellence.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?