What do you do if your organization lacks a culture of strategic thinking?

If my organization lacks a culture of strategic thinking, I would start by advocating the importance of long-term planning and its impact on success. Implementing training sessions and workshops on strategic thinking skills for employees at all levels can help foster this mindset. Encouraging open discussions about the company's vision, goals, and challenges can inspire employees to think strategically. I would also promote a culture where questioning, innovation, and constructive feedback are valued to stimulate strategic insights. Recognizing and rewarding strategic initiatives and contributions can further embed this culture within the organization.

Initiate discussions on the importance of strategic thinking, advocate for training programs, lead by example, and encourage the adoption of strategic practices in decision-making processes.

You could advocate for the importance of strategic thinking, provide training and resources on strategic planning, encourage open discussion about long-term goals and objectives, lead by example through strategic decision-making, and reinforce the value of strategic thinking through recognition and rewards.

The first approach would be to assess the current state. This would involve a detailed analysis of organizational practices, behaviors, and processes to identify gaps and areas for improvement in strategic thinking. This diagnosis allows you to understand the specific challenges that need to be addressed and develop a targeted strategy to promote cultural change. It is important to involve the company at this stage, promoting training and coaching sessions to better prepare the team for the next steps.

Begin with a cultural audit. To infuse strategic thinking into your organization, first discern the prevailing cultural ethos. Signs of a tactical rather than strategic orientation may include a preference for immediacy, reactive choices, or disjointed objectives. Identifying these tendencies lays the groundwork for transformation. Engage in dialogues across the organisational spectrum to collect perceptions of current cultural strengths and deficits. Such insights are indispensable, providing the raw material for a bespoke strategy to weave strategic thinking into the fabric of your operations, ensuring it becomes integral to your organisational DNA.

Having a clear vision will help guide all decisions and plans. Consider implementing a collaborative goal-setting mechanism to get everyone involved in talking about this vision and sharing ideas on how to reach it, which will help everyone feel part of the journey. Making this vision a key part of your day-to-day work and long-term goals will help build a culture where thinking strategically is valued.

Thinking long-term and strategically takes a whole lot more effort than trying to hit this quarter's sales numbers. Tactical approaches generally are easier because you can still see the road ahead of you. Building a long-term strategic plan needs a clear vision that can not only be described by the executives that put it together, but by the employees that will be executing the plans. This means no marketing double-talk, but a clear vision to an outcome that inspires people to be their best. If this doesn't come from an executive, it will need visible and demonstrated executive support to rally the teams to their best. If you don't have an executive willing to go on record with support, its likely to fail.

Applying strategic thinking within a company requires profound awareness and cultural intelligence. Understanding the unique fabric of the company’s vision enables leaders to make informed decisions that not only resonates with the ethos of the company but also harness the strengths.

Ensuring the organisation has a clear vision is step one. Who are we and where do we want to go? Make sure you have clear business objectives which can then be referenced in goal setting for departments and teams. When everyone understands what’s expected of them and why/how it builds into that overall vision and objectives teams will be more aligned. You can then encourage strategic thinking in discussions around decision making, projects, people management. I.e does this decision reflect the overall strategy and vision? Encourage managers to ask this, work together and think about the bigger picture as opposed to making decisions in isolation.

Communicating a clear vision of the lack of strategic thinking and the path forward is essential to involve the entire team, and communicate clearly and transparently where the company is and where it wants to go. Separate planning into stages and involve each member in these stages, defining clear objectives will create the big picture of the company's vision towards its strategy.

There is no shortage of tools, workshops, training programs, and methodologies that aim to help your employees become more strategic. However, the best organizations I have worked with and for started by treating this as any other business initiative: SWOT analysis on what has been in place so far (such as tool utilization or training survey responses), soliciting feedback from employees on what they might be spending their own money on or what they think is hindering them (i.e.-workload, manager relationships), build 1 or more taskforces, etc. By doing this not only will you have more information to go on, but the exercise in of itself should send a clear message that this is a priority for the company.

Strategic thinking is an acquirable skill. It is beneficial to allocate resources toward training and development initiatives aimed at augmenting critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategic planning abilities across the organizational hierarchy. This can encompass workshops, mentorship programs, and cross-functional projects designed to foster strategic analysis and foresight. Start a book club that leans to Business Strategies like Big Bet Leadship, or Levers of Control for a simpler approach.

To cultivate a culture of strategic thinking, it's essential to develop the requisite skills and competencies within the team. This entails providing training programs and resources that prioritize critical thinking, problem-solving, and scenario analysis. Additionally, fostering mentorship and facilitating knowledge exchange among employees is crucial for establishing a collaborative environment conducive to the growth of strategic capabilities. It's important to recognize that fostering strategic thinking extends beyond individual aptitude; it involves nurturing a collective capability where every team member feels empowered to contribute effectively.

Elevate skills to foster strategic acumen. Cultivating a strategic mindset involves more than just encouragement. It requires building the actual capabilities within your team. Implement training programs focused on critical thinking, problem-solving, and the art of scenario planning. Champion a culture of mentorship and open exchange of knowledge, crafting an ecosystem where strategic prowess can thrive. It's essential to understand that the journey towards strategic thinking transcends individual skill enhancement; it's about moulding a communal strength where each member feels equipped and motivated to contribute their insights towards the collective vision.

Harmonise rewards with strategic ambition. Cementing strategic thinking into your organisation's DNA requires more than verbal encouragement - it demands an incentive structure aligned with long-term goals. Celebrate and incentivise actions that propel strategic objectives forward: innovation, teamwork, and forward-thinking problem-solving. This approach motivates employees to transcend the confines of their immediate responsibilities, urging them to integrate broader perspectives into their daily endeavours. By intertwining strategic thinking with the reward system, you promote this mindset and weave it into the fabric of your corporate culture, ensuring that strategic foresight becomes a collective endeavour and a shared value.

To foster a culture of strategic thinking, aligning incentives with strategic goals is effective. A case study: A hydropower project faced this issue and introduced inter-organizational incentives concerning schedule, quality, safety, and environmental performance.? This alignment promoted goal congruence, enhanced cooperation, and improved overall project performance, demonstrating the power of well-aligned incentives to cultivate a strategic mindset.

Create an atmosphere that promotes inquiry and discussion. This includes establishing secure environments for staff to exchange ideas, question assumptions, and address strategic matters. Please encourage leaders to exemplify this conduct by actively seeking input and showing receptiveness to fresh concepts. As a mentor once told me, how you do anything is how you do everything.

Establish clear metrics and milestones to measure the adoption of strategic thinking within the organization. Review progress against these benchmarks and adjust strategies as needed. Celebrate successes to build momentum and reinforce the value of strategic thinking. (Just not a pizza party..lol)

A tactical idea to consider: - “What do you think?” This is a powerful question to provide as an answer to a team member’s question. It facilitates critical thinking, and also creates an opportunity to cultivate learning based on their response. When team members confront that response multiple times it will program the problem solving/critical thinking behaviors to become more common, also building confidence.

If your company lacks the culture of strategical thinking the most important thing to do would be to first make sure your well flushed out and articulated strategy is known to all the stakeholders in the company (not the mission statement or vision statement but the detailed strategy itself). Once the key stakeholders know what the company is looking to do and how it wants to do it and in what time frame, it becomes easier to start building a culture of strategic thinking. The organisation then needs to make sure every aspect of the company's work is aligned to the said strategy.