What do you do if your project in Engineering Management lacks strategic thinking?

-Determine areas where strategic thinking may be lacking in your project. This may include a lack of long-term planning, unclear objectives, or failure to consider the big picture. -Based on this assessment, define new goals that are aligned with the overall objectives of the project. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bounded (SMART). -Once you have identified these goals, develop a strategic plan to guide the project forward. This plan should outline the actions that need to take place to achieve these goals, as well as the resources and timelines required to complete them. -Continuously monitor the project's progress against these new goals to ensure it is moving towards the desired direction.

-Clearly communicate the project goals and objectives to team members. This will assist them in understanding the purpose of the project and the role their contributions play in the overall scheme. -Create an open and cooperative team atmosphere where team members are comfortable sharing their insights and thoughts. Promote brainstorming sessions and discussion to generate new ideas and solutions. -Encourage the team to think critically and innovatively about the project. Instigate them to consider alternative approaches and possible outcomes. -Provide opportunities for professional growth and training to augment the team's analytical skills.

In my experience, you need to go back to your goal. What exactly do we want to do? The more specific your objective, the more clearly your path will become.

-Starting by identifying potential risks that could lead to project freeze, such as technical issues, budget overrun, timeline delays, and resource constraints. -Once these risks have been identified, assessing their potential impact on the project is essential. -Prioritizing the risks based on their probability of occurrence and the potential impact they can have on the overall project is crucial. -Developing specific strategies to manage each identified risk is also important, including taking proactive measures to avoid the risk, creating contingency plans in case the risk materializes, or transferring it to another party by means of insurance or contractual arrangements.

Start by looking at the main parts of your project – design, testing, manufacture, and quality control. Check how well these things are going now, in terms of how fast they go, how well they work, and how well they match what you want. Talk to people in your team, other people who are involved in the project, and others who might be interested to get a full picture of what's good and bad about each part. Based on what you find out from the "gap analysis", make a plan to fix any problems and improve the process. Keep track of how things are going and see how the changes are working. This will make sure they're fixing the problems and leading to better results.

-Request feedback from team members or colleagues on the project. Ask them about their perspectives and whether, in their opinion, strategic thinking is missing. -Seek feedback from key stakeholders or clients. Conduct surveys or interviews to learn about their expectations and the way they see the project heading. -Conduct SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the project, as well as opportunities and threats. Use this information to form a more strategic plan. -Utilize various feedback tools and methods, such as focus groups, feedback forms or peer review, to gather input from different perspectives.

In this realm, strategic thinking is about project/program execution that aligns with the organization’s direction and considers the long-term consequences of critical decisions. Expect that as an engineering leader, a part of your function is guiding and coaching the team in maintaining project and delivery focus, and also understanding (and acting on) how design decisions align with the product lifecycle, value delivery, profitability targets, geographical penetration, and differentiation. It is common to see good engineering teams that sharply focus on the pressures of delivering a project on time. However, extraordinary engineering teams plan/execute projects that pragmatically set the company for long-term success.

Imagine if you had management that didn't have strategic thinking, but used different approaches to learn it all and move things forward strategically. Management should also use strategic tools and frameworks such as SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), PESTLE analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental), and the Balanced Scorecard. These tools can help in evaluating the current situation, identifying strategic opportunities, and measuring progress towards goals.