Cultivating a Strategic Mindset - Part II

In part three of this blog series (which I never intended to become a series!), we will continue to explore, at a high level, a variety of tools that you can begin to apply immediately in the pursuit of a strategic mindset skillset. You will find some of the tools relatively easy to apply while others may present a greater challenge.  Like everything else in leadership, you are encouraged to step out of your comfort zone, be compassionate with yourself as you learn, and try, try again. 

Give Yourself Some Tools and Models

One of the challenges that we may be facing when we try to develop our strategic mindset is that we could be working with a blank slate – where do we start?  This is where having awareness of one or more models or frames for strategic thinking might be helpful to you. 

A variety of models and tools do exist to kickstart your thinking.  The idea behind introducing these models is not as some of endorsement or to indicate that any of them are best-in-class or without their own limitations.  Rather, we want to start to expand you frame of reference and push your thinking to a new level. 

·        The Iceberg Model

·        Six Thinking Hats

·        SWOT model

·        PESTLE/PESTEL analysis

·        ADKAR or other Change Management model

·        Stakeholder Analysis

·       Porter’s Five Forces that looks at an organization’s environment through five forces of Competitors, Buyers, Suppliers, New Entrants and Substitutes

·       The BCG Model, a matrix model that looked at the world through two lenses of (current) market share and (potential) market growth to assess whether given products were dogs, cash cows, problem children or stars

·       The Good to Great Model from Jim Collins, which is comprised of six elements of (1) Level 5 Leadership, (2) First Who/Then What, (3) Confront the Brutal Facts, (4) Hedgehog Concept, (5) Culture of Discipline, and (6) Technology Accelerators.

·       Mind Mapping - a diagram used to visually organize information into a hierarchy, showing relationships among pieces of the whole.

·       Decision Tree - a decision support tool that uses a tree-like model of decisions and their possible consequences (if àthen), including chance event outcomes, resource costs, and utility. 

There are many more models and tools that are available to you.  Use those that are easiest for you to apply or make most sense to you.  Alternatively, research what your own organization might be using to support development of its strategic thinking.  Your informational interview and mentors (mentioned in the previous blog post) might be other sources of information as well.

Think in Scenarios & Contingencies

When we discussed the core elements of a strategic mindset, we identified the concepts of hypothesis testing and intelligent opportunism.  How can we put that into practice, even in a small way, in our day-to-day work? The answer is to consciously try to develop scenarios and contingencies.

This is a proven method of expanding one’s perspective and testing assumptions/ options when applied to issues both tactical and strategic. The process sees an individual or team develop plausible options about what could happen in a changing environment for an organization. 

Depending on the opportunity or issue in play for you, the variables you might change to test the impact on your plans could be informed by any of the tools or models that we have already described:

·       What would the impact be on my initiative should a key stakeholder in my organization change?  What level of support could I expect going forward?

·       What happens if my budget projections change by 5%, positive or negative?  10%?  What corrective actions might I need to take to get back to balanced budget?

·       What would happen if anticipated volumes of service delivery didn’t materialize?  What if my projections were off by 5%, 10% or higher (positive or negative)?

The intent through this work is not to come up impossible scenarios (although something like COVID-19 seemed implausible until it happened) but to help you anticipate changes and be prepared to pivot to new plans as required.  Through this process you not only start to understand and explore the factors at play, thus enhancing your ability to think strategically, but you also position yourself proactively and confidently to make changes in a moment of potential crisis. 

Create Your Own Tools & Supports

This tactic for developing your strategic mindset may at first seem nonsensical – how can I develop a tool to help me become strategic when I might be starting from a point of not knowing what a strategic mindset means? There is method to this proposed madness!

In this case, we suggest two very basic – but powerful – things that you can do for yourself.  First, if nothing similar currently exists in your organization, create a decision-making template or checklist that allows you to apply a strategic lens to any of your key operational decisions.  This checklist or framework need not be pages and pages in length but would allow you to deliberately evaluate a decision against the “bigger picture” for yourself and the organization. 

The types of questions you might consider as part of your decision framework could include:

·        Is this action or initiative aligned with and supportive to my/our Mission?

·        Is this action or initiative aligned with my/our organizational values?

·       Which one of our current strategic directions or priorities does this action/ initiative currently support?

·       Is this action/initiative a good use of my time/resources or that of my team based on my other assigned priorities?

·       What stakeholders – internal or external – would be impacted by what I am about to do?

·       What do my stakeholders expect of me prior to me taking action?  Do they wish to be consulted with, partnered with, or simply informed?

·       If I make adjustments in my assumptions will that make my decision easier or harder to implement? (back to scenario building and contingency planning).

Ideally, the power of this checklist approach comes in the form of its simplicity, its ease of use, and its immediate availability for use in your workspace.  Create and post this in your line of sight so that you may readily ask yourself, “Is this an opportunity to further develop my strategic thinking skills?”

The second tool that you can give yourself is the space and time to focus on being strategic.  Everything we have discussed comes with an investment of time, energy and intellectual capacity.  Again, as with any new skill or habit, we have to determine that this time, energy and effort is worthwhile and will in fact deliver a return on investment.  It is equally true that we will get back in return from the effort exactly or in direct proportion to what we put into developing our new skill.  

While there might be those times where we can try to be strategically mindful at a moment in time, it is more beneficial to consider setting aside some dedicated in our calendars on a regular basis to support thoughtful consideration and debrief.  This structured debrief time can allow us to reflect on what has been working or not working, what we can anticipate in the future, and how we might do things differently with the benefit of hindsight. 

I hope I have given you much food for thought.  Cultivating a Strategic Mindset - It's All About Leadership!

_______________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

3rd Generation Canadian Ukrainian

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Cultivating a Strategic Mindset - Part I

In the last blog post we dissected the components of what made up a strategic mindset.  Great! Theoretically, you now have an understanding of what the concept is and what the elements of such are.  But, what can you do to actively cultivate what we have described as an essential leadership skill?

In part one of this two part blog series, we will explore, at a high level, a variety of tools that you can begin to apply immediately in this development quest. You will find some of the tools relatively easy to apply while others may present a greater challenge.  Like everything else in leadership, you are encouraged to step out of your comfort zone, be compassionate with yourself as you learn, and try, try again. 

Reading? Yes, Reading!

Developing (and sustaining) a strategic mindset is hard work.  You probably have already felt some of that through your existing or initial developmental efforts in this regard. However, if you want to continue to progress in the development of this skillset then some targeted, self-directed research is in order.  This area of exploration takes on a few different forms. [note: in the modern era reading can also stand in for podcasts, vlogs, videos, and other similar forms of learning].

1.     Information about/from your own organization.

As a leader there is no easier and no more accessible way to start developing a bigger picture view for yourself than reading your own organization’s strategic plans, annual reports or other publications.  Reading through them may help direct you to other documents that the organization has produced in the past or otherwise have informed their assessment of the organization and the environment in which it operates. 

2.     Information more specifically relevant to your profession or career.

Some of us have professional bodies or associations that we belong to.  These organizations can be another source of information as to what is important for them, how they see the profession or sectors developing over time, and deliver this information through magazines, white papers, websites and similar sources. 

3.     Information about your sector and/or your competitors as relevant.

Depending on the sector you are in, you may also be able to access resources and materials that are put out by other organizations similar to or in competition to you. This is certainly sector dependent.  For companies or organizations that are publicly-traded or highly regulated there can be a significant reporting requirements that are readily available to anyone interested in reading them. For those companies or enterprises that are privately held or who might be less sophisticated or resourced to produce informative material the challenge might be more daunting. 

4.     Information about the broader environment in which you and your organization lives and operates.

Likely the biggest and most challenging task in developing one’s strategic mindset is looking out to the broader environment in which you or your organization operates.  This starts to delve into areas that many of us might be less interested in or versed in – political, economic, and social trends for example.  While this takes greater time and effort, it affords an individual leader with the opportunity to truly expand your frame of reference.  This effort truly bears fruit if we can start to question how issues and trends in other sectors might end up impacting us and our work.

Informational Interviews

The self-directed learning noted above can only go so far in expanding your perspective on strategy and strategic thinking.  In the absence of other learning or experience that learning may be somewhat random or misdirected.  This is where the concept of informational interviews comes into play.

An informational interview is a targeted, face-to-face or virtual meeting that is intended to gather information about your sector, another sector, the broader environment in which your organization operates, or any element that advances your knowledge or skill in strategic thinking.

When you are curious about a particular industry, role, or approach to work, an informational interview can be a valuable tool for gaining insights that cannot be found in everyday research. Put simply, it is a conversation that can help inform your strategic mindset.

Informational interviews can be a gateway to information and someone else’s lived experience that you would not usually have access to. Identifying the people you want to talk to can be as simple as asking someone else for a warm introduction or reaching out through business sites such as LinkedIn.

Most of have a fear of seeking out these kinds of opportunities.  However, people are usually willing to respond to such requests when they are asked in a professional manner and are identified for the purpose of learning and development. All you have to do is approach these conversations in a spirit of humility, genuine curiosity and a desire to learn.

Mentorship

A mentor can be transformational for the development of your strategic insights and thinking.  Accessing one or more mentors (yes, you can have more than one mentor) allows you to tap into the learning and experience of someone who is more senior in their role or profession or who is in a position to offer unique insights otherwise unavailable to you.

In contrast to the informational interview noted above, it would be expected that a mentoring relationship would continue beyond a single conversation.  It should be noted, however, that an informational interview could be the gateway to identifying a mentor for yourself.

Mentoring relationships can be both formal and informal and vary in intensity of effort.  Some mentoring relationships can last as little as a year, while others can become life-long professional partnerships.  

Your mentor(s) can come from a variety of sources both internal and external to your organization.  Internal mentors benefit from understanding your organization but may lack in new and different perspectives.  The reverse can be true from those external to your organization – less versed in your particular business issues, but more able to give you new and different perspectives on strategic thinking.

Questions, Questions, Questions!

Closely tied to the techniques of informational interviews and mentorship is the need to continue to develop and ask questions.  This may come across as a highly simplistic tool to offer up in terms of developing your strategic mindset, but we suggest that far too often we don’t develop a variety of skills because we fail to ask questions. 

This happens for a variety of reasons not the least of which is our own fear of coming across as somehow inferior (e.g., I don’t want to look dumb, or everyone probably already knows that so why shouldn’t I?).  In many ways, we make up a variety of scenarios in our own minds as to how our question might be perceived or what we think others might think of us for asking such a question.  This mirrors the concept of “imposter syndrome” where we have somehow convinced ourselves that we are not as qualified or skilled as others and we don’t want to formally confirm that assumption with others.

What we often fail to realize is others are far more likely to treat our question with the same level of compassion and empathy as would if the tables were turned.  This is particularly true when we position the question as a learning and development opportunity for us.

More to come!  While we have covered some decent ground here, there is more to offer in a sequel to this post.  And best practice in learning might also be don't overwhelm the learner through a firehose approach!  Part II coming soon!

_______________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

3rd Generation Canadian Ukrainian

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

What is a Strategic Mindset?

As leaders grow and evolve from their first supervisory role and look to progress through more responsible and demanding positions, inevitably the question arises as to how they can become more strategic.  But like a variety of leadership concepts, not nearly enough is said, nor is enough support provided to aspiring leaders, as to what strategic actually is or means.  Lacking in a clear understanding of the concept means that individual leaders can be left to figure that reality out on their own and engage in a variety of activities that may or may not enhance their strategic thinking.

What then makes up a strategic mindset?  I suggest that there are several key components that comprise this overarching concept, and by breaking the idea down to these elements we can promote understanding and engage in more targeted and purposeful efforts to enhance our strategic thinking - at both a personal and organizational level.

Interrogating Reality

When setting the stage for future plans and or trying to vision the future, too many managers, leaders and organizations solutions jump. By that I mean that they immediately think about where they would like to be in the future and fail to appreciate what position of strength or weakness they are starting from.  Their future plans – either as an individual or as an organization – are not grounded in current reality.  Jim Collins in “Good to Great” describes this process as confronting the brutal facts.  He noted that the most successful companies – those that moved from good to great and sustained that level of performance year-over-year – were honest and diligent in determining the truth of a situation.  This effort alone, in his estimation, helped leaders and companies identify the right path forward based on decisions that became self-evident. 

A Systems Perspective

A strategic mindset calls upon an individual leader and/or organization to consider a broad range of factors, forces and components that are at play both within the individual organization but also within that organization’s broader sector and environment. In this move from a focus on individual resources/goals and an elevation from unit-specific or department level goals, an effective leader changes their perspective to a higher vantage point.  Certainly we can appreciate that this ability to think at a broader system level for any one individual can be a function of stage of career or level within an organization.  However, to be as effective as possible in a leadership role and provide better direction and rationale for decisions for one’s team, the benefits in understanding how day-to-day tasks fit into the bigger picture can support more effective engagement and execution of job duties.

Intent Focused – The Vision

Earlier we talked about the ability to strongly interrogate the reality facing a leader or an organization.  This relates to both the internal and external factors at play – what are our strengths and weaknesses, and what are the threats and opportunities outside of us.  We suggested that anyone involved in setting a strategic direction forward had to be grounded in the same reality.  What makes this assessment far more effective is also knowing to what end we are directing this investigative effort.  Strategic intent provides a focus that allows individuals within a team or organization to leverage their energy, thinking and capacity to a common cause.  BreakPoint Solutions mirrors this approach by asking our clients to begin with the end in mind or convey to us what success would look like in the timeframe under consideration for a project or initiative. 

The Importance of Timing

A strategic mindset also takes in the consideration of time.  A strategic thinker assesses time from a few different angles – the past, present and the future. Coming back to strategic intent, Dr. Jeanne Liedtka (1998) suggests that effective strategic thinkers ask themselves this core question:

“Having seen the future that we want to create, what must we keep from our past, lose from that past and create in the present to get [to a preferred future state]?”

This question not only frames work within the context of the desired future state, it also takes into account what has been learned from interrogating reality, assessing what the organization may be good at, and what skills or capacities it needs to develop to be successful.  When you think strategically, you are always connecting the past to the present to the future. You learn from the past and use that learning to make predictions. You look at the present to assess the gap between where you are now and where you want to end up.

Intelligent Opportunism

Effective leaders and organizations continue their environmental scans, their assessment of organizational strengths and weaknesses, and evaluation of opportunities and threats on a continuous basis.  They recognize that the assumptions and facts upon which they developed their initial plans are always subject to change.  The concept of intelligent opportunism then should be understood as encompassing factors such as flexibility, adaptability and continuous learning.  This can be where some organizations lose the forest for the trees.  They either question the value of long-term strategic plans (because the environment is always changing) or doggedly follow such plans to the bitter end regardless of changed reality.  

The key to applying the concept of intelligent opportunism within a volatile environment that all organizations operate within is to keep the long-term vision in mind while being flexible on tactics and timing in the short-term.  The balancing act then becomes:

Create, establish, and maintain long-term vision – where do we want to be in 3, 5 or 10 years?  What are we striving for or to become?

AND

Evaluate the success, necessity and need for adjustment in our short-term goals and tactics every day, week, month and year.  Are we doing the right things to get us where we want to be?

Hypothesis Driven

The final element of a strategic mindset is the ability to vigorously explore a perspective, with an idea in mind, but with a view to testing the validity of that idea and the path towards the goal.  In this case, a strategic mindset and strategic thinking mirrors the scientific method. As strategic thinkers – as curious leadership scientists – we begin with a question or assumption in mind.  That question might start with “What if?” or “Why not?” or “Could it be?”.  One of the keys here is to suspend judgement, a willingness to acknowledge our biases, and vigorously challenge our assumptions. 

Our initial question(s) could then progress into a series of “If this happens…what could happen next?”  This allows us to explore and pursue multiple options either as we interrogate reality, create strategic intent, or evaluate other possibilities as they arise. This personal or organizational willingness to test options can be another strong path forward to balancing between a level of appropriate persistence and pure stubbornness.  One path keeps us aligned to our goals while the second option can take us over a proverbial cliff.

My hope is that this rather long dissertation helps you understand better this concept of strategic thinking and strategic mindset. Developing this capacity is a critical skill throughout your leadership career.  I encourage you to start thinking about you can now move from understanding to purposeful development.  

_______________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

3rd Generation Canadian Ukrainian

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Building Organizational Resilience

 In my last blog I introduced the concept of organizational resilience and how we might actually assess this capacity in an organization.  Got some powerful feedback especially as it related to the full scope of what resilience, adversity and trauma are.  Suffice it to say that the whole concept of resilience can be - and is - sufficient to exceed the limited space of any one blog to address and has a breadth and depth of opportunity to support any number of graduate and post-graduate courses and degrees!  All that being said, I want to move beyond identifying how one might start to measure organizational resilience to how leaders could take steps to further develop resilience in their organization.

Whether an organization has undertaken a formal and well-developed assessment of current ability to effectively respond to adversity or has taken a much more limited and cursory approach to this evaluation the results may largely be the same - there is room for improvement and strengthening of organizational resilience.  First off, no organization has all the perfect systems or structures in place. I always believer there is room for improvement.  Second, even if those systems and structures were best-in-class when introduced, they likely need ongoing maintenance and attention as times passes.  Complacency and hubris can lead to unpleasant surprises down the road. Finally, resilience in an organization is a function not just of the structures and systems that an organization has in place but also of the individual capacity of each individual employee as well. The reality is that these individuals operate at different levels of capability and resilience on any given day and that this reality shifts daily. Personal and organizational resilience are always in flux. 

A key takeaway from understanding organizational resilience aside from the need to do some form of assessment and appreciating that it is always in flux is that fact that when adversity (or even a major disaster/trauma hits) that whatever we show up to the event with is what our capabilities will be in the moment.  The organization, its leaders, and its staff will not have the luxury of asking the pain point to come back when we are more ready.  An organization needs to be proactive in preparing for eventuality of adversity and worse.  

Some core elements of enhancing, sustaining and building organizational resilience come back to the areas of resilience assessment introduced in the last blog.

Core Values & Purpose - One of the comments I received from a reader on my last blog related to how too many organizations seem to have lost their "why?"  The passion and clarity of purpose was seen as lacking and an explanation as to why we are seeing so much employee disengagement and turnover.  In this reader's view the lack of articulation AND ADHERENCE to core values and purpose was a key driver of the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting.  

I agree.  An organization would do well to revisit/refresh its Mission, Vision and Values on a regular basis; ensure that all internal stakeholders (at least) are part of that process to support commitment, buy-in and execution: and then vigorously embed these foundational elements into organizational systems and processes.  This latter effort, continues the organization-wide discussion around the "why", the "where" and the "how" - it makes the commitments and promises real.  As one of my coaching colleagues says all the time - "We need to take these statements off the wall and make them walk down the hall!"  

Organizational Decision-Making - A core part of making the purpose and values real and vibrant is ensuring that they are in fact used in organizational decision-making.  A consistent reference and application of these core elements needs to be part of any decision that the Board, senior leadership, middle management and front-line staff use to make large and small decisions.  Alignment of purpose and grounding in common frameworks allows all internal stakeholders to be centred in advance of adversity and provides them with the ability to get recentred when adversity throws individuals and organizations for a loop.

Investment in Leaders and Staff - Hopefully, it is relatively obvious that resilient leaders provide the capacity for organizations as a whole to be resilient.  If leadership is stressed, exhausted, and otherwise fragile (for any number of reasons) the capacity of the organization to respond to adversity is likely to be limited, reactive, late and even counter-productive.  If physical, emotional, mental and spiritual resilience of the leaders is diminished they cannot similarly evaluate, monitor and attend to the capacity of staff.  Leaders ARE a key point of leverage for organizational success and will determine how your organization will respond in the moment of adversity.  This reality speaks to the need for ongoing engagement surveys (not just once every few years), actionable and credible plans to address the results of the engagement surveys, the development of systems that allow leaders and staff to do work effectively and with limited frustration (e.g., suitable IT systems, sufficient supplies, good equipment, etc.), strong communication throughout the organization, and ongoing leadership and staff development.  

Organizational Coping Skills - Every organization should provide its leaders and staff clarity as to how to respond in a moment of adversity.  The time for critical learning is not at the time of a critical event!  This can be as simple as having a well-understood response plan in the event of a fire alarm (don't laugh - I've seen something this basic be taken for granted and experience miserable failure as a result), an IT outage or hack, all the way through to supports available to react to and immediately recover from an episode of violence in the workplace.  If leaders and staff know the commitment and seriousness of the organization's efforts to support them in the moment - and then experience that level of support in the moment - confidence and resilience are maintained and impact is more rapidly recovered from. 

Organizational Self-Care - Beyond the immediate crisis, an organization must similarly invest in a range of longer range and proactive initiatives that lay a strong foundation for building capacity.  This includes investment of serious time and energy - and sometimes dollars - in areas and systems such as business continuity plans, partnerships with suppliers and other service partners, customer service initiatives and relationship building, succession planning efforts, and long-term capital infrastructure maintenance and replacement plans.  The list is certainly not exhaustive but hopefully illustrates the flavor of proactive investments in long-term organizational strategies that can support organizational resilience. 

Culture & Personality - the final element that I propose that an organization attend to on a consistent and proactive basis is the health of its culture.  This takes on many forms - some of which relate to the initiatives we have just covered above.  Overall, an organization that has a strong, consistent and aligned culture has a greater chance of successfully moving through and beyond adversity than an organization that doesn't understand and own its strengths, doesn't promote or practice within a learning environment, and overall believes in its collective capacity and strength.  

When we put forth the concept of alignment this speaks to two aspects.  One, the organization's systems, decisions and actions must be aligned with, support advancement of, and be driven by the organization's Mission, Vision and Values.  Second, all leaders, staff, departments, and functions of the organizations must know and feel that they are moving in the same direction and hopefully with equal passion and commitment.

Overall, this perspective implies a level of investment in organizational self-confidence, recognizing and rewarding individual, team and organization performance and successes.  This implies a level of connectivity and camaraderie within the organization with limited to no barriers for information sharing and collaboration.  This suggests that the organization has both the humility to assess and test itself, is driven to improvement, and is willing to learn from (versus simply punish) mistakes. This suggests that the organization and its staff have the confidence in all circumstances to maintain control over events rather than seeing themselves as victims of external forces. 

Ultimately, organizational resilience - once understood and assessed - can be improved by a series of purposeful and aligned initiatives.  Failure to undertake such efforts puts not only organizational heath and success at risk but may also result in complete failure and demise of the enterprise.  

I suggest that attending to and promoting organizational resilience is neither simple nor easy.  But it is critical.  And ultimately a resilient organization is all about leadership. 

_______________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

3rd Generation Canadian Ukrainian

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.