A nice HBR piece on strategic thinking

Source: Make Strategic Thinking Part of Your Job | Harvard Business Review | Ron Carucci,
October 2016

There was a lot of great things in this HBR piece. Here are my favourite bits:

Management too busy fighting fires to do strategy

44% of managers spent most of their time firefighting in cultures that rewarded reactivity and discouraged thoughtfulness. Nearly all leaders (96%) claimed they lacked time for strategic thinking, again, because they were too busy putting out fires. Both issues appear to be symptoms masking a fundamental issue. In my experience helping executives succeed at the top of companies, the best content for great strategic thinking comes right from one’s own job.

Management unable to articulate strategy

“It’s a dirty little secret: Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else.”

43% of managers cannot state their own strategy

How does the workforce see it

One study found that only 14% of people understood their company’s strategy and only 24% felt the strategy was linked to their individual accountabilities

What can we as managers do?

studying basic patterns within available data gives simple insights that pinpoint what truly sets a company apart.

Executives must extract themselves from day-to-day problems and do the work that aligns their job with the company’s strategy. They need to be armed with insights that predict where best to focus resources. And they need to build a coalition of support by inviting those who must execute to disagree with and improve their strategic thinking.

It seems in a digital environment that basic data and analytics reporting along with insight is needed to progress a more strategic approach. It also worth noting the point about building a group including those who disagree with you, to progress and test your ideas and insights.