Strategic thinking is the core of strategic planning – reflect and discuss
Darvesh Karim
Assistant Instructor
Professional Development Center, North
University Road, Konodass, Gilgit.
Ph. No: (+92) 05811-454132-4 Ext: 3017
Fax No: (+92) 05811-454135
Cell No: (+92) 03465419307
Email (Official): darveshkarim@pdcn.edu.pk
Email (Private): dk_hunzai@yahoo.com, darvesh.karim@gmail.com
STRATETIC THINKING IS THE CORE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING
STRATEGIC THINKING AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic Planning - SP[1] is only useful if it supports Strategic Thinking – ST[2], which leads to the strategic management (a strong foundation for an effective organization). ST means asking questions like, "Are we doing the right thing?" More accurately, it means making the judgment using three key requirements about ST: an exact purpose in mind; an understanding of the surrounding environment (mainly focusing the forces that usually influence), and creativity in developing effective encounter to those forces. Hence, the effective management is the application of ST to the job of leading an organization.
ST is not only the core of SP but it is also core for strategic development - SD[3], because all the stages start from ST keeping four different aspects; globalization, knowledge society, turbulent environment and future possibilities in mind. In the new era of rapid changes and matchless opportunities, the beneficial and sustainable growth will go to organizations, whose leaders can see possibilities beyond their traditionally served policies. Now, innovative leaders and most strategy experts do not regard strategy as just planning but rather as thinking than planning. For thinking process all the stakeholders can share their intellect as unexpected change is a common rule now; we cannot foresee the future in any meaningful way to make plans for the realization of a detailed long term strategy. Therefore, ST is a process, which focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people or all the stakeholders of the organization and events who can affect the institution’s track by keeping the ‘thinking thorough’ (Mintzberg, 2005) process in mind. SP is the formal process of producing plans documenting the results identified by ST, hence it can be said that ST is the core of strategic planning.
Main Characteristics of Strategic Thinking
ST is a process in which all the people in an organization THINK about, assess, view, and create the future for themselves and for their associates. For this purpose, we require data collection, then processing, analysis, evaluation and decision making (Rothschild, 1976). It is more than responding to the day-to-day as well as long-term problems, opportunities, and new realities. In short, it is a process of creating tomorrow. According to Sloan (2006), the ability to see and to work with opposing relations and paradoxes is indeed an attribute identified by effective strategists as a requirement for ST as opposed to SP, where the ability to eliminate paradoxes and ambivalence is required. It is concerned with taking control of the future by developing practical wishes of the results we want to create for tomorrow. ST always involves for change.
Main Characteristics of Strategic Planning
SP upsets traditional views, identifies new potentialities and creates new questions based on the strategically thought and canvassed scenarios (Cladwell, 2004). It is imagining the results we want to achieve in the future by creating ideal multiple futures or creating different future scenarios. SP helps us to carry out the process of transformation like shifting our basic assumptions and reorganizing our views of the world, our goals and our behaviors. SP enables an organization to revive itself continuously by envisioning its future (Alexander & Serfass, 1999).
SP provides the basic directions and rationale for shaping where an organization should head by deciding that what to do and how to do it in future as it is a process for creating and describing a better future in measurable terms. SP can be done through high level management, but taking into consideration and guidance of strategic thinking of all stakeholders. It is a management tool which is used to help an organization do a better job by focusing its energy to ensure its members of the organization are working toward the same goal. It is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. It raises a series of questions that help planners to scrutinize experience, test hypothesis, gather and incorporate information about the present, and foresee the environment in which the organization will be working in the future. SP stresses the importance of making decisions that will ensure the organization's ability to successfully respond to changes in the environment.
CONCLUSION
From all this separate discussion about Strategic Thinking and Strategic Planning, I relate this process to one of my practical experience that my area is a touristic destination. Every year we receive thousands of foreign trekkers and cultural tours. Resulted by a happening[i], an NGO came into being to strategically think and plan the effective utilization of funds. Now, it was the time for strategic thinking. Community members from all the walk of life gathered to THINK and of-course identified different proposals. Finally, all the community came to a conclusion that we should initiate an English medium school to spread the quality education as Education and English was the increasing demand of the time. The community nominated a body for strategic planning, supervision and implementation of the project. The governing body strategically planned for the construction of the school infrastructure, keeping all the aspects (size, population, market demand, neighboring environment and future growth etc.) and affecting forces of future in mind. Now, after 10 years of the completion of the said project, it is imparting quality education to all the new generation of the area. The said body is very strategically thinking and planning for the betterment and it is achieving its targeted goals year by year.
REFERENCES
Mintzberg, H. (1995). Strategic thinking as ‘seeing’: Note. In B. Garratt (Ed.), Developing strategic thought: a collection of the best thinking on business strategy. London: Profile Books Ltd.
Sloan, J. (2006). Learning to think strategically. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann. (Chapter 23: The five critical attributes)
Cladwell, B. J. (2004). A strategic view of efforts to lead the transformation of schools. School Leadership & Management. 24(1), 81 – 99.
Rothschild, W.E (1976). Putting it all Together: A Guide to Strategic Thinking. New York. Amacom.
Alexander, W.F., & Serfass, R.W. (1999). Futuring Tools for Strategic Quality Planning in Eduction. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ASQ Quality Press.
Dear Darvesh,
I have read your assignment with interest. Overall, it is a good job done by you. Your work is quite well-organized; it needs a little fine-tuning. It could be seen as a very good starting point as a first draft. However, I have seen your contributions in and outside the class, and you can do much better than this…as I told some others also, your competition is with yourself only! You have made good use of literature, quite well-referenced. You might want to do the introduction differently; see my specific comments inserted in the text above for your detailed referencing and guidance. I have made some suggestions regarding sequencing also. I also invite you to deepen and enrich your notional understanding in the light of the comments/ questions raised above; reflect on the link/ connections between ST and SP more deeply.
I look forward to continued good work!
These are my comments so far; however, if you require, we can discuss them further.
If and when possible, the other two facilitators may also add their comments to help you further enrich your thinking and learning.
All the best!
Roshni kumari
April 26, 2008
[i] In 1991 during an attempt to scale Hunza peak, a Japanese climber was killed by an avalanche. The local community struggled very hard to find out the dead body of the climber from the glacier. The climber’s widow was also accompanying the community during their quest. After recovering the body, he has been buried in the area by fulfilling the last wish of the climber (last wish told to community by the widow). Keeping the hard work and unselfish efforts of the community the said climber’s widow offered a huge amount and assured of a continuous funding for a project in the memories of her late husband.
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