The little boy took every advantage of Information please. ‘I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.’ Information please came to the rescue… ‘Can you open the icebox?’ she asked. He replied he could.  ’Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger,’ said the voice.

After that, he called ‘Information Please’ for everything. He asked for help with his geography, and she told him where Philadelphia was. She helped him with his math. She told him his pet chipmunk that he had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts. This little boy gathered information for any question he desired.

Where do we go to gather our intelligence? Thinking we are getting the most accurate information possible, we often use the World Wide Web as our personal Information Please. Unfortunately, the computer only answers what it has been told. The information we receive is at times not only misleading but inaccurate as well. So what do we do then?

To gather the correct information needed to make an educated and informed decision, a little strategic thinking may be involved. You might follow five ways to gather intelligence as taught by CMOE in its strategy programs:

• Do your homework and research your target thoroughly (get knowledge hungry)

• Investigate and understand the environment you are working in, moving into, or encountering

• Decode and anticipate future trends, recognize patterns, and “connect the dots” (cause and effect links)

• Seek out accurate and objective information about your capabilities and readiness level

• Establish signals, harbingers, and mechanisms to track progress and alert you to opportunities and dangers

Sometimes it takes more than just clicking a key on the computer or picking up the phone to gather information. Regardless of whether we use ‘Information Please’ or the Internet to gather our intelligence to make a decision, we must make sure the information is accurate.

I recalled his first car accident (from 18 months ago) and how afterwards, we had created a step by step process to help him in the future. In addition to creating a process and with the hopes of being as strategic as possible, we discussed plausible outcomes that follow an accident and how he could handle each one. For me, I had thought this was an excellent opportunity to think ahead and plan for the future, as the odds of a car accident repeating itself in his lifetime were not in our favor. I made sure my husband had updated insurance cards in the car, an “accident packet” with phone numbers and our written process for what to do. In my mind, my husband had all he needed to manage such a situation effectively.
Following his second accident I took away three lessons for what now lies ahead:

1. You can never be too prepared. The path to become an effective strategic thinker does not end when the clock strikes 5 and you go home from work. For example, I could have talked to my husband a bit more about car insurance when we renewed the policy.
2. Think and re-think possible and plausible scenarios. Time, attitude, and experience changes and thinking strategically by anticipating this ever changing world allows us to be more prepared.
3. Plan. Execute. Adapt. Repeat. Thinking strategically means having a plan in place and executing the plan as needed. Change is inevitable and you must be proactive to the change, adapting, not reacting to it. Repeating the process is how we grow as strategic thinkers as there will always be a next time.

It was clear to me that day that thinking strategically is not a 9-5 job. Strategic Thinking is an ongoing responsibility that extends beyond work and into your day to day life. As you implement these few points you will be better prepared for the next time you hear the words, “Don’t be mad…” Wrecks happen. Deadlines happen. Obstacles happen. When we learn to think strategically, it makes us better prepared to control the situation, rather than the situation controlling us.

A strategy, on the other hand, is a blueprint, layout, design, or idea used to accomplish a specific goal. A strategy is very flexible and open for adaptation and change when needed.

I recently heard a great example of the difference between a plan and a strategy, using sports. This example serves to illustrate the difference between a soccer team’s plan or strategy to score a goal.

A soccer team with a plan to score a goal might begin with a throw-in to another specific player. The ball would then be passed to a designated offensive player who would then be responsible for shooting the ball into the goal. The succession of moves would be deliberate and would not be adjusted when risks or obstacles to the plan were presented.

A soccer team with a strategy to score a goal might also begin a play with a throw-in one of a few different teammates. The main idea would then be to move the ball forward and pass to open offensive players who would then shoot the ball at the goal. The succession of moves would be open for adaptation and change if the ball were intercepted or if other players were open for receiving the ball.

When planning for the future, which is undeniably unknown, it helps to strategize and consider the various scenarios you might be faced with and be prepared to modify your strategy so you can keep moving forward, rather than starting over at the beginning.

But wait just a minute, is success and productivity only measured by doing more and more and more? In our world today, this often seems to be the case. We have so many tools to help us get more done in a shorter time frame and it feels good to check things off the proverbial “to-do” list. However, just getting things done quickly isn’t always better. In fact, it is quite possible that we get so caught up in getting things done, that we might be spending our time on things that really don’t deserve our time and attention! When this happens, it means we are getting caught in the activity trap. Our focus is on checking off the “to-do” items, but we become nearsighted to the long-term horizon. Now you must ask yourself the question, “If I lose sight of the horizon, then what am I really doing today?” “If I can’t see the future, then are the things that I am checking off on my daily “to-do” list helping? Or are they hurting future opportunities?”

Question: Why do people get caught up in the magnetic pull of completing tasks?

Answer: Because it feels like forward movement which gives you a sense of accomplishment and can create pride and self-worth. While this is good, I want to suggest that we make sure our daily contributions are going toward the ultimate focus, the big picture in our lives. So when we finally reach that pinnacle and defining moment, we know we were on the right track. Then we truly reap the fruit of our labors. Imagine working thirty, forty, maybe even fifty years down a path that when it comes to an end, it does not align with your ultimate end objective. Wouldn’t that be frustrating and disappointing?

In order to make sure we have our daily contributions on track, it is important to do a little strategic thinking. That’s right. Just do a little more creative and critical thinking about what to do each day and how it will impact tomorrow. As an added benefit of forward thinking, you’ll be surprised at what items can fall off your daily “to-do” list. I don’t think any of us need more to do, our days are full enough as it is. What we need to do is make sure that what is on our plate belongs on our plate! Gaining control of our daily efforts creates a greater sense of accomplishment in the short and long term, as well as provides a sense of freedom. Freedom to do more with your time and freedom to spend your time focused on the right things. Everyday strategy is a concept that I believe can bring an added-value to you individually and to your organization.

Scenario 1 – Perhaps the storm wouldn’t be too bad and our facilitator would still arrive into Milwaukee without any glitches.

Scenario 2 – If the facilitator was delayed and unable to get into Milwaukee that night, we decided that we would start the workshop a few hours later since the participants were in town for an additional day and would be able to work later into the day and evening.

After discussing the two scenarios, we also made a plan to check in with each other 2 hours later to report the status of the facilitator’s flight. The first report, the airline loaded his flight and took off for Milwaukee. We hoped we had dodged the storm. A couple of hours later our facilitator called me to report that his flight had been diverted from Milwaukee to Grand Rapids, MI. He would not make it into Milwaukee that night. The plan was for him to get back on his flight and return to Atlanta for the night, and take the early morning flight and get into Milwaukee at around 8:30 am. If all went well he could still arrive in town and only have a delayed start.

Well, the next morning, I received a call from our facilitator; his flight had been delayed enough that he wouldn’t be able to get to Milwaukee in time to teach the workshop. This is when we began implementing scenario three. Our facilitator would teach the workshop from the Atlanta airport via telephone. This was possible because our client contact had seen the workshop on occasion and while he couldn’t teach the content, he could help keep structure and organization to the “tele-training.”

This created some additional everyday strategic thinking to take place. Since Atlanta is a busy airport, our facilitator was faced with a challenge to find a quiet location, that also had an outlet for power where he could keep his phone plugged in as well as his computer. With a little searching he was finally able to find a location, create a mini-mobile-workstation, and subsequently deliver a training session over the phone. The great part about this whole story is that it was a success. The company’s representative was amazed at the efforts that our team went through, from discussing the options to the final way we were forced to teach the workshop. While we couldn’t control the weather, we could control our focus and attention for how to cope with its inconvenience and put together a collaborative and strategic effort to make sure that the show went on, and pull it off successfully.

Because he was a go-getter, he had climbed the corporate ladder quickly, he never settled for anything less than being the best. He enjoyed playing corporate politics and found allegiances in the organization that assisted him in his progression. But, as my friend was heading for a very prestigious position in the organization, reports of company problems began to surface in the news papers and news channels. Stock prices began to decline. I assumed my friend was going to be okay considering his lifestyle and his aggressiveness.

A few months after I had heard the reports of the company financial problems, my friend called and asked me if I knew of any jobs out there for him. I was surprised to hear that he had been laid off with two weeks severance pay. Unfortunately, he was more surprised than I was. He said “it was a complete shock to him” and that he “never saw it coming.” This really surprised me. I wasn’t an employee of this organization and yet I read the paper and watched the news and heard months prior to his layoff that the company was struggling. Two questions went through my mind. Could the signs of impending layoffs have been out there for my friend to pay attention to? If the signs were there, what could my friend have done about it? The bottom line was, my friend was out of a job and according to his admission, he never saw it coming.

In CMOE’s workshop on Applied Strategic Thinking, we discuss the importance of being able to manage the stumbling blocks that may appear in the future. The ability to navigate through future impediments is critical to any successful strategy. The most important aspects of the navigation is gathering intelligence and then the expertise to scan the environment and analyze what could help or hinder future success. Additionally, having the ability to sort through clutter and use information that can lead to proper action is vital. I believe that if my friend had spent a short amount of time looking at the intelligence available months before, he may have been able to ask questions that could have prepared him for the job loss. More importantly, he would have been able to plan and prepare in the event that his job was eliminated.

There is no question that when you ask yourself better questions you are going to get better answers. The same exists with intelligence. The better you are at intelligence gathering, the more informed you are. Establishing regular intelligence gathering better prepares you for the future and helps you anticipate trends and patterns that exist, or will exist.

While most people won’t become world leaders or famous generals, many people will fulfill valuable roles in organizations. Your value will increase if you master the principles and skills of personal strategic thinking. These are skills that can be learned or acquired with just a little commitment and desire. Yes, there will be some formidable forces to overcome. You will have to be less enslaved by your own comfortable thought patterns and your traditional views and solutions to problems. You will have to develop patience and move away from the “task magnet” to give your mind a chance to breathe, think, reflect, and contemplate. You will have to resist constant pressure for instant results, quick fixes, and fast solutions to every challenge or dilemma. In short, you will have to be courageous and bold as you try to bring more balance and a strategic perspective into your life.

The journey to improve strategic thinking isn’t necessarily simple or easy. It takes an investment in training and practice. But the journey will be worth it. You can be more successful if you think ahead, determine what it will take to make a difference, and make a greater contribution. You can avoid a lot of heartache when you anticipate forces that can lift you up or take you down. By adopting a proactive mindset, you will be more prepared for those tough decisions, realities, and opportunities that come your way. You can prepare your team to weather the storms and to move out when the sun appears.

Experiment with these ideas, and add liberally to these fundamental skills and ideas as you steer your ship into the future. We are convinced the strategic process will change your life in positive ways with a little thought, with some heart, discipline, and with a lot of determined action.

“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created, created first in mind, then in will and next in activity. The future is not someplace we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made and the activity of making them changes the maker and the destination.” John Scharr