Strategic Thinking: Providing the Competitive
Edge
By
Dan McCauley
Journal Article |
Feb 11 2012 - 8:11am
Editor's Note:
In this essay, Dan McCauley states, "Given today’s dynamic and information-laden
strategic environment, senior leaders cannot possibly possess the depth and breadth of information
essential for informed decision making. Leaders depend upon their staffs to provide analysis,
assessments, and insights into the operating environment." When considering his discussion of strategic
thinking, ask yourself, "Do our staff structures truly provide the commander what he needs to facilitate
strategic thinking and strategic planning?" Staffs have grown significantly to take in the complexity of the
strategic environment and the complexity of our grandiose ends, however do these structures provide for
any coherent "big picture" thinking? Or only a lot of small picture details and tasks that, when
aggregated, mean nothing?
In his book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” Nassim Taleb states that “the
human mind suffers from three ailments as it comes into contact with history” (2007, 8). The first is the
“illusion of understanding” in which most people believe that they know far more than they do about our
complicated world. The second is “retrospective distortion,” or how people tend to view things with 20/20
hindsight after the fact, which gives the perception of a linear and causal history. The third is that of “the
overvaluation of factual information and the handicap of authoritative and learned people.” This ailment
pertains to the overlap between sources of information and the idea that the more information one is given,
the less information one actually receives (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel, 1998). This overload of the
same information induces confirmation bias and makes the world seem definitive when, in fact, it is
“fuzzy” at best (Taleb, 2007).
Cognitive ailments such as these are difficult to overcome and often times lead to myopic courses of
action. To bring a more balanced and holistic perspective to any strategic planning endeavor in today’s
volatile and chaotic environment, practitioners must apply strategic thinking. Senior leaders use strategic
thinking to create an organizational long-term vision that maintains flexibility (de Kluyver & Pearce,
2009). Given today’s dynamic and information-laden strategic environment, senior leaders cannot
possibly possess the depth and breadth of information essential for informed decision making. Leaders
depend upon their staffs to provide analysis, assessments, and insights into the operating environment. As
such, subordinates and staffs must develop strategic thinking competencies “to help an organization
identify, respond to, and influences changes in the environment” (Sanders, 1998, 146).
Sanders (1998) defines strategic thinking as the precursor to the development of a strategy or plan.
Strategic thinking is an examination of the environment and is an intuitive and creative process that
results in the fusion of issues, patterns, interrelationships, and opportunities. Insight and foresight are the
