leadership development programme 2012 module 4 strategic thinking and decision making

Leadership Development Programme 2012

Module 4

Strategic Thinking and Decision Making

Leadership Development Programme 2012 | Module 4 | No. 2

Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making•Thinking Strategically•De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats model


Thinking Strategically


Thinking strategically

• Your boss has just told you to ‘think strategically’ about a challenge or issue

• What does this mean?



• Strategic thinking is about analysing opportunities and challenges from a broad perspective and understanding the potential impact your resulting decisions and actions might have on others

• Strategic thinkers visualise what might or could be, and take an holistic approach to day-to-day issues and challenges

• Strategic thinking is a process, rather than a onetime event



• When you think strategically, you consider the ‘bigger picture’ – the larger environment in which you’re operating

• You ask questions and challenge assumptions about how things work in your organisation and industry

• You gather complex, often ambiguous data and interpret it

• And you use the insights gained to make smart choices and chose appropriate courses of action

• Objective: to generate the best possible outcomes and results tomorrow from the opportunities presented to you today



Question:

• Why is strategic thinking important?

• What are the benefits for your organisation?


Thinking strategically – the benefits

• You set the direction - chart a course for your team that aligns with the overall corporate strategy

• You make smart longer-term decisions that complement and align with decisions that others across your organisation are making

• You gain your peoples’ commitment to supporting your decisions

• You boost your team’s performance and maximise business results

• You foster a culture that supports fresh thinking and embraces strategic initiatives and change


What are the steps in strategic thinking?

• Strategic thinking can be divided into two phases, each consisting of specific steps:

• Phase 1 – setting the stage/context

• Phase 2 – applying your skills


Phase 1 – setting the scene

Phase 1 consists of two steps:

1. Seeing the bigger picture – understanding the broader business environment in which you operate

2. Articulating strategic objectives – determining what you hope to achieve by thinking strategically


Phase 2 – applying your skills

Phase 2 consists of five steps:

1. Identifying relationships, patterns and trends – spotting patterns across seemingly unrelated areas/events; categorising related information to reduce the number of issues to be dealt with at one time

2. Getting creative – generating alternatives/options; visualising new possibilities; challenging your assumptions; opening yourself up to new information

3. Analysing information – sorting out, analysing, and prioritising the most important information relevant to the situation


Phase 2 – applying your skills

Phase 2 consists of five steps:

4. Prioritising your actions – staying focused on your objectives while handling multiple demands and competing priorities

5. Making trade-offs – recognising the potential advantages and disadvantages of an idea or course of action; making choices regarding what you will and won’t do; balancing short- and longer-term concerns


‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes’ Marcel Proust


De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Model


Looking at a topic from all points of view


Six thinking hats

• ‘Six Thinking Hats’ is a powerful strategic thinking technique that helps you look at opportunities and challenges from a number of different perspectives

• It helps you make better decisions by pushing you to move outside traditional or habitual ways of thinking

• It helps you understand the full complexity of a situation, and spot issues and opportunities which you might otherwise not notice

• This globally renowned tool was created by Dr. Edward de Bono in his book ‘Six Thinking Hats’


Six thinking hats

• Unstructured thinking can be confusing, and emotional at times• Without a framework, creative thinking can ‘jump around’ and it can

be difficult to reach a conclusion• ‘Six Thinking Hats’ is a tool designed to change the way individuals or

a team thinks and communicates• The six hat model suggests that there are six basic types of thinking

represented by six coloured hats.• Each hat can be used at different points in the thinking process to

provide an effective ‘strategic thought framework’


Six thinking hats

• ‘Six Thinking Hats’ is a good technique for looking at a problem or the effects of a decision from a number of different points of view

• It allows necessary emotion and scepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions

• Decisions and plans will mix ambition, skill in execution, sensitivity, creativity, critical appraisal, ‘what if’ thinking and good contingency planning

• The ‘Six Hats’ approach defuses disagreements, reduces adversarial thinking and encourages clearer, more effective thinking and idea development


Six thinking hats

The White HatInformation available and needed

The Red HatIntuition, feelings, and hunches

The Black HatCautions and difficultiesWhere things might go wrong

The Yellow HatValues and benefitsWhy something might work

The Green HatAlternatives and creative ideas

The Blue HatManaging the thinking process


White hat- the information hat

• With the white thinking hat on, you focus on facts, reality:

• What information do we have?• What information do we need?• What information is missing?• What questions do we need to ask?• How are we going to get the information we

need?


Red hat- the feelings hat

• With the red thinking hat on, you focus on:

• Your feelings• Your emotions• Your intuition• Gut feel• Empathy – how others might react emotionally• Trying to understand the intuitive responses of

people who do not fully know your reasoning


Black hat- the critical appraisal hat

• With the black thinking hat on, you:

• Look at things carefully, cautiously and defensively – try to see why ideas and approaches might not work

• Consider the weaknesses, threats, risks involved

• Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans tougher and more resilient – identifies weaknesses and risks

• Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance, leaving them under-prepared for difficulties


Yellow hat- the ‘glass half-full’ hat

• With the yellow thinking hat on, you focus on:

• Positive thinking• The optimistic viewpoint – best possible

outcomes• The benefits and value of the decision• The opportunities that arise from it• Constructive thinking, making things happen

• Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult


Green hat- the creative hat

• With the green thinking hat on, you focus on:

• Energy• Creativity• Brainstorming• Freewheel, blue skies thinking• Proposals, new ideas, new concepts, suggestions• Options, alternatives• Change• New approaches to problems


Blue hat- the process hat

• With the blue thinking hat on, you focus on:

• Managing the thinking process

• The Blue Hat is the hat worn by people chairing meetings

• When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat or Yellow Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, and so on


Using the six hats

• There are two basic ways to use the hats:• Singly, to request a specific type of thinking, e.g. ‘I think we need

some Green Hat thinking here to inject some ideas and suggestions’ or ‘I think we need some Black Hat thinking at this point to identify the risks involved’

• In sequence to explore a subject or solve an issue or problem


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leadership development programme 2012 module 4 strategic thinking and decision making

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