Strategic Thinking: Combining Long Term Planning with Everyday Action©
Perspective, self discipline, knowing better, doing the right thing……………… are all words for getting out of the action to really think through one’s best course of action. Proactive versus reactive come to mind.
Why is it so much easier to just do and do, manage crises, put out fires, without thinking, planning, and making everyday action purposeful? I don’t have an answer or better yet a useful answer to this question. At times it seems, counter intuitive or anti instinctual to plan ahead. There seems to be a split. Either we are planning ahead with plans that aren’t relevant. Or, we are in the mix and losing our sense of direction. Both sides of the same coin of chaotic, lost, going nowhere activity.
And it seems easier because we get enough of the basic rewards out of it. We are making a profit on our time and money. We are taking care of our family and children and relatives. We are getting by and maybe even better materially. So, we don’t have a “in your face” reason to want to set the whole coin down and see if there is a better form of currency. “If it aint broke, don’t fix it”. However, for some people, it is not easier. And probably these people could be you and the others reading this book. For you, it is getting harder to solve problems every day, have stress that never subsides but stays with one new problem after another.
It is not easier because you are getting older. You can’t just do the same routines and patterns like you used to.
It is not easier because your family and children are growing right before your eyes. And even when you are with them, you are not emotionally present. You are absent so many ways, you feel some loss.
It is not easier because the material wealth and status you have doesn’t seem as important as it did. And now that you have it, more of the same efforts doesn’t really get you that much more material wealth and status.
It is not easier because you feel something in your body, your stomach, your thoughts, that something is missing. You feel there must be another way. You might feel you want to end the whole thing and retire, or end the whole thing and do something else. In whatever form, feelings of “missing” arise. They are small and subtle and they refuse to go away.
Strategic Thinking is our way of making a new coin. Gone is Planning that is divorced from reality.
Gone is reacting and crisis managing with no plan or goal or direction. Strategic Thinking is a new coin where planning and action are combined. It is the currency of spending your everyday time so that they move you towards and reach your long term goals.
It is designed so your thinking time is relevant to what you are doing daily. It is designed so your long term planning and day to day problems are conversing with each other and from that interaction able to be successful.
It is designed so that your “thinking” time is restful, stress less, comforting and productive.
It is designed so that the very design is one that works for you and your personality. It fits with your work habits and schedules. It help you stay motivated and on course. Spend the right currency and spend it well.
Frequently Asked Questions with Answers from Darrell Potts........
Darrell, Why the word "strategic"?
That word gets used often nowadays. It seems to refer to something a little more than we normally think about things. The "big picture" is also used in similar references. And, then you get the other well used phrase, "thinking outside the box". With all these, there is an assumption: when we make decisions, we don't consider all the important possibilities. For example, "unintended consequences" are the unthought out results of our action(s) which cloud or prevent success. Strategic thinking is an attempt to think through as many "results" that come from our actions that defeat our actions. We can’t prevent every unintended consequence. However, we can create a dynamic thinking process and plan that allows us to adapt and change as we pursue our goals.
Why the word "thinking"?
Thinking is a neutral predicate. Fancy huh? By that I mean it says something is happening in the mind but does not specify anything. The next question to ask when someone uses the word "thinking" is "what do you mean by that?"
What do you mean by "thinking"?
Once again we talk about left brain/right brain. While that has turned out to be an oversimplification, there is usefulness to it. In thinking, there are two general processes, the rational-analytical-problem solving (RAP) and the intuitive-experiential-creative (IEC). I characterize RAP as thinking within the box and IEC as thinking outside the box. We need both. And fact, it is both of them working together that gets us the best Results.
Why are you promoting this for business owners and professionals?
It is not so much a promotion as awareness that this is how successful people work. They get Perspective. They step back from what they are doing. They are both analytical and intuitive. Business people don't think they have the time or the resources to do it. And they don't consider it that important. They think they must keep on keeping on....or all hell will break loose. In fact, it is just the opposite. When they can step back and strategize, they become more efficient, more focused, more effective and get the Results they want.
What's your claim to success?
I have worked in businesses and worked on management levels. It is with Strategic Thinking that I have been the most effective, appreciated, and successful. Now as I accumulate this experience and make it available to others, I see them being successful as well.
Why do you think you are good at this?
Well, because people tell me I am, and because I have a knack for it. I am both analytical and intuitive. I like being intuitive. I enjoy its results. Yet it must be integrated with the analytical. I enjoy even more the integration. It is my talent!
What’s first in developing a Strategic Plan?
Developing Perspective comes first. My clients learn how to step back. They get to experience their world from the perspective of “stepping back”. They can view their past, present, and future in a calm, productive, and rational manner. With this view, we can expand from analysis to creativity and use the best aspects of both.
Then what?
From there we can then understand the desire for a dynamic plan. It is one that has a definite structure and is open to continual change. The plan is laid out and filled in constantly as its implementation gives us feedback to complete the plan and learn from the actual doing. We use “Inside Out Management” a tool I have developed that allows us to understand the problem and work out to results on whatever level we are discussing.
Inside Out? What’s that?
Inside out is the process in which we face the facts of the problem directly. We go Inside and then work Out to the resolution. It is unique in that it addresses directly and efficiently what we have to do first instead of talking around and about what should be done.
And what is this dynamic plan you refer to?
The dynamic plan is an adaptation of the Neurological Levels as presented by Robert Dilts of Neuro Linguistic Programming. It is a five level process that is continually being developed and reviewed. It compliments Perspective and continues decision making on an enhanced and continually updated level.
Why such a seemingly complicated, ongoing, and five level plan?
Because as we are working the plan, a person’s business is going on. The facts on the ground will get our attention. And now, instead of getting involved in the day to day without Perspective, the Plan gives us Perspective. We can now deal with the “fires” in such a way that they plug into the Strategic Plan. Now, every fire, every fix also promotes the middle and long term goals of the plan. And slowly, the fires become less. The fixes become unnecessary. We are in a constant motion of the present and the future. Each one assists the other. This is where and when the business gets Results.
The Strategic Plan itself, on paper, is a dynamic continually changing document that reflects your movement towards its completion. It reflects how you are doing.
It also organizes and focuses you into get moving and doing the rights things in the most effective order and most efficiently.
Let’s get back to your immediate problems and concerns, The dynamism of the Strategic Plan……the ongoing thinking and planning is through your everyday problems and concerns. As they arise, we deal with them.
We combine your Strategic Plan on paper with your immediate problems and concerns while tapping all of your resources to keep you moving towards your success.
And, now the “thinking” about your problems and immediate concerns is now “strategic”. You are no longer fixing crises and putting out fires. Each problem coming your way is dealt with in a new context. The context is shifted from “crisis management” to “Strategic Action”. Immediately and over time, your business changes for the better as the “crises” become looked forward to as opportunities to grow your business. And the “crises” lessen in number and intensity as your immediate problems and concerns are so interconnected and part of your grand goal or Vision.
Strategic Thinking and Planning welcomes your problems and concerns as the starting point and continual stepping off each day, week, month and year. It is the Strategic Thinking that makes the differences and allows each step and resolution to be your Plan towards the attainment of your Vision!
You can work hard and get no where with daily crisis management, putting out fires, and reacting to what your business throws at you. Or, you can work at hard shifting your problems and concerns into a Strategic Plan and Thinking context that actually resolves problems and grows your business. It is your choice.
Strategic Thinking: Combining Long Term Planning with Everyday Action
Performance Solutions
Inside Out Management
Inside Out Strategic Planning
Perspective
Interactional Management