Strategic Thinking

Session 2
AGENDA
• Attitudes in Strategic Thinking (Passive,
Reactive, Proactive)
• Scenario Screening
• Micro and Macro Thinking
• The Anatomy of Business Strategy
Attitudes in Strategic Thinking
• There are generally three types of
attitudes in the Strategic Thinking:

• Passive: change happens.

• Reactive: wait for change before
reacting to it.
• Proactive: anticipate change and, if you
can, even bring about desirable
change.
•A scenario is a sets of assumptions in a preset
conditions which might be taken place due to
assumed triggers resulting in definable sets of
course of action!
•Scenario Screening helps strategist to predict
the possibilities and consequences in the future,
while they ain’t taken place.

Scenario Screening
• Think but do not expect to find out what will happen in
the future.
• The scenarios should be Thought together and as a
whole.
• They are basically about possible directions.
•The unforeseeable is not included.
•Above all, the scenarios are frameworks for action.
•In the light of the above, the strategic thinker should not
forget that mapping out the scenarios is just one more
step in a process of strategic thinking.

Key Issues in Scenario Screening

Micro and Macro
Thinking
 • The macro view is the “big picture” way to
look at things. Large in scope and concerned
with the final result, this is the mindset you
want to have as you take stock of where
you’ve been and where you want to be in the
future. This type of thinking is ideal for
setting your goals, identifying the skills that
you would one day like to have, and creating
a long-term plan to acquire them.

Macro Thinking
 • Macro thinking would include goal
setting, visualization exercises, time
management, scheduling a practice
routine, and thinking in a larger time
frame
– months and even years ahead. Basically,
this is the planning stage before you start the
dirty work and once you’ve begun, it’s a
mindset that you can return to that will give
you a continuing sense of perspective.

Macro Thinking
 • A macro mindset is best applied at times
when you are away from your business tools
and outside of the practice environment.
Remember, you’re setting your goals here so
stick to planning where you want to be in the
future and keep your sights on the end result.

Macro Thinking
 • The micro view on the contrary, is focused
on the specific details of the task at hand.
You’ve already identified your big goals, so
here you are zeroing in on the daily tasks and
skills that will eventually get you to this goal.
With micro thinking you are not concerned
with the big picture, instead you have a small,
well-defined task that you focus on intently
and strive to master.

Micro Thinking
 • With micro thinking, you break those big
goals apart, separate them into manageable
pieces, and identify the individuals skills that
are required. This is the type of mindset to
use as you approach your daily routine; you
have a limited amount of time, you’re dealing
with small units of information, and you have
a specific goal to achieve at the end of each
action or task.

Micro Thinking
 • A micro mindset is crucial when you enter the
office. You need to be focused on details and
have a specific time frame in which to
accomplish a task (e.g. 30 minutes or an
hour). Don’t worry about the ultimate goal, so
much as the immediate task at hand.

Micro Thinking
 • Focusing skills: attending to selected bits and
pieces of information and ignoring others
• Information gathering skills: skills used to bring to
consciousness the content to be used for
cognitive processing
• Remembering skills: activities or strategies that
are used to store information in long-term
memory and to retrieve it
• Organizing skills: arranging information so it can
be understood or presented more effectively

Micro Thinking Skills

 • Analyzing skills: clarifying existing information by
examining parts and relationships
• Generating skills: using prior knowledge to add
information beyond what is given
• Integrating skills: putting together the relevant
parts or aspects of a solution, understanding,
principle, or composition. New information and
prior knowledge are connected and combined.
• Evaluating skills: assessing the reasonableness
and quality of ideas

Micro Thinking Skills

Anatomy of Business
Strategy
 Every Business Strategy Should :
• Define the Arenas
• Describe the Vehicles
• Indicate the Differentiators
• Determine the Stating
• Have a proven Economic Logics
Skills
Assessing your Strategic Thinking Skills