Beating the strategic thinking blues
I recently started working with Chief and read a great blog post (not sure if this link will be accessible…) about how to make time and space for strategic thinking, which executives almost universally know is one of their highest-impact activities and yet universally find themselves unable to fit it into their days.
I think there are two hurdles to making space for strategic thinking: creating the time and space for it and then having a plan for how to go about it. Chief’s blog offered some great suggestions about how to make space for strategic thinking. Which left me curious about what to do once you’ve cleared that hurdle.
It can be awfully daunting to have a two-hour block on your calendar for strategic thinking and feel like you’re twiddling your thumbs waiting for those big strategic thoughts to land in your lap in those first few quiet moments. That’s when we turn to our email inbox, checking social media, or wandering to the kitchen for a snack we’re not hungry for.
Here’s a process that has worked for me, so I offer it to you:
Before your planned strategic time, think back to the last 10 times you found yourself having those big amazing thoughts, new ideas, or breakthroughs – what time of day was it? Who were you with? Where were you? What were you doing?
When you plan for your strategic time, find a way to incorporate one or many of these elements. Do your best thinking early in the day? Make that calendar block in the morning! Get your best thoughts when bantering back and forth with a particular colleague or friend? Ask them to join you for part of it to spark your thinking! And so on.
Have specific prompts, questions, inquiries, or topics to engage yourself with when your strategic time rolls around. Hoping that big magical thought will just land in your head is inviting a big fat plop of nothing and an itch to do something else that feels “productive”. Start yourself off with a focused question to get your thoughts going, like: What do I hope is different one year from now?
If you have no idea how to dig in, start with something here and see what happens, and be ready to change your process to do the things that help you be best positioned to think those big fancy thoughts!
This is one of the views I know will spark my big thoughts!
