This article published on ProjectManagement.com by Mark Mullaly – March 27, 2025 may be of interest to some.
For your convenience an easy-printable version of this article can be accessed here
Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.
“You need to be more strategic.”
That’s an easy thing to say. It’s a very hard thing to do.
Part of the problem is understanding exactly what “more strategic” actually looks like. What’s involved? What does that look like? How do you get there? How do you know when you have arrived?
The other part of the problem is being able to step into that space when it hasn’t been your focus in the past. Signalling your capacity to change. Identifying that you have something to offer. Being accepted as someone who doesn’t just identify problems, but also helps to offer solutions.
An important first step in this journey is recognizing that defining a need to be “more strategic” can actually cover a host of potential behaviours. It might mean truly having better insights into future opportunities, consequences and implications. It can also mean being more discrete. More intentional. More direct. More politically aware. More politically sensitive. More diplomatic. More emphatic. More forthright. More thoughtful.
If that sounds like a lot, it is. If those sensibilities strike you as being in conflict, they are. If any of this prompts you to ask, “Do we know what this strategic thing is, anyway?” your inquiry would not be misplaced.
Navigating all of this requires some clarity on what we mean by strategic thinking. The good news is that it is possible to be specific about what that means, and what engaging in strategic thinking actually looks like.
Before we get there, it is probably helpful to identify why being “more strategic” is so complicated and awkward. To that, we owe a great deal to buzzwords. There is more that gets attributed to perspective and understanding. A final challenge is the degree to which being “more strategic” gets attached to stature and hierarchy, rather than substance and perspective.
To most people —especially in a business context— the notion of being “strategic” is seen as a very useful thing. One wants to be strategic. Value is associated with adopting a strategic stance. Strategy is the differentiator between exceptional and also-ran.
The challenge is being able to identify when you are there. When the concept of “strategic” can be so broadly interpreted, the reality is that everyone can be considered as adopting a strategic stance. And when everyone is being strategic, no one is.
If that sounds elitist and nuanced, then good. Having multiple, conflicting definitions of what “strategic” means helps no one. It obfuscates reality and provides cover to a lot of people with very little strategic mien to pretend and presume that they offer enormous insight and sage perspective.
I also want to make very clear that strategic isn’t about a “level” of thinking. Strategic thinking is not hierarchical, and the ability to think strategically isn’t tied to your position in the hierarchy. I have heard too many times the argument that senior management thinks strategically, while middle management is tactical and the front line is operational. The work may line up that way; the thinking most assuredly does not.
Strategic thinking can be the province of any person in the organization, from the CEO to the janitor. I can think strategically about the optimal way to mop the floors given current condition and circumstances, or I can follow my nose. You can think strategically about how to guide your organization into the future, or you can follow your nose. Title does not bestow strategic thinking ability. Competence does.
Strategic thinking lives at the intersection of perspective and reality. It is about making sense of the world around us, from a variety of viewpoints. It addresses future possibility and current situation. It evaluates context and forces that are shaping how that context is perceived. It considers known risks and potential opportunities. It what is known and contemplates what is uncertain. More importantly, it does all of this at the same time.
- Strategic thinking is about the big picture. There is a reason one of the seven habits of successful people is to “begin with the end in mind.” Ends matter, and having a clear picture of your final destination is a critical part of ensuring you get there. The clearer the result you are trying to create is, and the more fully developed your desired results, the more you are likely to attain them. You not only know where you are trying to go, but you also have a framework to evaluate and make choices about whether opportunities move you closer to that result or further away.
- Strategic thinking is about the creation of value. Not only do you need a picture of where you are trying to go, you need an appreciation of why that matters. This is not just about having a destination, but also a clear picture of why that destination is important. Knowing the value of the result you are trying to deliver again helps you evaluate and make choices. There will be options that can help maximize—or might undermine—the value that you care about. Over time, what needs to get produced to truly deliver that value might also change. Results only matter when you can use them to deliver the value you cared about in the first place.
- Strategic thinking is also about the tiny details. Strategic thinking isn’t only about the big picture. Tiny details also matter. You cannot leave the details to chance, or to other people. When details matter, they matter a lot, and leaving them unattended creates the very real likelihood that they get overlooked or are left unaddressed. This isn’t to say that you have to chase down all the details, all the time. You do, however, need to be focused on the particulars and specifics that are necessary for your results to be possible.
- Strategic thinking contemplates the optimal sequence to the end result. You need to be thinking about the optimal path to get to the delivery of your results. There are going to be critical results that are necessary along the way. You will need to be aware of the dependencies and sequence of events necessary to get to your goal. This includes not just thinking about the path you need to follow, but the points where you can build support and find reinforcement from others to make following that path more successful.
- Strategic thinking also contemplates deviation. There is no one, single path to follow. We all have our normal way of getting somewhere. Just as we adapt to circumstances and traffic conditions, we also need to be willing to shift our approach in working toward our goals. Strategic thinking pays attention to new opportunities opening up and new pathways emerging. It evaluates the benefits of making a shift versus sticking with our intended path.
- Strategic thinking adapts to context and current conditions. Situational awareness is critical to the realization of your goals. That means paying attention to what is going on around you, and whether conditions are favorable for success or not. That isn’t to undermine what you might be trying to do, but it is being aware of the right time and the right circumstances to optimize success. Knowing when there is emerging support, and also where there is opposition (or just distraction). You may need to speed up, slow down or course correct based on what is going on around you.
- Strategic thinking actively considers risks and opportunities…and how they change. Having a plan to realize your end results is important. Being open to roadblocks and potential accelerators is also vital. The most important thing to keep in mind is that thinking about uncertainty (whether it is favorable or not) isn’t a one-and-done thing. It is vital to stay aware of the risks you know, the opportunities that are emerging and the uncertainties that are developing around you.
What strategic thinking does most, however, is keep all of these streams of thought in play pretty much simultaneously. It is about being clear about overall intent, but also nimble enough to adapt and adjust when circumstances warrant it. In particular, it requires juggling and judging the differences between what you could do, what you are planning on doing, and what you haven’t considered doing yet. It involves weighing the option of staying the course over the possibility of making a shift. Most importantly, it involves doing all of that again, repeatedly, as you move closer to where you most want to achieve.
For your convenience an easy-printable version of this article can be accessed here
