Strategic Thinking Skills [repost]

Strategic thinking is a powerful and invaluable skill, one that leads to greater chances of success in whatever professional and personal projects you're involved in. It involves setting goals, developing long-range plans, anticipating the unexpected, analyzing your environment, and even cooperating with your competitors.

The only catch: Strategic thinking doesn't come naturally. Because most of us are static thinkers who tend to make decisions only for today, strategic thinking skills have to be learned, cultivated, practiced, and applied.

Mastering the art and craft of strategic thinking can help you

plan more effectively with an eye for avoiding unpleasant surprises;
impose a stronger sense of order on chaotic, disorderly projects and scenarios;
make savvier decisions and outsmart your competitors with greater confidence and ease; and
increase your productivity and satisfaction at work and at home.


The only catch: Strategic thinking doesn't come naturally. Because most of us are static thinkers who tend to make decisions only for today, strategic thinking skills have to be learned, cultivated, practiced, and applied.

Mastering the art and craft of strategic thinking can help you

plan more effectively with an eye for avoiding unpleasant surprises;
impose a stronger sense of order on chaotic, disorderly projects and scenarios;
make savvier decisions and outsmart your competitors with greater confidence and ease; and
increase your productivity and satisfaction at work and at home.

Learn How to Use Strategic Tools and Tricks

Central to Strategic Thinking Skills is Professor Ridgley's revealing look at the various tools and tricks that strategic thinkers have used throughout history to better approach problems and seek lasting solutions. Among those you'll learn how to use are

the indirect approach, a technique with its origins in military science that thwarts your opponent's expectations and offers you a much greater utility in achieving your objectives without approaching your opponent head-on;
the value chain, a method of strategic analysis that divides your team or organization into its value-producing activities so you can evaluate it and better inform yourself on its internal strengths and weaknesses;
the four actions framework, a strategy that consists of asking yourself four key questions to challenge your established logic and business structure in an effort to develop and implement a new value curve that will give you a stronger competitive advantage; and
the five basic behaviors of luck, a set of behaviors—including the hunching skill, the ratchet effect, and the pessimism paradox—that can greatly enhance the odds that you will fulfill your strategic plan.


Look also:

Natural Law and Human Nature

Neuroscience of Everyday Life

New Frontiers: Modern Perspectives on Our Solar System

No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life

Nutrition Made Clear

Oceanography: Exploring Earth's Final Wilderness

Odyssey of Homer

On the Frontiers of Astronomy

Origins of the Human Mind

Other 1492: Ferdinand, Isabella, and the Making of an Empire

The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works

The Art of Critical Decision Making

Terror of History: Mystics, He...tches in the Western Tradition

The Cathedral

The Conservative Tradition

The English Novel

The Everyday Gourmet - Making Healthy Food Taste Great

The Everyday Gourmet: Essential Secrets of Spices in Cooking

The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails Tastes and Traditions

The Great Principles of Science

The Greek and Persian Wars

The Modern Political Tradition: Hobbes to Habermas

Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language

Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World