Learning to Think Strategically Quotes

“The better the questions, the more attentive the listening, the richer the reflection, the better the solutions, and the deeper is the learning.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The focus, however, should not be to find the perfect model, as our strategy environment is far too unpredictable, unstable, and uncertain; rather, the focus needs to be on strengthening people’s strategic thinking capability. We”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“he thinks that he needs to ask questions to get clear in his own mind—so he talks to everybody he can, not just in textiles or manufacturing. He likes to debate because he never believes anything anybody tells him; so he always says that debate is a way to test and purify ideas. (laughter)”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Creating a culture where learning is valued, knowledge is shared, and critical dialogue is practiced is among the most challenging issues facing conscientious executives and those responsible for supporting strategic thinking.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The AAR is not an open-ended brainstorming session, but a straightforward process of experiential learning structured around five questions: 1. What was the intent? What was the strategy at the time the action began? What was the desired outcome? How was the strategy expected to be achieved? 2. What actually happened? What were the actual events as they occurred within a specific timeframe? Who did what? Where? How? When? Reactions? Blame is not ascribed but, rather, a factual chronology is collaboratively pieced together. 3. Why did it happen? This is the diagnostic portion. Commentary is offered about possible reasons why the specific outcome was not the intended strategic intent, or about reasons for success. 4. How can we do better? What was learned? 5. What do we do now?”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Critical questions from inside and outside the organization should essentially center on: How will this decision promote or prevent the strategic intent, and the corporate mission and values? What impact will this decision have on individual development (business value/social contribution)? Where do”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Another option is to ask a question from an opposing point of view or to ask: “Why not?” or “How else?” Draw questions from both the surf and the dive domains”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“good questions are: ■ offered with a caring and sharing intent; ■ presented as selfless and not asked to “show off” the knowledge or wit of the questioner; ■ asked with courage and are difficult to answer; ■ supported with good listening; ■ followed through with time for reflection.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Good questions take courage to ask and cause us to stretch and squirm. They help us to unveil truer perspectives or beliefs, and challenge assumptions that prevent us from taking a new and different action. Good”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The ability to ask good questions in an environment of risk, constant change, confusion, and uncertainty is, however, a competitive strategic advantage. In these”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Good critical dialogue is informed, in the sense that the partners have substantive knowledge and engage from a position of curiosity in wanting to understand the other person(s). Starting with”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Talk to many people and read everything, and insist that others ask you questions. We must think about what we don’t know. I think that I talk to so many different people and bring our different ideas and opinions together—and that’s very good. Sometimes maybe it looks like we spend a lot of time talking about things that are not related to economics or technology, but everything is connected when you’re trying to put together a big puzzle—so why not? It’s the most helpful thing.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Speaking, listening, and critically reflecting are three parts of a good strategy dialogue. The”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Dialogue encourages win-win scenarios and does not try to convince or convert others. Rather, the emphasis is on a cycle of asking good questions and using focused listening. Critical dialogue emphasizes the creation of shared meaning rather than imposing or pushing the meaning of any one person or any single frame, and dialogue supports the learning process by enabling us to see things more truly and honestly. The role of critical dialogue in learning to think strategically is to pose dive-level questions for the purpose of diverging thought, challenging premises, and making assumptions explicit, rather than generating answers. Critical dialogue”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Engaging in the dive domain expands frames of reference and can lead to frame shifting, shattering, and reframing. Dramatic transformational experiences that shatter our frame of reference, often provoking fear as they transport us far outside our comfort zone, may provide a catalyst for strategic thinking and present an opportunity to dive to the deepest level of learning.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Mental frames of reference are belief schema, an organized cognitive way of perceiving a complex set of patterns and decisions. Business”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The surf domain explores the surface level of an issue by understanding the cause–effect relationship of the problem. Surf learning employs “how-to” models and is more effective for strategic planning than for fostering strategic thinking. By contrast, the dive learning domain involves challenging deeply held beliefs and assumptions while critically examining the true nature of a strategic problem. We accomplish this through critical dialogue, critical inquiry, critical thinking, and critical reflection.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Insightful critical reflection on the data, information, and knowledge is essential to exposing our assumptions and beliefs about the premise of a strategic problem. Reflective”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“addressed. Innovative, sustainable, and adaptable strategy becomes possible because the dive domain of learning allows for renewal and the re-creation of strategy. This is the domain of learning that “involves identifying ideas, values, beliefs, and feelings, critically examining the assumptions upon which they are based, testing their justification through rational discourse, and making decisions predicated upon the resulting opinion.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“making and facilitating strategy. Knowledge of the surf and dive learning domains can facilitate learning from experience. When strategy works well, executives rarely focus on improving their strategic thinking, which is taken for granted. Only when problems creep up and the company’s profit, revenue, market share, or reputation is at risk do the sirens blare.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Clients with whom I have worked have occasionally experienced this kind of intense, life-redefining frame change as a result of major loss—both expected or unexpected—such as a corporate takeover, the death of a partner, spouse, or child, or the diagnosis of a critical disease, to name just a few. An intense transformational learning experience can also result from a gain, such as the realization that over the years their income has ballooned to substantially more than that of their parents, a successful corporate takeover, the birth of a child, recovery from a critical illness, or adjusting to living in a different country. Executives who have experienced learning in these circumstances sometimes claim to feel “enlightened” or to have become a “new person.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Truly transformational learning requires that we experience situations that put us totally outside of our known zone, well beyond the realm of familiarity and control—so much so that our world feels mangled or turned upside down.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“This automobile scenario illustrates why developing a capacity to use dive learning is an essential part of any strategic thinking approach. A competitive strategy does not result from brilliant analysis or brilliant people alone. Critical reflection, critical inquiry, and critical dialogue must be woven into the strategic thinking process. Risk-management”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“The U.S. corporate strategists and CEO had concentrated only on the economic and financial research, at the expense of cultural, social, and political information and data. Shortly”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“In my consulting practice, I am astounded by the number of global executives who have developed or are developing business in emerging markets and lack even a rudimentary knowledge of, or interest in, frames that are historical, cultural, humanitarian, social, military, and political in nature. Not only do these business leaders not seek out these frames, they often dismiss such frames as being irrelevant, superfluous, and time consuming. Including diverse data, points of view, and perspectives in a strategic dialogue is essential to maintaining a competitive strategic edge. The implication of these missing frames is the emergence of blind spots, and their impact on long-term business strategy is the writing on the wall.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“dive learning has more nuanced validity tests, including the assessment that others make of our own (and each other’s) authenticity, truthfulness, and qualifications. Dive learning is heavily influenced by and, in turn, shapes or transforms the cultural context in which we act. We can easily draw erroneous conclusions from reflection alone on the content of our experience, leading to a closed cycle of non-learning. Therefore, practices such as reflecting on the foundations of our beliefs (premise reflection) and publicly testing our conclusions with others are effective validity tests within this domain of dive learning.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Surf learning holds to validity tests of facts, measurements, and outcomes; something is true or false, accurate or inaccurate. The validity test is seen in concrete experience—something either happens or it does not; there is a result or there is not. This kind of testing is typical and familiar in strategy discussions and debates. Meanwhile,”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Change the location of strategy meetings. Create an element of surprise. ■ Invite provocative conversations and presentations with “outsiders,” including those outside a functional group, a product group, an industry sector, or a particular level of management. ■ Establish interactions with non-experts, academics, politicians, consultants, professionals from various fields, children, teenagers, young adults, middle-age and mature adults, religious leaders, people from an extreme range of economic backgrounds, and those of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. ■ Volunteer to be part of an action-learning team to solve a problem for tasks that are outside of familiar functional or product areas. ■ Join conversations, discussions, and meetings where your frame is an outlier. ■ Participate in high-level strategy-making meetings and code the frames represented as points of view are expressed. ■ Note any frame omissions that could bring value.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“I have observed this narrowing of perspective, particularly in times of urgency and desperation, when strategy is deteriorating and executives are frantically seeking a new strategy. Well-intentioned but blind loyalty can quickly undermine strategic thinking.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

“Whose frames are habitually included in strategy meetings? What other frames could be valuable, but are excluded? Often, shifting or shattering some organizational or individual frames is required in order to expand the range of frames.”
― Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically