HBR guide to thinking strategically

Description

Bring strategy into your daily work. As a manager, it's your responsibility to ensure that your work--and the work of your team--aligns with the overarching objectives of your organization. But when you're faced with competing projects and limited time, it's difficult to keep strategy front-of-mind. How do you think about the long term when the short term demands your attention? You need to change the way you think. The "HBR Guide to Thinking Strategically" provides practical tips and advice to help you see the big picture, so you can take that perspective into account in every aspect of your daily work--from making decisions to setting team priorities to attacking your own to-do list. You'll learn how to: understand your organization's strategy; align your team with key objectives; set and execute strategic priorities; spot trends in your company and in your industry; consider future outcomes when making decisions; manage trade-offs.--  Read more... What You' ll Learn Contents Introduction: Why Everyone Needs to Think Strategically Section 1: Getting Started * Ch. 1: Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills * Ch. 2: To Be Strategic, Balance Agility and Consistency * Ch. 3: Prove You?re Ready for the Next Level by Showing Off Your Strategic Thinking Skills Section 2: Understand Your Organization?s Strategy * Ch. 4: Understanding Your Organization's Strategy * Ch. 5: Strategy Isn't What You Say, It's What You Do * Ch. 6: Building a Strategic Network Section 3: Develop a Big-Picture Perspective * Ch. 7: Spotting Trends and Patterns That Affect Your Business * Ch. 8: Look at Your Company from the Inside Out * Ch. 9: Thinking Long-Term in a Short-Term Economy * Ch. 10: The Future Is Scary. Creative Thinking Can Help * Ch. 11: Zoom In, Zoom Out Section 4: Align Decisions with Strategic Objectives * Ch. 12: Reflect on Your Actions and Choices * Ch. 13: Seven Steps for Making Faster, Better Decisions * Ch. 14: How to Make Better Decisions with Less Data Section 5: Set Priorities and Manage Trade-Offs * Ch. 15: A Better Way to Set Strategic Priorities * Ch. 16: How to Prioritize When Your Manager Is Hands-Off * Ch. 17: Identify and Kill Outdated Objectives * Ch. 18: What to Do When Strategic Goals Conflict * Ch. 19: Assess and Manage Trade-Offs Section 6: Align Your Team Around Strategic Goals * Ch. 20: To Be a Strategic Leader, Ask the Right Questions * Ch. 21: An Exercise to Get Your Team Thinking Differently About the Future * Ch. 22: Communicating a Corporate Vision to Your Team Section 7: Move from Thinking Strategically to Executing Strategy * Ch. 23: Execution Is a People Problem, Not a Strategy Problem * Ch. 24: How to Excel at Both Strategy and Execution * Ch. 25: How the Most Successful Teams Bridge the Strategy-to-Execution Gap * Ch. 26: Get Your Team to Do What It Says It's Going to Do Section 8: Navigate Strategic Thinking Challenges * Ch. 27: When You Think the Strategy Is Wrong * Ch. 28: When Your Boss Gives You Conflicting Messages * Ch. 29: When the Strategy Is Unclear, in Flux, or Always Changing Appendix A: Questions to Inspire Strategic Thinking Appendix B: Organizational Strategy: A Primer Index