Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

If you aspire to greatness, the process of strategic thinking must become second nature to you. How do you learn to think strategically, analyze your options, and make quick and smart decisions? This process is actually quite similar to the process of learning a foreign language. Here are a few suggestions for developing your ability to think on your feet and arrive at clear and sound conclusions:

Know your vocabulary. The basic elements of language are words—nouns, verbs, and adjectives—which the speaker arranges and orients in logical ways to form sentences and communicate thoughts and ideas. The elements of decision making are benefits, drawbacks, and objectives. You arrange these factors and weigh them against each other to arrive at the most advantageous solution. Naturally, the more words you know, the more you can say in a foreign language. Likewise, the better understanding you have of your own goals, the clearer awareness you can have of both sides of an issue. When you know very specifically what you want, it’s much easier to figure out what you can do without and what you must have. In this analogy, knowing your vocabulary ultimately means knowing yourself. What are your basic components, and what is your core objective?

Get a grip on grammar. Grammar is the system of rules that governs the structure of a sentence. A strong sense of the way words are ordered to convey meaning is obviously helpful in expressing yourself through language. In a similar way, understanding how an outcome will fit into the framework of your life helps you decide whether or not to pursue it. Pay close attention to the patterns in your life. What happens when you take risks? What are the recurring themes and consequences of certain kinds of decisions? Successful people have great intuition, and that comes in part from being aware of what kinds of actions they take that result in big strides forward. When learning a foreign language, you gradually tune in to patterns and structures that come up again and again. When learning to become a strategic thinker, you get into a groove of sensing what will result from certain actions. Your personal grammar is the system of behaviors that move you along through life.

Look at the big picture. Anyone who is developing his skills in a foreign language quickly learns that perfection is simply unattainable, that the most important thing he can do is just keep talking and communicating as clearly as he can at the time. Native speakers of the language in question will appreciate the effort and do their best to accommodate someone who’s learning. Similarly, as you are developing your strategic thinking skills, keep in mind that you’re not always going to make the absolute best decisions, but that what is far more important than this is your commitment to improvement. Pull back and look at the success of your decision-making over time, and you will see a gradual progression. Eventually, making wise decisions will come easily and naturally.

Focus on fluency. Conversation is about give and take, keeping the loop open. Smart decision making is also a continuous process that evolves and improves over time. You ask a question, and the other person answers and reciprocates with a question of her own. You are faced with an important decision, you evaluate, choose, and act, and you assess the outcome of the situation, using the experience to refine your ability to choose wisely in the future. You don’t need to make the perfect decision—you only need to keep making active choices and striving for excellence.

Practice. The more often you converse with others, the more feedback and information you get about the language. Over time, your speaking skills get better, until eventually you are communicating easily without thinking about how to put the right words together. The more often you practice thinking your options through, arriving at choices, and acting on them boldly, the better you get at making quick decisions and the less you have to dwell on what to do. Eventually, you are able to make very important decisions in a short period of time.

Filed under: Personal Strategic Planning
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1. […] Dave Lorenzo talks about learning how to think strategically and how it is similar to learning a new foreign language. […]

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