Strategic thinking Essay

For organizations, strategic thinking entails finding, developing and evaluating a strategic foresight by exploring the future opportunities and identifying the strategic decisions that would get them to the identified destination. As a thought process, strategic thinking is interconnected and complementary to strategic planning. Strategic thinking identifies innovations and new futures that may make the organization to redefine their strategies whereas strategic planning involves realizing and developing strategies after they have been developed through strategic thinking. Strategic thinking creates a competitive edge for the organization through identifying and strengthening activities, which bring unique experiences and value to the consumer. There are various approaches to strategic thinking, sometimes referred to as strategic thinking competencies. The approach welcomes new ideas and experiences and guides the organization in adopting new methods for new opportunities.

The fourth approach, which is thinking in Time, links the organizational past, the current situation, and the future. In this case, a strategy is the bridge that links the current position with the identified future. In creating the future ideal situation for an organization, the strategic thinker must consider the organizational capabilities or simply the achievements of the past. The fifth approach of strategic thinking is hypothesizing. As a concept, systems thinking can be applied in many fields such as political, economic, medical, environmental, education, human resources and biological systems. In systems thinking, the systemic behavior is achieved as a result of the effects of balancing and reinforcing processes. A reinforcing process increases some system component. If unchecked via balancing process, reinforcement can eventually lead to a collapse.

Therefore, a balancing process is the one that appears to maintain a state of equilibrium or optimize a system. Another tool of system thinking applicable in our organization is the Simulation Model. The simulation model is used to simulate interactions of the systems elements overtime (Arévalo & Espinosa, 2015, p. According to Arévalo & Espinosa (2015, p. 26), examples of situations in which the approach of systems thinking has been worthwhile include: • Complex problems that require explaining the big picture to the other actors rather than concentrating on the part in question • Problems that are recurring in nature or the ones whereby previous attempts to solve them worsened the situation • Problems where an action would affect or be affected by the current environment • Lastly, problems whose solutions are not apparent Most of the challenges that plague individuals and organizations today are often complex.

So many actors are involved and are at times, they are because of past corrective measures. Since the elements of a complex system are many and highly interconnected, it is often difficult to identify the causative agents in every effect. Thus, the complexity thinking approach is based on the contention that not a single complex system is closed. The idea that a broad understanding of systems thinking is essential for developing long-term rather than the short-term solution is evident in an event where I work. The organization was experiencing an issue, as the number of customers was not improving. A highly experienced team was trying everything they could to try to solve the issue. They should not come up with short-term solutions to solve the situation at hand only to cause multiple problems in the future.

This is where systems thinking, apply, as in this case, the elements of the whole ecosystem are highly interconnected and thus can only be addressed as a whole; otherwise, the company will either lose their consumers, suppliers, employees or the social backings. There is a need to recognize the importance of social interaction, coordination, and communication, to facilitate sharing of knowledge. The practice theory, which is an important theory of organizational functioning and operations, explains how social beings having different intentions and motives, transform the world in which they live in. In this case, organizations have different employees with different perspectives, goals, and preferences. In systems thinking, problems are perceived as signs of an underlying system, since the whole ecosystem is interconnected.