ABSTRACT
A few years ago, a UK initiative, Professional Skills for Government (PSG), made strategic thinking a core skill that was important for the senior civil service. What is meant by ‘strategic thinking’? One definition of strategic thinking is that it is thinking ahead. This is a surprisingly rare activity in many public and private organizations with very many leaders focusing on the here and now, and on short-term matters. In contrast, strategic thinking pays a lot of attention to the future and thinking about long-term developments. This definition of strategic thinking is often implicit in the comments of politicians and civil servants. Arguably, it is a definition that has become more important over the last twenty years. There are also other definitions of strategic
thinking. Strategic thinking may be defined as thinking clearly about goals, situations, alternative options, resources, costs, benefits, and the feasibility of the actions under consideration. In effect, this can be seen as a specific form of thinking ahead, one in which goals figure very prominently. If strategic thinking is thorough when looking at alternative options and feasibility, time and resources are not wasted on actions that make little difference; in this sense, strategic thinking can also be defined as thinking which finds good ‘leverage points’ for bringing about change. Strategic thinking may also be defined as thinking which pays attention to strategic issues, which are issues vital to the overall success or even survival of the public services organization. This type of strategic thinking means, first, posing questions about fundamental issues in the right way to facililate the search for solutions and, second, thinking ‘out of the box’ to create new and novel solutions – and both of these steps in thinking are essential for strategic issue management (which we discuss in the next chapter). This view of strategic thinking, when the importance of clarifying the issues is stressed, may lead on to a concern to understand the interrelations between strategic issues. Strategic issue management is also endorsed by people who prize creativity in strategic thinking and the pursuit of innovation rather than simple efficiency.
