Strategy Isn’t a Plan. It’s a Decision System.
- Dr. Jeff Doolittle
- Feb 8
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 9
Leaders set strategy to turn goals into reality—whether it's sustainability, faster speed to market, stronger leaders, or a clearer purpose. The strategic plan isn't where execution breaks down. It breaks after the offsite—when priorities collide—and decisions revert to hierarchy, politics, or local discretion. In most organizations, it isn’t a strategy problem. It’s a strategy-to-execution system problem.
Only a small fraction of employees—often cited at around 5%—can explain their company strategy in a way that guides their performance. When a strategic plan is built in a tight circle and only communicated at a high level, the workforce lacks what execution requires: who makes which decisions, under what conditions, the decision criteria, and explicit trade-offs. Performance and commitment erode—not because people don’t care about the strategy, but because the organization can’t reliably tell them what “aligned” looks like when the real work gets complicated.
An “inclusive strategy” can either reduce risk or amplify it. The difference lies in whether leaders design the decision system: who has input, who decides, what criteria govern choices, and how the enterprise resolves conflict without relitigating the strategy.
If strategic execution is lacking and employees “aren’t committed,” the practical question isn’t whether being more inclusive matters. It’s whether you gave the organization a usable decision architecture—or only a plan.
Benefits of Inclusive Strategic Thinking and Planning
A strategy is simply a plan of action to achieve a stated goal. A business strategy aims to align followers and teams toward achieving a shared goal from the company's vision.
The best strategies in business meet the following four criteria:
Developed inclusive of followers,
Focus on helping others for the greater good,
Account for mixed future realities,
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” — William Bennis
In this short video, Gary Hamel discusses why leaders must shift their roles from authors to editors and why traditional strategic planning must die.
Leaders must comprehend various complex situations. Strategic thinking uses critical thinking to consider the fundamental business drivers and challenges specific to an organization. It is about awareness of what could be and the foresight to help the organization be successful.
The following video breaks down the difference between strategic planning and strategic thinking.
Leveraging diversity enhances strategic thinking, creativity, engagement, and strategy quality. Although achieving complete transparency and involving every possible stakeholder is likely not feasible, there is high value for inclusive leaders and organizations.
Research has demonstrated a direct positive correlation between individual commitment to strategy and involvement in strategy development. Inclusive strategic thinking impacts the organization's bottom line, leading to a leader's success and significance.
When leaders solicit ideas from outside the traditionally involved management team, it enhances the creativity of those ideas and reinforces that leaders value employees. Creative ideas that reflect the customer's stated and unstated needs are likely to come from those with no stake in the status quo and who are closest to the customer.
Being transparent with access to strategic input and processes enhances follower outputs. When the employees responsible for implementing strategic plans are the same employees contributing to it, there is greater awareness of tradeoffs, decision criteria, engagement, and firm performance.
5 Key Leadership Strategic Thinking Leadership Competencies
A leader's ability to question, connect ideas, and evaluate options improves strategic thinking. Here are five strategic thinking leadership competencies that are often underdeveloped:
Strategic Thinking Leadership Competency # 1: Scanning
When searching for weak signals, businesses are essentially delving into the realm of potential disruptions and opportunities that may not be readily apparent. These signals are often subtle, emerging trends or environmental changes that could significantly impact the future. By actively seeking out these weak signals, organizations can gain a competitive edge by being better prepared to adapt and respond to evolving market conditions.
Strategic Thinking Leadership Competency # 2: Visioning
Clarifying the organization's shared purpose and vision with group benefits is crucial to fostering a strong sense of unity and direction among team members. By clearly defining the common goals and aspirations everyone is working toward, individuals within the organization can align their efforts and collaborate toward a shared vision. This process not only fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie but also enhances employee motivation and engagement. A culture of teamwork and cooperation can be cultivated by emphasizing the collective benefits of pursuing the organization's shared purpose and vision.
Strategic Thinking Leadership Competency # 3: Reframing
Encouraging a shift in perspective by questioning established beliefs and exploring innovative ideas for what lies ahead. Challenging current assumptions opens the door to new opportunities and unexpected solutions. Embracing fresh thinking allows us to break free from conventional boundaries and envision a future filled with exciting possibilities. It is through this process of reevaluation and creativity that we pave the way for progress and growth, sparking a journey toward a more dynamic and promising tomorrow.
Strategic Thinking Leadership Competency # 4: Making Common Sense
An intellectual process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating data. It involves a series of cognitive activities that require critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Conceptualizing is the ability to form abstract ideas or mental representations based on the information. Applying involves applying these concepts or using them in real-world situations to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Analyzing requires breaking down complex information into smaller parts to understand their meaning and significance. Synthesizing involves combining different elements or ideas to create a coherent whole or new understanding. Evaluating is assessing the data's validity, relevance, or quality and the conclusions drawn from it.
Strategic Thinking Leadership Competency # 5: Systems Thinking
This methodology involves considering the whole system rather than individual parts in isolation. By examining how different elements interact and influence one another, researchers can gain a comprehensive understanding of the underlying dynamics.
A holistic approach encourages researchers to consider the broader context in which these interactions occur. Factors such as environmental influences, historical background, and cultural norms can all significantly shape outcomes. By incorporating these external elements into the analysis, a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the interrelationships between different parts can be achieved.
Various psychometric leadership assessments can measure an executive's strategic and critical-thinking capabilities. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) is a valid leadership assessment based on recognizing assumptions, evaluating arguments, and drawing conclusions. For more information on the Watson-Glaser critical thinking appraisal, visit www.talentlens.com.
In addition to measurement, leaders looking to improve strategic thinking skills need time for deliberate practice and coaching feedback to shape strategic thinking habits beyond motivation and commitment. Partnering with a qualified executive coach is proven to improve strategic thinking skills.
How to be Inclusive with Strategic Planning and Thinking
Before taking an inclusive approach to strategic planning and thinking, senior leadership needs to agree on the process, participating stakeholders, and the organization's business vision, values, and mission.
For larger hybrid organizations, it will likely be helpful to first place participants into groups based on their planned involvement, such as crowd, selected crowd, business leadership, and strategic planning decisions team. Finding a user-friendly system for all stakeholders is vital when choosing strategic planning technology.
A generic, inclusive strategic planning process engages others in ideation, refinement, and development.
Ideation. The first step is to listen. Stakeholders are invited to submit ideas using a planning platform. It is crucial to select a readily accessible technology and use multiple communication channels to encourage participation in the strategic planning process.
Refinement. Ideas are tagged and compared through comparison sorts. Stakeholders are invited to prioritize the submitted ideas using pre-defined criteria such as cultural alignment, cost, quality, and timeliness. This phase also includes a checkpoint for leaders to request additional information and to accept, revise, or reject ideas. The use of scores makes it easier to filter ideas.
Development. After collecting and refining the ideas, it is time to transform them into a strategic plan. Stakeholders across the business are asked to take the refined strategy and develop a detailed plan. A strategic plan typically includes a vision statement, mission statement, goals, objectives, tactics, measures, and a review timeframe.
How to Overcome 3 Inclusive Strategic Planning and Thinking Barriers
Advances in technology enable a more inclusive, timely, and less costly approach. However, an inclusive approach has some potential drawbacks to address rather than ignore, such as bias, agility, and communication effectiveness.
Strategic Planning & Thinking Barrier # 1: Bias
When being inclusive, leaders must avoid potential bias toward certain stakeholder groups. There is no need to go through the work of being inclusive only to have a process that devalues different inputs based on a tendency toward a particular group's feedback. Approaches that promote anonymity of feedback are demonstrated to reduce bias and not negatively impact output buy-in.
Strategic Planning & Thinking Barrier # 2: Agility
Leaders need to pay attention to time and effort when being inclusive. It is easy to be less agile and get caught in analysis paralysis when being inclusive. Solid project management processes can help leaders avoid the trap of over-analysis.
Strategic Planning & Thinking Barrier # 3: Communication Effectiveness
Thoughtful technology integration has many positive impacts, but it is not without challenges. Numerous studies have shown that different communication media effectively support in-the-moment feedback, information sharing, communication cues, emotion, and message customization. Scientific research likely does not need to be conducted to demonstrate that face-to-face communication is the most effective.
If your strategy requires cross-functional behavior change, then commitment is not something you request—it’s something you engineer through clarity: decision rights, prioritization rules, transparency on tradeoffs, and consequences that match what is said.
If you want to pressure-test whether your strategic process is producing real alignment—or merely expanding participation—start a confidential conversation focused on governance and execution design.
Start a Leadership Strategy Conversation (confidential, peer-level): https://calendly.com/organizational-talent/leadership-strategy-conversation
If what’s missing is the foundation—authority design, operating assumptions, role clarity, and execution expectations—begin with Leadership Reset as the system baseline.
Key Summary Points
It is hard to argue that being more inclusive is a bad leadership habit.
A business strategy aims to align followers and teams toward achieving a shared goal from the company's vision.
The best strategies are developed inclusive of followers, focus on helping others for the greater good, account for mixed future realities, and are implemented.
A leader's ability to question, connect ideas, and evaluate options improves strategic thinking.
Making common sense requires critical thinking skills. Various psychometric leadership assessments can measure an executive's critical thinking capability. The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) is a valid leadership assessment based on recognizing assumptions, evaluating arguments, and drawing conclusions.
Leaders looking to improve their strategic thinking skills need time for deliberate practice and coaching feedback to shape strategic thinking habits beyond motivation and commitment.
A generic, inclusive strategic planning process includes engaging others in creativity, refinement, and development.
Advances in technology enable a more inclusive, timely, and less costly approach. However, an inclusive approach has some potential drawbacks that must be addressed rather than ignored, such as bias, agility, and communication effectiveness.
References:
Amrollahi, A., & Rowlands, B. (2017). Collaborative open strategic planning: A method and case study. Information Technology & People (West Linn, Or.), 30(4), 832-852. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-12-2015-0310
Bennis, W. G. (2008). Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Journal of Property Management, 73(5), 13.
Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K. M., & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization's enduring success. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Kaplan RS, Norton DP. The office of strategy management. Harv Bus Rev. 2005 Oct;83(10):72-80
Nwachukwu, C. E., Chladkova, H., & Olatunji, F. (2018). The relationship between employee commitment to strategy implementation and employee satisfaction. Trends Economics and Management, 12(31), 46-56. doi:10.13164/trends.2018.31.45
