The Art of Strategic Thinking

Chances are, what your church faces is beyond the reach of what you’ve done in the past to accomplish its mission. Therefore you need to go beyond traditional means of strategic planning if you’re going to be effective. In Becoming A Strategic Leader, Richard Hughes and Katherine Beatty invite us to consider these five facets...

Strategic thinking requires synthesis as well as analysis. Analysis involves breaking something down into smaller parts. Synthesis has to do with looking at how the parts work together in combination. More people are better at analysis than synthesis. Strategy has to do with what you will and won’t do, what you will become and won’t be.

Strategic thinking is nonlinear as well as linear. Linear thinking assumes a cause and effect; if we do “A” we’ll get “B” results. It also looks at sequence, steps 1, 2, 3, etc. But in current culture, disruptive change means that you can predict less effectively and must respond to situations that are not sequential or directly related to each other.

Strategic thinking is visual as well as verbal. Much of our teaching in church is verbal in nature, as are our meetings and planning processes. Visuals, metaphors, word pictures, and sensory oriented communication is often more powerful than mere words. The word “vision” implies something that is seen and is key leadership concept.

Strategic thinking is implicit as well as explicit. Research shows that executive leaders rely on about 60% of their intuition for decision-making. Middle managers rely on about 50% “gut.” Whereas about 2/3 of the general population stick to their sense of practicality and data. Thus, leaders need to be able to listen to their inner voice and take multiple factors into account.

Strategic thinking engages the heart as well as the head. People are far more apt to throw themselves into their work and ministry if their hearts are touched, if their passions are ignited. Understanding who we are and where we want to go are important if we want to engage people internally, not just intellectually.

The best approach to strategic thinking involves both elements in each of these dyads. While business tends to elevate the latter more than the former, many churches focus on the first of the two, to their own demise. You may want to go through these five facets with your leadership team to find illustrations of each in your ministry context and then see where you may want to improve. (This article is the fourth in a four-part series on Becoming A Strategic Leader by Richard Hughes and Katherine Beatty, copyright © 2005, Jossey-Bass.)

SOURCE:  Rev. Magazine

Alan Nelson is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine (www.rev.org), the author of a dozen books, and has been a pastor for 20 years. You can reach him at [email protected]. You can subscribe to the Rev! Weekly Leadership Update here.

- - - - - - - - - -

This post has been viewed 374 times and was added on February 15, 2007 by Todd Rhoades.
Filed under: Leadership Issues  Leadership Development  
Share this post with a friend right now!
View reactions to this post at other blogs...

You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.


It's easy...
Link to this URL

Like this article? Get our free weekly email newsletter for more great resources just like this...

- - - - - - - - - -   1 Person Has Commented:

My name is Todd Rhoades, the 'behind the scenes' guy here at MMI. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the developer of a of a website called ChurchStaffing.com. I hope you'll enjoy your time here and tell all your colleagues about MMI!

MondayMorningInsight.com | PO Box 446 | Bryan, OH 43506 |