HBR Guide to Thinking Strategically (HBR Guide Series)

Harvard Business Review

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781633696938
• eBook ISBN:
  9781633696945
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Business Strategy

Bring strategy into your daily work.

It's your responsibility as a manager to ensure that your work--and the work of your team--aligns with the overarching objectives of your organization. But when you're faced with competing projects and limited time, it's difficult to keep strategy front of mind. How do you keep your eye on the long term amid a sea of short-term demands?

You need to change the way you think. The HBR Guide to Thinking Strategically provides practical advice and tips to help you see the big-picture perspective in every aspect of your daily work--from making decisions to setting team priorities to attacking your own to-do list--and help you become the leader you aspire to be.

You'll learn how to:

• Understand your organization's strategy
• Align your team around key objectives
• Focus on the priorities that matter
• Spot trends in your company and in your industry
• Consider future outcomes when making decisions
• Manage trade-offs
• Embrace a leadership mindset

Index

access-based positioning, 274

actions

aligning with strategy, 195–203

converting vision into, 188

pragmatic, 252–254

reflecting on your, 109–112

strategic, 143, 279–280

agility, 6, 27–32, 217

alignment, 21–22, 195–203, 280–281

ambiguity, navigating, 251–257

anchoring bias, 86

anticipation skills, 14–16

Apple, 207–208

Argyris, Chris, 246

Ashkenas, Ron, 81–84, 155–162

assumptions, challenging, 16–18, 70, 86–87, 88, 161

Avery, Jessica, 143–154

behavioral economics, 113–117

beliefs audit, 87–88

biases, 70, 86, 114–115, 123, 148, 225

big-picture perspective

conflicting goals and, 157–158

creative thinking and, 85–90

current activities and, 175

developing, 262–265

external view of company and, 73–80

long-term thinking and, 81–84

maintaining, 8

spotting trends and patterns, 61–71

zooming in and out, 91–105

bosses. See managers

Bowman, Nina A., 33–40, 61–71

Brabandere, Luc de, 85–90

brainstorming, 121

Bregman, Peter, 195–203

budget process, 208, 210, 224–225

career advancement, 33–34, 35, 38

caretaking, 102

challenging status quo, 16–18

change(s)

external signals of, 64–67

internal signals of, 62–63

opportunities for, 263

rate of, 110

resistance to, 96, 148, 240

responding to, 217

root causes of, 63

strategies for, 278–279

choices, reflecting on your, 109–112

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• What You’ll Learn
• Contents
• Introduction
• Section One: Get Started: Be Strategic in Your Daily Work
• Section Two: Understand Your Organization’s Strategy
• Section Three: Develop a Big-Picture Perspective
• Section Four: Align Decisions with Strategic Objectives
• Section Five: Set Priorities and Manage Trade-Offs
• Section Six: Align Your Team Around Strategic Goals
• Section Seven: Move from Thinking Strategically to Executing the Strategy
• Section Eight: Navigate Strategic Thinking Challenges
• Appendix A: Questions to Inspire Strategic Thinking
• Appendix B: Organizational Strategy: A Primer
• Index