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How to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills
Jul 17, 2021
Military tactics for making strategic decisions and succeeding against all odds.
Combat is simultaneously one of the simplest and one of the most complex things in the world. On one hand, combat boils down to one overarching goal: defeat the enemy. On the other hand, it has countless facets such as planning, leadership, strategy, military doctrine, technology, administration, and much more. Although military members specialize in hundreds of various roles, one occupation stands out among the rest: the special forces operator. These elite warriors deploy into some of the world's most volatile, violent, and dynamic missions – they are masters at overcoming unexpected obstacles.
If you want to become an operator, you must be a strategic thinker. Special forces operators are always looking for ways to be smarter, more efficient, and more effective than the enemy. They are experts at thinking outside the box and using their leadership skills to lead their teams to victory. While nobody doubts the importance of strategic thinking, it’s a challenging skill to learn. Since there aren’t many resources and guides out there that teach the principles of strategic thinking, we decided to make our own! Here’s the Operators Association’s guide to improving your strategic thinking skills when facing an obstacle.
Understand the Problem and What Needs to Be Accomplished
Before you can start formulating a strategy, you need to orient yourself to the situation. Collecting information and intelligence is one of the 4 Key Tasks of a Leader. In order to understand the problem or obstacle that you are facing, you must identify two things:
1) What is happening now?
2) What do I want to be happening?
By figuring out the discrepancy between your current situation and your ideal situation, you gain an understanding of the things that need to change for your plan to be accomplished. Recognizing the problem and what needs to be accomplished to overcome it is the first key to strategic thinking. If you aren't aware of the problem, you can’t start taking the necessary steps to fix it.
Analyze Key Factors
Another way to start improving your strategic thinking skills is to analyze a situation’s key factors. In other words, figure out what matters, what does not matter, and what you have power over.
During a combat operation, these key factors can include terrain, weather, location, the size of the enemy force compared to yours, and the resources you have at your disposal. In the civilian/business world, these factors include competitors, market trends, emerging technologies, and new government restrictions. By understanding and analyzing the key factors of a problem, you can begin to focus your attention on the most critical aspects of your success.
Identify Possible Courses of Action
Decision-making in the real world is rarely going to be as straightforward as you’d like. Once you begin considering the various solutions to a problem, you’ll begin to realize that there are multiple “correct” answers to a problem. The best thing to do in these situations is to identify a series of potential courses of action that all accomplish your goal. Then, go back to your analysis from the first strategy and determine which plan helps you reach your objective most efficiently. Once you select a course of action, execute it with your full effort and enthusiasm.
Entertain Opposing Viewpoints
If you get stuck while trying to come up with a solution to a problem, sometimes it’s better to look at the issue from a different perspective. Begin entertaining viewpoints and plans that oppose your objectives. What does the enemy want you to do? What would cause your mission to fail? Is the opponent hoping you don’t do something?
By analyzing opposing viewpoints, you can reverse engineer your decision-making process and simplify the choices that you have to make. Instead of figuring out what you should be doing, start by determining what you absolutely should not do. This method of making decisions by deduction is widely used by strategic thinkers ranging from military leaders to professional chess players.
Improve Your Adaptability
The final way to improve your strategic thinking skills is to start by improving your adaptability. By becoming more adaptable and effective in dynamic environments, you’ll be able to adjust to fast-paced situations and make critical decisions under stress.
We’ll talk about strategies for training your adaptability in an upcoming guide, but you can get started today by beginning an Operators Association workout program. Our training programs will make you push your mental and physical limits. Whether you’re looking to prepare for your upcoming PT Test, or you want to crush the 5-mile run, we have a program for you! Get started today.
The four characteristics all tactical thinkers share.
Old tricks for estimating your local forecast in the field.
Wise words from one of America’s most iconic generals.
