Think of a leader you consider to be a strategic thinker. It could be someone you’ve worked with or a well-known business leader you’ve read about or heard on a podcast. What makes them a strategic thinker? What are they doing to foster that perception?

Leaders often attribute a level of magic and mystique to strategic thinking so that it becomes an intimidating and seemingly inaccessible task for most people. Practical tools exist, however, to build up strategic-thinking muscles.

Strategic thinkers may be unaware of their thinking patterns, but they use three cognitive skills: They scan for information, frame their thinking, and test their frame against available data.

Here are 10 tips to practice using and improving strategic-thinking skills.

Scan

Scanning is the mental process of taking in information. Throughout the course of a day, humans process a great deal of information, which comes from a wide variety of sources such as social media, the car radio, and the evening news. Many individuals fall into routines; as a result, the types of information we absorb day in and day out are often from the same sources. Therefore, many people miss opportunities to scan and absorb additional or unique data.

1. Intentionally read a different news or information source each day. Widening the breadth of information and perspectives you digest helps to ensure there are no holes in the data your brain scans. Doing so can also prevent you from inadvertently filtering out an important perspective. For instance, if you are an avid reader of the New York Times, try this schedule:

• Sunday: Harvard Business Review

• Monday: Wall Street Journal

• Tuesday: ESPN

• Wednesday: Forbes

• Thursday: BBC

• Friday: Bloomberg Businessweek

• Saturday: Time

2. Choose a different category of information to scan each day. This tip focuses on broadening the type of content you consume. As a strategic thinker, it is critical to scan a wide range of information and be aware of trends across industries. Some trends may not affect your business directly but could affect your customers, which could have downstream implications for you. Consider trying this schedule:

• Sunday: Health

• Monday: Entertainment

• Tuesday: Business and technology

• Wednesday: Travel

• Thursday: Politics

• Friday: International

• Saturday: Sports

3. Schedule a coffee or catch-up session with someone from a different part of your business. Far too often we deprioritize networking in service of meeting urgent demands or “firefighting.” Make time to understand the work of individuals in other parts of your business; understand the trends on which they focus; and know what they are learning from customers. You may discover synergies between a colleague’s work and your own.

4. To get a fresh perspective, ask questions of your children, parents, or people who work outside of your industry. This one may sound far-fetched, but in my work as a leadership development consultant, I’ve heard stories of leaders who learned about a critical new piece of technology or a new trend from their teenagers.

A truly fresh and unexpected perspective can introduce new and exciting sources of information—ones we may not normally consider. For instance, Gen Z gains life hacks from TikTok.

5. Find your inner child. Anyone who has ever interacted with a preschooler knows that they are boundlessly curious. Young children are likely to ask (again and again) “Why?” A trick to being a more effective scanner is to constantly do the same. Why is that important? Why is that product taking off while another is not? Why is that competitor marketing the product in that way?

Frame

A frame creates a lens or focal point for a problem. Much like a picture frame, it encapsulates the point of view that you hold and the one you share with others. It is one of the most powerful leadership levers because the way we communicate and frame problems or opportunities for others can result in resource allocation, shape how other people feel about the same issue, and trigger action steps.

6. Force yourself to consider alternate frames (and write them down). Once you’ve developed a frame about a problem or situation, put it on paper. Then, force yourself to devise at least two alternate frames for the problem or the situation, even if you feel 100 percent confident in your initial perspective. Pushing the limits of our own thinking ensures we have the right frame about a situation.

The exercise proved useful a few years ago as I struggled to get a project off the ground. At the beginning of the year, senior leadership and my team agreed that a particular initiative was important for enhancing our ability to effectively market our offerings. But I struggled to get the initiative going and secure buy-in from senior leaders as the year progressed. I even got an email from a senior partner asking “Can you re-explain why we are having this meeting?”

I was frustrated. I decided to document my frame as “This project is significant for us in promoting our offerings successfully. As such, it demands dedicated time and attention from our team.”

I considered alternate frames.

• This project is important but can be accomplished on a more limited scale.

• This project is not important enough to require the involvement of senior leaders.

• This project is not important.

The last bullet was an aha moment. I struggled to gain momentum on my initiative because, over the course of the year, our needs had shifted, and it was no longer a top priority. I felt liberated upon realizing that my efforts to initiate the project weren’t a failure; rather, lack of momentum stemmed from ineffective communication and testing of my frame of the problem.

7. Intentionally expand (What is a broader perspective I could take on this issue?) and contract (What is a narrower frame?) your frame to generate alternative ideas. This is a more focused way to brainstorm. Broad frames enable creativity, while narrow frames enable action. By intentionally seeking those perspectives, you can increase the level of ideation from your team about potential solutions or opportunities.

For example, in the airline industry, airlines continuously seek solutions for maximizing overhead compartments to accommodate more carry-on bags. Many modern aircraft have compartments spacious enough to snugly store bags. However, some would argue that solution is a narrow frame of the broader problem. Certain aircraft designers are already contemplating a paradigm shift and envisioning air travel without carry-on bags. Some propose a system in which passengers roll their luggage to the end of the jet bridge for loading, enabling quicker and unencumbered boarding.

Test

Testing is a way for people to avoid rework and ensure we are getting the best possible results. It is human nature to embed assumptions and biases in our frames. Many of us tend to charge forward with an initial frame, even when the data indicates that it may not be reasonable to do so.

8. Document your assumptions about a given idea. We are all imperfect humans who understand and process the world through our own life experiences. That means we all have implicit biases and assumptions. Document what assumptions are in your frame. What assumptions about a core group (such as customers, children, or friends) did you make? Ask yourself whether your frame holds up.

9. Question your truth. What if your assumption or conclusion is not true? Another powerful testing technique is to consider the inverse. What if the opposite is true? That thinking technique ensures you consider a problem or challenge from every angle. Avoid self-talk that rejects the hard truth. You may need to scrap significant investment in a project if your testing reveals that you are on the wrong path.

10. Pilot the idea to get initial feedback. Secure data and feedback. Consider ways to launch a small-scale pilot, host a focus group, or otherwise get the voice of the customer involved in a project. Although piloting may require more time and resources, it is a surefire way to test your frame and challenge your own assumptions.

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