Strategic Thinking: From Strategy to Execution
Course 3310
3 DAY COURSE

Add value to your organization by aligning department goals with your organization’s strategic vision and mission. In this Strategic Thinking for Operational Management training course, you learn to plan and implement change to meet stakeholder needs, create an innovative culture that takes advantage of the department's core competencies, and gain the leadership skills to effectively integrate strategic thinking with daily operations. Updated for today's operating environment, the course also examines how AI is changing the way strategy is implemented at the operational level, and closes with a personal 30/60/90-day implementation plan.

Strategic Thinking: From Strategy to Execution Benefits

• In this course, you will learn how to:

  • Leverage strategic thinking at the operational level to add value.
  • Maximize operational core competencies to implement organizational strategy.
  • Bridge the gap between organizational and operational goals.
  • Foster an innovative culture to overcome strategic challenges.
  • Develop an effective change process that satisfies stakeholder needs.
  • Assess where AI changes how strategy is implemented across your operation.
  • Prioritize competing initiatives and commit to a personal 30/60/90-day implementation plan.

• Prerequisites

  Attendees should have experience at the level of:

  • Course 290, Management Skills Training, or
  • Course 906 IT Management Skills Training

Strategic Thinking: From Strategy to Execution Course Outline

Module 1: Introduction

• Strategy: everyone's concern
• Identifying the strategic challenges facing operational managers
• What strategy means to operational managers
• Your role as the translator: turning strategic intent into operational delivery

Module 2: Defining Strategic Thinking

The key aspects of strategic thinking

• Distinguishing between strategic thinking and planning
• Identifying the impact of strategy on operational activity
• Aligning the organization's vision with reality
• Creating sustainable competitive advantage

Creating value for stakeholders

• Recognizing the importance of stakeholders in the strategy process
• Satisfying the needs of the stakeholders

Applying strategic-thinking tools

• Positioning yourself within the four cycles of operational effectiveness
• Decoding your environment with PESTLE, including AI and technology disruption
• Analyzing the ecosystem with Porter's Five Forces

Module 3: Leveraging Operational Strengths

Evaluating operational capabilities

• Differentiating between organizational and operational competencies
• Taking inventory of the key strengths within your operation
• Rating competencies against strategic goals
• Testing whether AI-enabled capabilities are true core competencies

Maximizing your unique operational strengths to deliver stakeholder value

• Optimizing internal processes
• Shaping opportunities by scanning the external environment

Module 4: Executing Strategy at the Operational Level

Getting real about the vision

• Qualifying the gaps between operational and organizational vision
• Establishing the foundation for realizing goals

Bridging the strategic gap

• Questioning assumptions to uncover new solutions and drive new discoveries
• Understanding why strategy execution unravels, and how to close the gap
• Managing operational strategic assets
• Prioritizing initiatives: deciding what to stop as well as what to start
• Rigorous planning through scenario assessment and premortems
• Quantifying the impact of proposed solutions

Module 5: Creating an Innovative Culture

Employing an innovation framework

• The importance of innovation in strategic thinking
• Promoting nonlinear thinking
• Generating solutions through value engineering
• Optimizing solutions by challenging the status quo

Adapting your culture to satisfy strategic demands

• Meeting the five preconditions for an innovative culture
• Facilitating team innovation
• Experimenting with AI in the innovation process: where it helps and where it harms judgment

Innovating to create competitive success

• Qualifying innovation traits
• Benchmarking objectives against actual performance

Quantifying the financial metrics

• Verifying decisions through financial analysis
• Incorporating a stakeholder perspective

Module 6: Planning for Operational Change

Weaving change into the fabric of the culture

• Being proactive in a reactive environment
• Implementing operational change through people, processes and culture
• Motivating the team to adopt the change
• Managing change fatigue in an environment of continuous change

Constructing a change process

• Configuring your resources to encompass change
• Measuring results through balanced scorecards, leading indicators, and a regular execution rhythm

Module 7: Securing Stakeholder Commitment

Communicating for buy-in

• Applying influencing techniques to overcome resistance
• Negotiating for resources using win-win approaches

Maximizing your impact

• Earning support with entrepreneurial techniques
• Articulating an elevator pitch that secures commitment
• Committing to action: your personal 30/60/90-day implementation plan