From Beginner to Boardroom - A Practical Guide to Strategic Thinking & Execution
In this article, you will learn the following
60+ Tips to Sharpen & Strengthen Ability to Think Strategically and Objectively
12 Types of Critical Thinking Questions You need to learn, practice, and master to be able to become an objective & strategic thinker
22 Ways How to Practice First Principles & Socratic Thinking
7 benefits of strategic & critical thinking rules for correcting and reframing your un-resourceful thinking pattern
Highly successful and accomplished great leaders In this world — can sift through the large big data and identify the most relevant information — BASED only on — EVIDENCE, FACTS, AND DATA.
If you want to be Smart, Intelligent, Wise, and SANE — you must develop, nurture, strengthen, and sharpen your
A. Ability to strategize
B. Ability to think objectively
C. Ability to discern between the truth and [all of these] — Fake news, Propaganda, Grandstanding, Hypocrisy, Projection & Religious Myths peddled as Truth.
When your skills of observing and discerning become highly sharpened — you will also be able to identify emerging future trends
You might also be able to create a great sensible business out of it — subject to your meeting the basic business success criteria.
Strategic thinking is a MUST for being a great leader. Without this, you would remain a blind non-thinking follower.
All Great leaders — think critically, challenge assumptions, and demand evidence and justification for the decisions that impact the lives of people they are responsible for — irrespective of whether in business, nations, or in societies & communities.
In this article — I have given very simple ways to inculcate this immensely useful and helpful life skill.
It is not yet clear [Post-2024 General elections Results in India] — HOW this same government will behave — as they are most likely to continue albeit through coalition partners because they are not in majority on their own [ THIS IS AS on the 3rd-day post announcement of election results].
This regime’s last 10 years’ major FOCUS WAS to suppress — all the dissent — that is all those who questioned — their unethical anti-people, anti-humanity, anti-women, anti-education, anti-development, anti-democracy, anti-poor, etc. POLICIES.
They used various very highly effective methods of psychological and mental-physical-financial tortures — to make people STOP asking questions and to quash any dissent or questioning of their dogma.
They also used this technique to impose — their narrow and TOXIC ideology UNDER the guise of “nationalism” and “tradition” & how we were great thousand years back — ALTHOUGH NOTHING ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF CURRENT POPULATION.
They were trying to promote — a most alarming and seriously damaging culture — and they succeeded up to a certain extent.
They were supported in a big way by the majority of — the Judiciary, the Bureaucrats [senior to juniors], all the regulatory and supposedly independent institutions, greedy & corrupt businessmen, shameful Ass-licking media, AND many-many people with qualifications from premier institutes & having powerful positions ALONG with complete law & order machinery.
Thankfully — there are a few independent objective and intelligent thinkers — who saw through this shameful creed’s deceit AND kept on resisting all the falsehood and dictatorship/tyranny/authoritarian attempts of these people — AND BECAUSE OF THEIR NOT GIVING-UP in their David’s fight against Goliath [although many are still in prison on cooked charges WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE] — WE IN INDIA HAVE HOPE OF GETTING BACK OUR DEMOCRACY as well as democratic rights, freedom and advantages.
This is the type of thinking YOU MUST RESIST.
You can inculcate this life skill — by developing the ability to see through and by dismantling the false narratives and hollow posturing that characterize so much of today’s India — especially if you want to remain sane and leave a country for your children and future generations -which is conducive for the happiness, growth, and peace.
Only then can we hope to preserve the hard-won liberal democratic values that are so fragile in the face of authoritarian overreach.
The future of our nation depends on our willingness to think for ourselves — rather than meekly surrendering to those who claim the mantle of absolute authority.
I hope for the citizens of India — this situation CHANGES for the better [especially for the majority segment].
Because of being brainwashed through religious divide and hatemongering & FAKE-FALSE-FAÇADE CREATION– most of the majority think THAT this regime is A Majority-Friendly THAT IS GOOD FOR THE HINDUS — NOTHING COULD BE FARTHEST FROM THE TRUTH.
It is like that story — WHEN THE TREES WERE being CUT — the trees kept supporting the AXE — because it had a wooden handle — TILL THERE WAS NO TREE LEFT — OR — another story that was about — SHEEP SPENDING ENTIRE LIFE BEING SCARED OF EATEN BY THE WOLF & in the end eaten by the Shepherd.
Once you understand this — You will be able to see through all the Wolves in sheep’s attire OR Rats in Lion’s camouflage.
7 benefits of strategic & critical thinking rules for correcting and reframing your un-resourceful thinking pattern — read my blog on Self-CBT. CBT or Cognitive Behavior Therapy has the following uses
1. To define problems
2. Identify the impact of your beliefs and thoughts
3. Examine the meaning of any events, situation or what has been said
4. To become aware of and modify processes that perpetuate negative and un-resourceful thinking
5. To identify the resourceful thinking habits
6. To create insight and explore alternative action
7. To be used as non-confrontational — guided discovery — through an open, and engaging manner — leading to enlightenment and insight
12 Types of Critical Thinking Questions You need to learn, practice, and master to be able to become an objective & strategic thinker — read my blog on the art of asking powerful questions
1. Questions to Understand the problem, issue, and situation — to its core, fundamental, and basic
2. Questions to Identify the root cause
3. Questions to clarify and communicate Your take — to others
4. Questions to Probe Assumptions — yours as well as others
5. Questions to Identify all the obvious as well as hidden — possibilities, options and choices
6. Questions to identify — many-many different solutions — based on different perspectives
7. Questions to create the best possible combination of solutions and answers
8. Questions to understand the challenges, threats, weaknesses, strengths, and opportunities
9. Questions to understand the worst-case scenarios and the consequences of your decisions and action
10. Questions to involve and elicit & solicit — responses, solutions, ideas, and points of view from your team or target segment
11. Questions to create buy-in from your target audience
12. Questions to challenge — the experts, the existing wisdom, the conventional norms and rules and practices
60+ Tips to Sharpen & Strengthen Ability to Think Strategically and Objectively
1. Develop the ability to NOT accept whatever — ANY FIGURE IN AUTHORITY OR POWER Tell you
2. You must persistently probe, question, and reason your way toward deeper truths
3. You must also develop the courage to — be unafraid to challenge, to demand accountability
4. Your focus must seek genuine understanding rather than shallow dogma
5. Critically examine the assumptions underlying any situation, your understanding as well as other’s position and stand
6. Clarify your own thinking and the origins of the ideas that you have
7. Train your brain to make decisions PURELY based on solid evidence and facts
8. Learn to recognize empty rhetoric
9. Learn to identify alternative perspectives and worldviews
10. Make it a practice to fact-check from multiple trusted sources
11. Always test or pilot-run your hypothesis, theories, decisions, choices, solutions, and conclusions
12. Analyze the potential consequences of all your choices, decisions, and actions
13. Create solutions for the worst-case scenario
14. Create a naturally progressing list of open-ended questions — which are Concise, direct, neutral, clear, structured, and focused — to challenge yourself as well as others — READ MY BLOG ON THE ART OF ASKING POWERFUL QUESTIONS
15. Never suggest a specific method as being the correct or the best or the only way
16. Stimulate the discussion with probing questions that follow the responses given by your audience
17. Allow time for the audience to respond to the questions without feeling hurried
18. Invite elaboration and facilitate self-discovery through questioning
19. Avoid or re-word questions that are vague, ambiguous, or beyond the level of the listener’s understanding.
20. Practice being genuinely curious
21. Use your questions to identify and address the misconceptions and analyzing at a deeper level
22. Develop the habit and mindset of scheduling time slots to — logically and dispassionately review contradictions and inconsistencies
23. 5 Examples of Effective Questions to Challenge & Deep-Probing
I. Are there alternatives — that are of opposite perspective YET correct point of view
II. What evidence we can list that supports what you are saying — give an example
III. What assumptions you have made while concluding and deciding on this matter
IV. How Can we validate that evidence -Do we have all the information we need
V. What are the long-term implications of this action, decision, choice
Read the remaining article as per the following details
This article was originally published as “60+ Tips for Mastering First Principles & Socratic Thinking to BE A GREAT STRATEGIC THINKER “ in https://successunlimited-mantra.com/index.php/blog [1st]for more than 3000+ blogs, articles, and answers on creating metamorphosis in every aspect of your life — personal, professional, business, mental, emotional, social, relationships — please visit all three links http://relationshipandhappiness.com/ [2nd] and https://www.quora.com/profile/Subhashis-Banerji [3rd]
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