Thinking strategically takes discipline, clarity and quite frankly, guts. It may stretch you beyond your comfort zone. Often, it requires challenging the familiar status quo by driving conversations beyond a tactical level toward broader outcomes and results.

The trick to thinking strategically is to cultivate the habit of having a laser like focus on outcomes and results, rather than communications tactics.  It’s often a matter of taking a step back and considering where you want to go, and what communications approaches, messages and tactics will best get you there.

Strategic thinking is like a muscle you have to strengthen by exercise: at every juncture, it demands that you walk through the steps of specifying why you’re communicating, to achieve what result, to whom—and only then, how.

A great place to start is to ask the question: What does success look like? Once that definition of success is clear (and, critically, that everyone agrees to it), you can then shape a communications approach to get you there.

See more at “A Primer on Strategic Thinking“.