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Why Strategic Awareness?

The major drivers of change for both the nonprofit and for-profit business sectors in the last few years have made it obvious to us that our rapidly changing world requires STRATEGIC AWARENESS from its leaders. These major drivers, including Globalization, Social Innovation, Hyper-innovation, Environmental footprints, Executive Derailment, Offshoring and Disappearing Barriers to Entry, all require nimbleness, redefining paradigms, looking at all possibilities, in other words.. strategic awareness

Within this environment, we have witnessed increasing numbers of CEOs, Boards and executive leaders derailed off-target – not because of lack of experience, business acumen or strategic plans, but rather because of their lack of strategic awareness. Time-honored traditional business skills and strategies are indispensable in a traditional environment, but have now been shown to be useful yet insufficient for today's fast changing environment. To lead a successful organization, business strategy needs to be married with an awareness of how different factors in the wider environment and in their organization fit together. Strategically aware leaders use this insight to make and communicate decisions about the strategic direction of their organization and the resources required.

Increasingly we have observed that executive leaders and Board members who embrace strategic awareness stand out in almost every business metric. In effect, a key indicator of remarkable Boards and CEOs is their response to the question: "At your Board meeting, do you formally and thoroughly tap in to your strategic environment, your personal awareness and employ intuitive insight into the decision-making process?"

We still meet many business and nonprofit leaders who tend to only trust analytical decision making and firmly refuse to recognize the value of their awareness and insight. These leaders think that they are at an advantage by accumulating as much information as possible and spending as much time and effort as possible in analytical processes and cognitive deliberation. They assume that the quality of a decision is directly related to the exertion, time and effort that went into making it. In general, western society is fascinated by tangible fact, logic, conclusion and linear constructs. Awareness and intuitive insight are seldom, if ever, rewarded or sought.

In this present environment of adapting rapidly to a fast changing environment, it is critical for organizational leaders to cultivate and enhance their strategic awareness abilities, and to embed this into the culture of the organization. This culture is one where the organization embraces strategic awareness and is willing and able to see trends as they emerge, perceiving them accurately, without emotion or judgment, and utilize them effectively for strategic decision-making.