Strategic Leadership Flashcards
Components of CAS
(1) Structural Complexity (NODS)
network structure; openness; diversity; size
(2) Behavioral Complexity (CAFE)
competition; adaptation; feedback; emergence
(3) Dynamic Equilibrium conditions
what is the thing that is always changing?
Strategic Thinking Framework
(1) Alignment of current state guidance and environmental scarring (2) synthesis of thinking critical thinking; systems thinking creative thinking (novel but useful) divergence and convergence (3) Judgment (your experience and values) (4) Alignment - desired further end state - competitive advantage - anticipated future environment - Risk
Vision Characteristics
- Clear
- Concise
- Sense of purpose
- What’s Important
- Desired Future Endstate
- Flexible
- Feasible
Strategic Leader Focus
(1) Alignment: shared vision and unity of purpose
(2) Vision: provides sense of purpose, direction, and motivation
(3) Change: adapt to the environment
Three Lenses of Ethical Reasoning
(1) Utilitarian (teleology): actions have no morale value, only the outcome [OUTCOME]
(2) Principle (deontology): take the right action regardless of the outcome - [duty to rules]
(3) Character (virtue ethics) - emphasis on moral character
Strategic Thinker Foundation
(1) Self Awareness: ego, assumption, biases
(2) Awareness of cultural influences on thinking - strategic empathy
(3) Consideration of ethics and values
(4) openness to both discourse and reflection
- requires thinking fast and slow
Strategic Leader Competencies
(1) Conceptual
(a) Frame of Reference
(b) Problem Management
(c) Envisioning the Future
(2) Technical
(a) Systems Understanding
(b) JIIM Relationships
(c) Political and Social Realities (policy – strategy)
(3) Interpersonal
(a) Consensus Building
(b) Negotiation
(c) Communication
Climate versus Culture
Climate: the link between individual and organization
- shapes effectiveness of process and outcomes
Culture: beliefs translated into daily habits across the workforce
Strategic Leadership
Tasks of:
(1) Visioning
(2) Alignment
(3) Change
Multiple Causation Framework to Understand CAS
(1) Regularity and Probability: what is the pattern?
(2) Counterfactuals: what happens when I change the variable? (ex. cluster munitions)
(3) Physicalism: work from “bang” backward to see how it fits together
(4) Disposition: how do the ingredients combine?
(5) are the identified relationships subject to manipulation?
(6) what is the probability of miscalculation?
How to visualize possible futures of a CAS
(1) Examine changes in behaviors and interactions of system components that produce new conditions (macro to micro analysis)
(2) ID how changes in systematic conditions affect system components (micro to macro analysis)
(3) Understand the risk of change from one condition to the other during the transition (disequilibrium) to a new equilibrium
Critical Thinking
o Reflective Skepticism: clarify concern, point of view, assumptions, influences
o Purposeful, goal directed: leader = stable, receptive to change
o Required to navigate thru:
(1) VUCA environment
(2) complex adaptive systems
(3) “wicked problems” - ill-structures, unique, and no alternative solutions
o meta-cognition
o improves judgement
Negotiation (BATNA) and (ZOPA)
o Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement
o Zone of Potential Agreement
- Refuse
- Joint Problem Solve
- Asymptotic
- BrinkmanshipMeta-Cognition
Meta-cognition: thinking about thinking
- Heuristic: Bias Based Approach
- Probabilistic: Situation Based Approach
- Rational: Logic Based Approach
Kotter’s 8 Steps
(1) Establish a sense of urgency
(2) Form a guiding coalition
(3) Create a Vision / Strategy
(4) Communicate the Vision
(5) Empower others to act on the vision - empowering action
(6) Plan for and creating short-term wins
(7) Consolidate improvements and produce more change (consolidate gains)
(8) Institutionalize new approaches (anchor in culture)
In today’s face-paced environment strategic leaders need to do what?
(1) Scan their environment
(2) anticipate change proactively
(3) develop visions that guide where their organization should be in 10-20 years
(4) align the organization’s culture and climate with their vision and current workforce
(5) create and maintain an ethics and values-based direction that reinforces their organization’s vision
Strategic Leader Tasks
- provide vision
- shape culture
- build/shape JIIM relationships
- build/shape national-level relationships
- represent the organization
- manage change
Strategic Leader Environment
- volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous
- Threats: instability and conflict
- international alliances: political, cultural and economic factors
- national culture: beliefs, values, and opinions
- Military Industrial Complex: influence senior leaders
- Public Opinion: public perception
- Federal Budget: Planning, Programing, Budgeting, Execution (PPBE) process
- Technology: capabilities and vulnerabilities
- Federal Government: civilian control
- Private Organizations: Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs)
- Internal Environment: Service interests
Management vs. Leadership:
- Management= Planning, Budgeting, Organizing, Staffing, Controlling, Problem Solving.
- Leadership= Define, Align, and Inspire
Negotiation
mutually beneficial solution
Army Profession
- trust
- military expertise
- honorable service
- esprit de corps
- stewardship of the profession
Culture Change
- Embedding mechanisms – structure, policy (must do); leads to compliance
- Reinforcing mechanisms – vision, metrics (builds on); leads to commitment
Kotter - Communicate a Visions
- Simple (example, etc)
- Multiple forums
- Repetition
- Lead by example
- Explain inconsistencies
- Give and take (2-way)
- Buy-in
Creative Thinking:
divergent; leads to innovation; ideas and concepts; effective in resolving ambiguous/complex problems.
