Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction

00:01:12: Idea for action 1: situation, complication and resolution

00:02:59: Idea for action 2: Ansoff Matrix

00:04:19: Useful resources

00:06:28: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Helen Tupper: So, today we are on skill number 6 of the sprint, which is all about strategic thinking.  And we think this is a really important skill for you to focus on in your Squiggly Career, because it helps you to zoom out, it helps you to look ahead and there is so much at work that is all about the day to day, it's very immediate.  I feel like if you didn't focus on strategic thinking, I feel like most things that happen pull you towards --

Sarah Ellis: Short term.

Helen Tupper: Yeah, short term, "How do I get more done today?  How do I get through my emails this week?  And I think you are naturally better at this.  We often talk about Sarah, even with like diaries, you're such a look-ahead person, because you have like, "What we're trying to achieve, and then how does my diary reflect it?"  Whereas if I don't focus on this, I'm a very like, "What does my diary say I need to do today?"  And that means that you might miss out on the bigger picture, you might head in the wrong direction, you can get very busy doing without working out whether it's actually delivering what you want from your work.  And so, the more we can build strategic thinking as a skill, the more we can still deliver on the day-to-day, but you make sure that you're moving in the right direction in terms of your impact and also your development.

Sarah Ellis: So, the framework that I'm going to share is called SCR, and this stands for Situation, Complication and Resolution.  So, you know if you're trying to think strategically about something, a project you're working on, maybe a problem you're trying to solve, even just the job that you do, I think this is a really simple three-step process just to give you a guide to think something through.  So, your situation is, "Well, what's happening right now?  Describe the current situation".  And when I was taught to do this it was always, keep it as short, simple and specific as possible.  So, if you can do your situation in a sentence, great.  But I would always limit to no more than a paragraph. 

Complication is the reason that the situation requires some action.  So, I always think this is usually obstacle or opportunity, so what's not working, or what are you excited about; what can you see that could happen but maybe isn't happening today? 

And then the resolution is, what do we need to resolve this complication or to capture the opportunity?  I think here you get into both why does this matter and what do we need to do?  So, it's good because it sort of connects you to both goals, which is strategic thinking, so like why is this important; but then you do start to get into, with resolution, act and action, "Okay, well if that matters to us, if we really want to expand into three more countries, what we need to do now is…" So, to your point, it's sort of the looking ahead in terms of what's coming next, but then connecting it back to what does that mean for the now, because you never want to do strategic thinking in a vacuum.  There's no point just going, "Oh, well this is sort of where we'd like to head to". 

I do think you have always got to come back to the, "So what now?"

Helen Tupper: So, my favourite framework, I feel like the one that I've used the most in my career, is Ansoff's matrix.  Don't worry if that doesn't mean anything.  It basically helps you think about your products.  And I feel like we've all got certain products at work.  It might be the products that you supply, your products could be internal reports that you send to stakeholders, or our products are things like our podcasts and our books. 

Or somebody else's products might be, you work for an FMCG company that's literally shampoos and whatever else it is.  So, we've all got products.  But what this model helps you to do is to think about, what are your existing products that you currently supply to existing customers, that's what you already do.  And then you might think about, what are existing products and how could you provide them to new customers, that gets you into a new place.  And then you get to, what are new products that I could sell to existing customers, so I know a bit about them, so what's an add-on that I could do.  And then there's the new, new, like if I had new customers and I wasn't constrained by what we currently provide, what could I do there? It always forces my brain into a different place and it stops me just doing stuff on repeat.  And I think that, back to the look ahead and zooming out, that model really helps me to do it.

Sarah Ellis: I can imagine how that model unlocks thinking.  Just as you were going through, I was like, "Oh, yeah, okay", it helps you to think something through, which is what I think these frameworks are useful for.  So, a few of those promised useful links that I found.  So, you might have heard Jim Collins on the podcast previously.  If you've not listened to that episode, he is an absolute superstar of strategy. 

Also, I'm a really big fan, so I get very enthusiastic.  What I think is really generous is on his website, which we'll link to, he is sort of the king of strategic kind of models, concepts, and framework, and he shares them all for free with small icons.  So, there's one called the flywheel, for example, that we use in our business, in terms of how we run our company.  He has a picture of it, he then describes it, he brings it to life with examples.  So, yes, you can read, watch and listen more, but you can get a snapshot for free from his site, which I think is brilliant.  Some of them do end up being maybe a bit confusing if you've not dived a bit deeper.  You get into hedgehogs and foxes and cannonballs and you sort of go, "Well, there's a lot to get your head around".  I would encourage you to have a play, but have a play, have a click through. Then there's somebody brilliant on LinkedIn who I've discovered, who I've never met --

Helen Tupper: Yet.

Sarah Ellis: -- yet, and I hope he thinks it's okay that we're going to give him a shoutout.  But his resources on strategy are the best that I've seen, in terms of maybe if you were a bit more of a beginner or you're just starting from scratch and trying to get your head around strategy.  So, he's called Alex M H Smith, and he does loads of strategy cheat sheets, and they're just these brilliant one-page summaries.  Actually, they remind me a bit of the PodSheet, but for strategy.  So it's like, how to judge an idea, how to know something strategic, and he just walks you through them.  And you know on LinkedIn, you know someone's being useful where you think, save, save, share with the team.

Helen Tupper: Screenshot, screenshot!

Sarah Ellis: And I've just done that a lot with his work, and he just does everything in a really straightforward way.  And there's also a great link from McKinsey where they also share loads of frameworks too.  So, this is one of those areas where we might not think it's an area to play with, but I just think just start having a look at them and just think, to our question earlier, how would this work for me?  Does it work for me?  I don't use very many matrices.  You wouldn't use SCR.  I don't think you need to use everything, but I think once you start just having a go, then you start to figure out, firstly, "I'll get confident, I can do this", and then you start to figure out, "Well, what helps me in the role and the industry that I'm in".

Helen Tupper: So, that is the end of today's skill and we're back tomorrow with our next skill, which is all about presence.