“Strategic ” means planning for he future, and strategic thinking about planning for future. When you know where you are going, why you are going and how you are going there, you will get there successfully and strategic thinking tools will give you the where, why and how . The four drivers of Strategic Thinking are :

1- Vision Your picture of the fuure may be very clear to you. You might see yourself obtaining a tangiable asset- a nw company car . It might be something you cannot see, feel or touch such as high employee morale.

2- Resources : The resources available to you also helpdrive your thinking . These could include money, time, people, equipment and skills. All these factors need to be looked at before you can move toward your vision.

3- Values : These are located in frames of refrence and as such, need to be examined to see how the personal values – the ” rightness” and ” wrongness ” – influence your vision and the resources .

4- Assumptions : When you and Ithink about future, we make assumptions. Wemight assume, For example , that all changes are good . We might develop a plan and assume that everyone in the organization will buy ino the plan.

The four drivers of strategic thinking are like four gears in a machine. All four gears must move tohether If strategic thinking is to work well . As with any machine , gears ned to be lubricated so they can move smothly together. You need to know where the friction points are located and what kind of ” oil ” to use to prevent ” burn – out ”