What is strategic thinking?
Strategic thinking is a disciplined way of making sense of a system, imagining different futures, focusing on a guiding intent, and testing hypotheses through action.
Reflect on how well you connect systems, alternatives, intent, and learning when shaping consequential choices.
Answer as you are today
Choose the answer that best describes your recent behaviour at work. No email required.
What does strategic thinking mean?
Strategic thinking is a disciplined way of making sense of a system, imagining different futures, focusing on a guiding intent, and testing hypotheses through action.
Why it matters at work
Strategy is not a longer plan. It requires choosing where to focus, understanding interdependencies, recognising uncertainty, and learning faster than assumptions become expensive commitments.
What this assessment measures
Systems perspective
Seeing the wider value system, relationships, constraints, and second-order consequences.
Intent & alternatives
Using a clear direction to make genuine choices among different paths.
Hypothesis & learning
Treating strategy as assumptions to test rather than certainty to defend.
How to interpret your score
Your overall result is normalised to a 0–100 scale. Use it to choose a practice area, not to compare your worth with somebody else.
Build your strategic thinking foundation
Your answers point to a few situations where a small, visible routine could make this capability more dependable.
A developing strategic thinking pattern
You use this capability in some situations. Strengthen the dimension that becomes less reliable when pressure or ambiguity rises.
A strong strategic thinking pattern
Your answers suggest a reliable pattern. Keep testing it against harder work and evidence from real outcomes.
Designed for reflection, not diagnosis
The ten behaviour-based statements cover 3 practical dimensions. Responses run from “Never” to “Almost always”; negatively worded items are reverse-scored. Overall and dimension results are converted to a 0–100 scale. The assessment is educational and has not been psychometrically validated.
Read the full assessment methodology and editorial standards.
Research that informed this page
Jeanne M. Liedtka (1998), “Strategic Thinking: Can It Be Taught?”, Long Range Planning.