In this episode, we dive deep into the topic of strategic thinking. We explore the concept of allowing the future to have a bigger influence on the present and how this mindset can lead to greater success. Eric shares his expertise on how to cultivate a culture of strategic thinking within organizations, starting with clear goals and effective communication. We also discuss the difference between tactics and strategy and how leaders can empower their teams to think more strategically. Get ready to elevate your thinking and make a game-changing impact.
In this episode, we dive deep into the topic of strategic thinking. We explore the concept of allowing the future to have a bigger influence on the present and how this mindset can lead to greater success. Eric shares his expertise on how to cultivate a culture of strategic thinking within organizations, starting with clear goals and effective communication. We also discuss the difference between tactics and strategy and how leaders can empower their teams to think more strategically. Get ready to elevate your thinking and make a game-changing impact.
Dale (00:01.316)
allowing the future to have a bigger influence on the present to unleash your best in life and work. Welcome to the game changers podcast. I'm your host Dale Dixon. I help leaders be their best on stage in front of the camera. I'm also the chief innovation officer for a better business bureau. Eric Bowles coaches, trains and inspires leaders to unleash their potential and the potential of those around them. Eric, great to be with you again today.
Eric Boles (00:29.036)
Great to be with you, my friend.
Dale (00:32.192)
You're working with a client to remain unnamed, but this idea of strategic thinking, the focus of our podcast today is really what you are focused on. And when you drop that line, allowing the future to have a bigger influence on the present. Walk us through that as the framing for today's conversation and define strategic thinking for us.
Eric Boles (01:00.694)
Definitely, definitely. And obviously I find myself here in New York City right now working with clients around strategic thinking. But it's been consistent all year that this is something that everyone is doing. And to tee it up, I tee it up this way, especially for the audience listening. We all know hard work is price of admission.
So we are working at a time where this isn't about trying to figure out how to get our people to work harder or, and not even how to help our people even be more efficient. I get that question, Eric, is our goal to be more efficient? No, our goal is to be more effective. Now, once we determine what effectiveness is, now we wanna be efficient in being effective. But let's not just be efficient. You know, it's similar to the.
pilot saying we have good news and bad news. The bad news is our instrumental panel is completely off and we have no clue where we're going. The good news is we have a tailwind, so we're making really good time. So when we're describing allowing the future to have a bigger influence on the present, we are literally saying allow our future goal where we wanna end up, where we wanna be, have a greater influence on what we're doing.
right now. It seems like that's a given thing, but it's not. And the reason it's not is we all have a bias. And the bias I wanna talk about today, in some cases, is what we like to call present bias. We have a bias towards whatever is going on right now grabs our attention. This is why for many of you who are listening right now can relate to what I'm saying. You can have some busy weeks, some busy moments. I mean, all you know is you
worked hard, so you're still tired. It doesn't mean you've moved yourself any closer to your ultimate goal. And so this is why when we talk about being strategic, strategic simply means being very, I mean crystal clear on where we're going, but more importantly, also really clear on why we're going there. And so strategy deals with why, tactics deals with how. And what we wanna do is not necessarily cause everybody to be these.
Eric Boles (03:26.67)
deep strategists, you know, everybody's a strategist and put a strat plan together. I'm not talking about strategic planning. I'm talking about strategic thinking. We can all think more strategically. That's much more practical in terms of application. And you know, even in this podcast, they were talking about some simple ways that we can do it.
Dale (03:50.384)
I'm immediately drawn to that managers know how to do things right. Leaders know how to do the right things.
Eric Boles (04:00.322)
That's it. Yep.
Dale (04:02.68)
And we're talking about doing the right things for today. At the same time, I hear a lot of leaders say, how do we get our people to be thinking more strategically?
Eric Boles (04:07.031)
That's it.
Eric Boles (04:15.998)
Yes.
Dale (04:17.7)
So walk us down that road to how do we start really cultivating a culture of doing the, if we're gonna be working hard to do the right work and to be thinking about it from that standpoint of true effectiveness.
Eric Boles (04:33.418)
Yeah, and it all begins with being clear on where we're trying to go in the first place. Like, it's hard for us to realize how much we function habitually. Like, it's built in us to already work hard, and most of us are environments where if we didn't change a thing, there's still work to do, right? But the problem is some of that work is not necessarily progressing us anywhere, or in many cases. Many people say we're...
We've caught ourselves in a state of complacency, and we have a tendency to believe complacency means no movement. No, it just means no growth. You're stagnating. We're moving. We're just moving in circles. We're just doing the same thing the same way or slightly altered, a little harder. So what's important is to initially begin asking the question, what are we doing and why are we going for that? And to be as clear as possible.
So we have a tendency to say, hey, I want 2024 to be a better year than 2023. Okay, so, and we actually will walk away saying, 2024 is gonna be a better year. What does better even look like? What does that even mean? We wanna be as clear as possible. Our brain works hard to have something specific to lock onto. And not only our brain work hard to have something specific to lock onto, so do our people. And so when we ask our people to be more strategic,
That means the only way they can become more strategic is we let them in on the why more than we do. We don't have enough strategic conversations with our folks. And they don't need to sit through the entire strategic planning session or where we're going, but they do need to know how what they do connects to something bigger, something that company-wide is going after. What typically happens is...
We have to put value in just the hard work we're going after. We put a good, you know, honest day's labor in. No, I mean, honest day labor is the kind of labor that moves us towards the ultimate goal we're going after. We want to get our people to think more strategically, then they need to know what we're going after, why we're going after, but the how, which is the tactic, is what we allow them to own more and more of. But we have to engage them in that conversation. I was very fortunate with one of the clients.
Eric Boles (06:58.27)
I was going over the strategy session with, they are an operators operating operation, if that makes sense. They are good at what they do. They have to operate at high levels in very difficult circumstances. There's a lot of headwinds that are impacting them a strong way. But these leaders, they really work hard at what they do. They really do. And so when we talk about helping them become more strategic.
Dale (07:06.33)
They're good at what they do.
Eric Boles (07:27.33)
The real answer isn't we're gonna pull back. No, the thing we do is we sit back and go, okay, we're really good at operations. We're really good at the tactics that need to be done. We just need to season our tactics with a little more strategy. And the way we do it is with our conversations. So we just make sure we keep attaching line of sight to the work that people are doing. So if somebody's doing some work and we talk about how important, you know,
placement of certain products are. And now that's very common, right? In a very retail-generated operator, well, placement is very important. But where we place something, where we put something, it's bigger than just that. And sometimes a leader has to acknowledge that, oh no, I like how you place this. And they go, great, great. But, and the reason why we like that, or tell me the reason why you placed it there. Well, our customers feel this way, okay, now, now.
That's what's leading to exceptional customer service. Or we got some feedback that is telling our customer they really like that versus our manager said that's where we had to put it. If the answer is our manager said that's where they put it, that's not being strategic. Now they're not thinking. Now they're just, they're not even using their brain. So when you tell them to move it again, they're gonna be like, ah, you just told me to put it here. Now you're telling me to put it there? No, there's feedback we're getting from our customer that this may not be the right spot or.
based on sales or numbers, we're not getting the right kind of traction from that. And so this is, you know, being strategic or becoming more strategic with your folks, is just allowing more strategic conversations to take place by saying, what we're doing right now is this getting us to where we wanna go and do everybody know where we wanna go? Have we made it clear of where we wanted to go? I mean, these simple little conversations, we assume they're happening, but for so many of us leaders,
I've used this quote before, the great one by George Bernard Shaw again, which is, the problem with communication is delusion is taking place. And we can't say that enough. So for leaders, it is ensuring that we are communing what we wanna do, we're communing why we wanna do it. And communicating isn't, again, I said, we're communicating what we wanna do and why we wanna do it. I didn't say we're just telling people what we wanna do and why we wanna do it. Communication is going both directions. We're hearing from our people why we're going after it.
Eric Boles (09:50.162)
They know, they know why, I know why. If something changes, we have that information. We understand how everything we're doing rolls up to a bigger situation. In a small business is one thing, but many leaders who listen to this are part of pretty sizable organizations. Yet, you should know how your puzzle piece fits in the bigger scheme of things.
Dale (10:13.24)
You made mention of we all working hard as table, table stakes. So I'm thinking about this why exercise you gave a great illustration of a we're going to put the product on this shelf because the customer wants it not just because the manager says so. But getting to the why I feel is hard work for a lot of folks, especially who come at it from
a standpoint of history of, well, that's because I said so kind of leadership. It's context versus control to take that line. So we want to provide context. But
Eric Boles (10:46.282)
Oh, I like it.
Dale (10:50.26)
was less, let's dive in deep on that why because I'm thinking, you know, there I've run myself through an exercise and working on this from the innovation space of we need to be able to ask why seven times in order to really dig in and fully understand something. But that's hard work. That's the hard work of really digging into understand the why and then to tag on to what you said be clear enough.
and find a way to really bring crystal clarity to the explanation. So can you walk us through an exercise maybe you've had with a client somewhere in the past where you've literally had to say, that wise too shallow, we need to go deeper to really get to the why of this so that your people truly start to think strategically.
Eric Boles (11:39.702)
Yeah, you just said it so well, Dale, when you said from an innovative standpoint, we'll go to the why seven times, if not more. Because the first couple of why's are easy answers, but they're typically somewhat vague. So the further you go, it actually forces you to really be concrete. And so one of the things that I've, and I still do with organizations, is that why question.
It goes pretty deep. It doesn't only just provide an understanding of why we're doing it, but the why question allows you to ask all kinds of questions such as, okay, why is this important? And somebody said, well, it's important because it really makes a difference for the customer. Okay, now why is that important? Well, duh. No, it's not a duh. No, we need to know why is this important for a customer. Well, when the customer feels this way, they do this. I said, great. Now, why is that important? And you can keep going. But the additional thing with going through the five whys and...
seven whys or how many whys we want to go into. And I tell the leaders this question, even explain to your team why you're going deep on the whys. Even if it feels like a weird activity, ask why again and they're looking at me strange. Don't just do it without giving them context of why you're doing it. Guys, we want to be on the same page on why this is important from an alignment standpoint. I want you all to know.
I want you to have as much clarity on this why that the CEO for this company has. I want you to have as much clarity all the way up and down. I want the very person, and again, we used this example before, but if both of us job is to lay bricks, I want us to, you know, I don't want somebody just thinking their jobs are laid bricks. I want them to also have the same vision that everybody else's. Man, we are building cathedrals. I just happen to be in this role and I want it so crystal clear because it collapses time.
For the leaders who think they don't have time, I'm telling you, this saves you so much time. Like, this actually gives you time back. One of the things that the lack of clarity produces, especially in hardworking organizations, again, everyone's listening to me right now, this is not a lack of competency, this is not a lack of hard work or effort. Every one of us know how many things come our way in the work that we do.
Eric Boles (14:04.514)
But it's very, very important to understand that a lot of the distraction and a lot of the noise that we deal with is almost self-created. We create a lot of it because we're not clear enough, because people don't know the why. So we create unnecessary activity that's just in the way. And so one thing that I had recently, a particular client,
group of leaders and I do this individual leaders all the time but it's nothing more powerful than a group of leaders all sitting there and you ask a simple question such as I want you to look at everything you have going on right now everything that's the goals you're going after the activities that hold up and I'm not telling you telling you to get rid of anything I just want you to look at it and I want you to look at it with your strategic eyes so this isn't about doing this is about seeing
Now, when you look at the stuff that you're seeing, what are these things do you see that if done consistently and effectively will actually lead us to where we wanna go, that a collapse time and get there? Well, when you start asking questions like this, it causes you to look at all the things you're doing differently, right? Like, hey, it doesn't mean I need to start doing something, but there's a high probability there's some things that we're doing I may need to stop.
or at least adjust. I have meetings already, but the meetings we're having aren't as effective as getting us there. So why don't we change up what we talk about in this meeting to make sure I'm getting everybody aligned? You got the meeting anyways, if they, like in our world, hey, if I got to play the game anyway, you might as well win. If you got to have a meeting anyways, you might as well get something out of it. And getting out of it isn't just talking, but listening. Have.
people look at where are we getting our feedback? How are we using all the information? Where do we need to course correct? How can we do it quicker? These are all the things that, and I tell you, when we start doing this strategically with this in mind as leaders, it even adds a new energy to the team. People start feeling like you're connected some bit. It's funner, like it's way funner. I think there's a biblical scripture that says, you know, about, you know, you know,
Eric Boles (16:28.742)
I don't know if it's hope grows the heart weary or something, I may be completely off. But what I am saying is, if I have tasks without the dream connect or the vision or the plan connected to it, it's just drudgery. And then if I have the vision without the task connected, that's just wishful thinking. So when we talk about being strategic, we're talking about being both and. We're not saying,
operations and tactics don't matter. We're just saying, don't be so far in that direction that all that activity doesn't have a direction. And then don't be so vague in direction that there's no tactics connected to it. And if somebody asks me, Eric, where is usually the error? The error isn't that people are too strategic. The error is the opposite. And the further you go down into detail, the more movement is required. You won't run out of detail. Like,
I had recently had my eyes done and just new glasses. I've had Lasik in the past, but I can't have it redone now. So I went there and man, I mean, these lenses I have and everything, and I realized, no, I can read the top line. I just couldn't read everything else. But as I started seeing those lines at the bottom, and I was like, oh my gosh, I see it all. Yeah, but that doesn't mean I need to.
spend time on it all. I may see it all, but I don't have to communicate all of it. I don't need to be stuck down in the fine print. If I'm so stuck in the fine print that I can't, you know, understand where we're going. And this happens sometimes with leaders or managers who are operators, where they are strategic internally. So they can see a little action.
and make a big deal out of it because you're making a, your reaction to it or your management of it is a big deal because you know how important it is. But before you just overreact and go, do your people know how important it is? But did you just make it really important because you got mad or did you make it really important and explain why it's important? Now this sounds, you know, and again, I share it with groups I've worked with. As leaders sometimes, we, sometimes with our people,
Eric Boles (18:50.806)
Unfortunately, we sometimes do the same thing with our kids. I use the example of my daughter running out to the street. My mother grabs her, squeezes her really hard and says, don't run in the street. But the way my daughter translated that at that age where my mom's mad at me, no, what was driving my wife's response was how much she loves my daughter, how much she means to her. And so what do we have to ensure we do the next time? Do the same thing, but.
explain to her, share with her, because she's great at recording information, terrible at translating it. And we do that with our people a lot.
Dale (19:23.964)
Hmm.
I'm so glad you went there because I've had this in the back of my mind. Our kids are out of the house and I think we were pretty good at it, but I wish I would have been a lot more intentional. And that is if you are a parent of young kids and you've ever caught yourself saying to the question, why, why dad, why mom? You know, that classic question, man, feed that.
Eric Boles (19:52.113)
Yes. That's right.
Dale (19:52.312)
never let it annoy you feed it and use it as practice to answer with clarity, completeness and clarity. I think it's a fantastic opportunity. Sorry for that. That rabbit trail.
Eric Boles (20:00.638)
Yeah. Yep.
Eric Boles (20:05.786)
No, hey, no, but that's exactly it, because everybody who we lead and work with and partner with and ourselves, even under the leadership that when our leaders are leading us, what are we all wanting to know, Dale? Like, why? Like, even if we may now, you know, we won't wear our bosses or our leaders or those who we report to wear them out, but the question's still there. And if the question is not answered, we either answer it with inaccurate information.
or because we're not aligned, I'm gonna work hard on something that didn't matter or wasn't as significant to the outcome and now I want credit for that. I want you to acknowledge what I just did. And again, we've emphasized this in past podcasts and I'm emphasizing again today, but here's what I've realized and I think we all realize that is that
The busyness of work, the opportunity for a whole lot of noise, for it to be distracted, it's not getting lower, it's getting higher. There are certain variables going on, whether it's inflation or world issues and other things. Again, all of those have various, those are contributing factors to the noise. So if those are contributing factors, what we have to control are the determining factors that we can do something.
And those determining factors are how strategic we help our people become, not just us, but we have to multiply the intelligence of those we lead. So including a small, un-linearly, we can actually include a strategic comment at the end of some tactical work. Oh, hey, great work. Cause this is exactly how we're going to get to this goal we're going after because of that action right there. Just that little statement.
It just changes the dynamic or the ability to ask somebody, okay, so how does this lead to that outcome? I, last little point I make, I still remember, you know, hearing the, you know, God rest his soul, but Kelleher, Southwest Airlines, when they made their mission to be the low cost airlines. And every time somebody brought ideas about, you know, what they can improve and everything.
Eric Boles (22:31.134)
He would be all on board, but his finishing question would always be, now how does this help us be the low cost airlines? Especially if it added dollars. And so his thing was, I don't just say no to the dollars. What I'm gonna ask you though is, is there a chance we can create that kind of experience without adding costs? Those are the right kind of questions. And so when we're strategically thinking, what really strategic thinking does,
It asks, it causes us to allow where we want to end up to have greater influence on where we are right now and part of the way it does it, it just helps us frame better questions. Getting to the why is always a question. Why is framed as a question? Like, okay, why are we doing it? Let's answer it, okay, why are we doing that? Let's answer it. Another great question of getting strategic is, why don't we have it now? Great question. If that's where we're going, why aren't we experiencing it right now? I mean,
These levels strategic, not only direction, but even when it comes to problem solving, this kind of helps us get out of the realm of, it helps us start locking onto the problem that is versus the problem that isn't. We start thinking at the root level versus just like, you know, the quote says, instead of hacking at the branches, you know, there's one striking at the root, let's strike at the root.
Dale (23:53.624)
I will have to tell folks that I guarantee you the first time, I mean, you can go in and you can work on the clarity and really dive into the true why and make sure that you've got it succinct and ready to talk about, but it will not stick the first time you say it. It will not stick the second time you say it.
Eric Boles (24:10.382)
friend. Come on.
Dale (24:12.652)
it might start to stick the third time you say it, but it's the repetition, it's getting the reps in on saying it over and over and over again, where it will actually start to stick and cascade through the organization. And that's just firsthand experience. I've learned it the hard way myself.
Eric Boles (24:32.55)
As we say, no matter, no getting around it, we gotta tell people the truth. This isn't what we're describing right now. Strategic thinking, getting it amongst your organization to think this way, this isn't an event. It is not an event. It is a practice. You train this into them. There's consistency over intensity. You can't have just, we're gonna have this intense meeting on that, no man, we gonna have this conversation consistently and it's the.
consistency of it that begins to change the way we think about. And that's what we want to get to.
Dale (25:06.12)
All right, wrap this up. Any final words?
Eric Boles (25:07.306)
My man.
Eric Boles (25:11.298)
Like everything else, like we just got to talk and this is something we train ourselves and those around us in doing. This is not something we try to do. This is something we train ourselves to do.
Dale (25:20.961)
That is fantastic.
I'm going to ask our listeners a couple of favors. Number one, would you go into your podcast listening app? Make sure number one, you're subscribed. Number two, if you would rate this episode, hopefully we've earned five stars from you, and write a quick review, even just one sentence about one thing you've pulled from this that you're going to put into practice in your business in the next week or today, preferably, if you really want to see impact, put it into practice today. Make it work. Write that review.
would be most grateful. It helps us show up higher in search results as people are people are out looking for this type of material.
And you can always find us online. Eric's website is the game changers inc.com and my website Dale Dixon media.com we would love to hear from you. Eric's also active on LinkedIn and Facebook you can keep track of his travels and where he's at. He said he's in New York today but you're crisscrossing the country on a weekly basis so and
Eric Boles (26:24.146)
Yeah, actually gonna be in Frankfurt, Germany in a few weeks, so yeah, busy guy.
Dale (26:29.8)
Okay, and I love it. You love to give shout outs to your clients along the way so we get to track where you're at. So you can find Eric on LinkedIn and Facebook and he would love to connect with you on those platforms. Thank you for listening and we're here to help you unleash your best in life and work.
Dale (26:55.336)
Okay.
Eric Boles (26:56.65)
Awesome, my man.