Courses/Thinking & Performance/Strategic Thinking Skills
Strategic Thinking Skills
Half-day training pack on strategic thinking, analysis tools and action planning
Overview
A half-day course on thinking strategically at work: what strategic thinking involves, how it differs from strategic planning, and how to apply tools such as SWOT, PESTLE and scenario planning. The pack gives a trainer a fully scripted session — notes, slides, workbook and scenario handouts — ready to deliver in a classroom or online, with unlimited rights to edit and rebrand.
Format. Half day (about 4 hours including breaks). Designed for classroom delivery and adaptable to live online sessions.
Who it is for. Open level: employees who are new to strategic thinking as well as those with some grounding who want to develop the skill further.
What delegates take away
- Identify the key components and benefits of strategic thinking.
- Distinguish strategic thinking from strategic planning.
- Apply SWOT, PESTLE and scenario planning to workplace situations.
- Ask proactive rather than reactive questions when weighing decisions.
- Spot common barriers to strategic thinking and plan responses to them.
- Set up an action plan with SMART goals for using strategic thinking at work.
Course outline
Introductions, learning objectives, and a paired scenario exercise in which participants choose between strategic options and explain their reasoning.
The elements and components of strategic thinking, the difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning, and the advantages it brings at work.
Creating a vision, developing awareness, and asking proactive rather than reactive questions.
External factors analysis, PESTLE and SWOT, each applied to scenario exercises from the handouts.
Ways to encourage creative thinking, then scenario planning illustrated with a worked scenario-matrix example.
Participants examine what might go wrong in given situations and work through common obstacles using the barriers scenario handout.
Self-reflection leading to a personal action plan with SMART goals, followed by a recap of the learning objectives.
What is in the kit
Slide deck
35 editable PowerPoint slides with speaker notes on every slide
Trainer notes
67-page scripted facilitator guide with timings, activity instructions, suggested wording and online-delivery variations for each activity
MIZAN Edition field guide
Updated research with sources, two GCC-context case studies, three new activities, an AI-era section and a 30-day transfer plan
Participant workbook
43-page workbook with prompts and space for notes and activities
Handouts
Four activity handouts: SWOT analysis scenarios, external factors analysis scenarios, barriers to strategic thinking scenarios, and a strategic thinking action plan
Certificates
Attendance certificate in digital-signature and printable formats, plus a CPD completion certificate template with a completed example
Course administration forms
Feedback form and sign-in sheet
Online delivery guide
10-page guide to running the session over web conferencing platforms, with tool suggestions
Pre-course preparation guide
Orientation document covering pack contents, the trainer-notes colour coding and how to prepare workbook and slide printouts
Editable and PDF formats
Every document supplied in both Microsoft Word/PowerPoint and PDF versions
Editions
The license in one sentence
Buy once, deliver the course as often as you like to as many delegates as you like, edit anything, add your own branding — you only may not resell or redistribute the materials themselves. Every download is stamped with your name, tier and order number. Full license terms
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