Strategy is just a fancy word for a long-term plan. Without a vision for the future and a set of choices to guide us, we often struggle to align our daily activities with our long-term desires. Fortunately, the skills needed for strategic thinking can be learned over time using various resources. This month’s article will look at games and tools that encourage you to enjoy developing your strategic skills. I challenge everyone to add one or two to their development plan this year.
The ability to think strategically is a prized accomplishment, whether you’re a CEO of a major corporation or a small business owner. Strategic planning helps you identify the resources and steps necessary to reach the desired outcome and make the most of available resources. You may feel it’s impossible to learn how to think strategically without a large project. However, anyone can develop the individual skills needed, including thinking long-term, assessing challenges, managing resources, and considering an opponent’s moves and intentions using games and other tools. A new year is a great time to start a new chapter in your professional development. Let’s look at some approaches you might use.
Why should we consider playing games as a professional development tool? Games require players to think several moves ahead and make decisions quickly. Players must think long-term, develop strategies, manage resources, and consider their opponents’ actions and intentions to succeed. Games can teach valuable critical thinking, decision-making, resource management, and strategic planning skills. Furthermore, they are enjoyable and provide social engagement with family, friends, or community members.
One of the most popular games is chess. This classic two-player game requires players to think several moves ahead and consider how their opponent might react. Reading your opponent’s moves and anticipating their next move is crucial to developing a solid strategy. Recognizing patterns in several actions in advance is another skill imparted with regular play. Players can participate at any skill level, although it helps to have a partner with a similar skill level. Many communities have clubs where you can develop your skills and compete against others. Other two-person games offering similar skill development are checkers and the more recently popularized Go.
Strategy board games like Risk or Monopoly are also excellent for developing strategic planning skills. These games require players to think long-term, build teams and alliances, and make decisions to help them achieve their ultimate goal. In addition, strategy board games can replicate various roles and encourage tactical experimentation. Some examples include Settlers of Catan (where players compete to build settlements and trade networks on a previously uninhabited island) and Wingspan (where players score points by building bird habitats and ecosystems).
You don’t need to confine yourself to board games. Some types of video games are also a great way to improve your strategic planning skills. Popular strategy-based video games like Starcraft, Civilization, and Age of Empires require players to think several steps ahead and make decisions about resource management, territory expansion, and combat. You can play some of these games solo; others are available in online multiplayer versions. Others may offer realistic simulations of present-day challenges, like farming or community-building simulations. Contract bridge and other card games that use partnerships during play hone skills of understanding between partners as competing against another team.
Games aren’t your only option. There are a variety of tools that can help you improve your strategic planning skills as an individual or with a small group. Mind mapping, decision trees, and SWOT analyses are all excellent ways to organize your thoughts and develop a plan of action. Pre-mortems are a great way to prepare for potential risks and problems before they occur. Lean business plans are valuable for determining the resources and steps necessary to set up a business or other venture. Force field analysis is a great way to weigh the pros and cons of a situation or decision, helping you assess the risks and rewards. And, of course, there are plenty of online resources available to help you learn the basics of strategic planning.
No matter which games or tools you choose, the key to developing your strategic planning skills is practice. Try different games and tools to see which best suits your needs and interests. Then, take a few minutes to visualize your strategic thinking goal and what you expect to learn. Afterward, consider how the experience changed or improved your thought process. With a bit of time and effort, you’ll soon be a master strategist.
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