Strategic Thinking: 11 Critical Skills Needed, Essay Example

After my experience in the armed forces I tend to believe that I’m a strategic thinker. This has a lot to do with organization and efficiency. Two items that I feel, without them, there is no course to follow. As a strategic thinker I anticipate things. When I go through my list of daily errands, I do execute them with efficiency in this manner: I map out where it is I need to go through the course of my day and figure out which pattern of delivery works best. For instance, if I need to pay a utility bill but I also have a question about my bill, I know that calling them first thing in the morning will behoove me as I won’t have to wait half an hour to an hour before a company representative gets on the phone. If I call with my hands-free set while on the road to my next errand, then this saves me even more time. It’s a small thing, running these errands, but saving myself time in the long run is very important to me. Thus, anticipating what I have to do next limits time wasting. I think that critical thinking is also a part of being efficient. This can be seen in something as easy as transferring my credit card debt onto a lowering paying APR credit card then cancelling the previous card. In the long run, I still have the debt, but I don’t have to pay a higher interest. In making these and other adult obligations I find that I make good use of my command decision skills. Hesitating isn’t in my nature and I find it wastes time. When I see a clear solution, I don’t mull it over, I go for it (Shoemaker, 2012, para. 6-9).

In order to accomplish my own work, I need to cooperation of my family members. It takes a team to conquer something: something as small as dinner, to something as large as paying a mortgage. For instance, when one of my family members makes dinner we use our cell phones to make sure that everything is done in a timely manner. The person shopping will pick up the meat and either text, call, or facetime the person at home to preheat the oven then do necessary prep work. Then, by using our cell phones, we organize having dinner at the same time. This also allows for us to gather as a family instead of living insular lives in which dinner is “grab-and-go” instead of family time. In my house, dinner serves as family time. A time when we can gather and share stories about our day, but in order to accomplish this, we have to be as organized as possible.

The two major things I have learned in the Vietnam War (1954-1968) is that capitalism and communism never fought directly, but instead, the uneasy peace came to blows in several proxy wars, of which the Vietnam War was one. I also acknowledge and am aware that a great many factors of world history fed into the Vietnam period, not just one small incident. There were warning signs and a catalyst that was ignored until it was too late. The Vietnam War created profound changes in world order. The Vietnam War was an unintended centerpiece through which we study the history of a whole dramatic century. The culture that sprang up in the United States during and after the Vietnam War was endemic of how government treated people, soldiers, and other governments. It was eye-opening. This war paved the way to understanding the consequences of war in a completely different way than the veterans who returned from World War II. What I garnered from this course that could help me accomplish my missions (and from my experience as a veteran) I find that a complete understanding of a situation is necessary before action. I know I spoke about command decision, but command decision is done with the knowledge at hand. If I’ve learned anything, it’s to have as much knowledge at hand about a situation before making a decision. This helps to curtail blunders and saves lives in the long run.

References

Ebersole, J. G. (2014). Strategic thinking: 11 critical skills needed. Course and Direction. Retrieved from http://www.cssp.com/CD0808b/CriticalStrategicThinkingSkills/

Shoemaker P. (2012). 6 habits of true strategic thinkers. Inc. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/paul-schoemaker/6-habits-of-strategic-thinkers.html