{"id":669,"date":"2012-11-15T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ehscsi.com\/?p=669"},"modified":"2019-10-11T18:07:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T22:07:46","slug":"strategic-thinking-an-overview-a-presentation-from-the-asse-leadership-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/15\/strategic-thinking-an-overview-a-presentation-from-the-asse-leadership-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Strategic Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is lots of buzz about &#8220;strategy&#8221; from strategic planning to strategic objectives but <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.ehscsi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/strategic-thinking.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-687\" title=\"strategic thinking\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.ehscsi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/strategic-thinking-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"strategic thinking, ehs leadership, ehs consultant in south florida\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/strategic-thinking-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/strategic-thinking-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/strategic-thinking.jpg 347w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>having a strategic though pattern can assist an EHS professional in ensuring effectiveness. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Strategic thinking was the title of one of the sessions I attended at the <a title=\"American Society of Safety Engineers\" href=\"http:\/\/asse.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">American Society for Safety Engineers<\/a> (ASSE) Leadership Symposium. &nbsp;The session was given by <a title=\"Trish Ennis\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/profile\/view?id=28844691&amp;locale=en_US&amp;trk=tyah2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trish Ennis<\/a> and focused on how leaders in the EHS industry can think more strategically although her discussion points can be applied to leaders in any industry. &nbsp;She suggested the following as benefits of thinking strategically:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Saves time &amp; effort<\/li>\n<li>Makes the most of limited resources<\/li>\n<li>Attracts funding<\/li>\n<li>Gets people on board<\/li>\n<li>Enhances chances of success<\/li>\n<li>Increases job satisfaction<\/li>\n<li>Simplifies the difficult<\/li>\n<li>Prompts one to ask that right questions<\/li>\n<li>Promotes customization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">In addition to presenting the benefits Ms. Ennis talked to tips on thinking strategically.<br \/>\nShe&nbsp;focused on&nbsp;the approach of zooming in or zooming out&#8211;knowing when to take a big picture view of an issue or alternatively when to get down to the details. &nbsp; She also highlighted the importance of being able to use both views simultaneously which gives different perspectives that can change our interaction with others and give us the aforementioned benefits. &nbsp;She presented two case studies that assisted in identifying practicals ways to implement strategic thinking. &nbsp;The first case study was on Cynthia Carol of Anglo America, from an article that I reviewed in an earlier post entitled&nbsp;<a title=\"Permalink to Are Radical Changes Required to Implement An Effective Safety Culture?\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.ehscsi.com\/2012\/06\/22\/are-radical-changes-required-to-implement-an-effective-safety-culture\/\" rel=\"bookmark noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Are Radical Changes Required to Implement An Effective Safety Culture?<\/a>&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">&nbsp; The second case study, of which I was unfamiliar, discussed Paul O&#8217;Neill the former CEO of Alcoa. &nbsp;Both focused on safety programs that were failing&#8211;Anglo America with a number of fatalities, Alcoa with poor quality and employee dissatisfaction. &nbsp;Thinking strategically forced both companies to make hard decisions which ultimately lead to a turn around in their programs. &nbsp;Anglo America saw a marked decrease in fatalities and Alcoa reduced injuries and improved quality. &nbsp;Additional keys to thinking strategically emphasized by Ennis were:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 24px; font-size: medium;\">Breaking down the issues<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 24px; font-size: medium;\">Asking WHY before HOW<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 24px; font-size: medium;\">Identifying the real issue or objective<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 24px; font-size: medium;\">Reviewing the resources&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;\">Do you have other keys to assist with thinking strategically? &nbsp;Join the conversation and leave a comment below.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is lots of buzz about &#8220;strategy&#8221; from strategic planning to strategic objectives but having a strategic though pattern can assist an EHS professional in ensuring effectiveness. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Strategic thinking was the title of one of the sessions I attended at the American Society for Safety Engineers (ASSE) Leadership Symposium. &nbsp;The session was given&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[169,82,9],"tags":[15,163,170],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ehs-leadership","category-ehs-management","category-safety-culture","tag-ehs-management-systems","tag-leadership","tag-strategic-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}