Creativity is an important component of strategic
thinking. Those who are able to imagine and think through varying scenarios are
capable of predicting the end game.
Research by Larson and Angus helps shed light on the process of creative
learning and its association with developing critical strategies (2011). This
learning can start in high school and move into the early college years. Creative
learning may continue through one’s lifetime.
The development of agency is an important tool for
achieving goals and ensuring the ability to move through a changing
environment. Projects in young adulthood
and early college can help to develop the mental faculty of seeing projects to
their completion as well as thinking creatively about solving problems.
Education should have a level of creative faculty to develop these skills to
match concrete content learning.
Agency skills also develop the ability to have
executive control over one’s own thoughts, learn new cognitive tools, develop
creative problem solving, learn the action skills to achieve goals and move
into higher order thinking. These skills and abilities further create a
platform for strategic thinking. Without
the ability to think creatively, it is doubtful that new methods and paths will
be found.
Programs often use the “arc of work” approach which
includes the concepts of planning, monitoring, adjusting existing plans and
receiving feedback. When projects span of a period of weeks and months it
requires students to be reflective of their creative process. When the
situation changes the students can find ways of adapting to those changes. It
is this thinking about and reflection on methods that helps students find new
ways to complete their projects in meaningful ways.
When people are engaged in projects and own the
results they invest themselves into the process more deeply. It is an
investment that helps create higher order thinking and strategic planning. The
creation of a long-term project helps to connect the many different work
methods and strategies students use to navigate their environment. It helps
solidify successful methods from unsuccessful ones. They are likely to use these later in their
working life.
The researchers used 11 different programs to assess
the results of subject creative process. They worked back into the creative
process and conducted in-depth research to assess how such projects foster
creative strategic thinking. A few years
later, they interviewed the participants again to create a longitudinal
approach. They looked at artistic programs, social activism, media arts,
political action, and leadership programs. An in-depth review of plans, thought
processes, and perceptions were particularly important.
The participants reported that they learned how to
mobilize their efforts and regulate their time. They gained the long-term
perspective that allowed them to create strategies to complete their
projects. Their plans were broken down into action steps. Steps are seen as
sequential actions that lead to project completion.
Most remarkably,
participants learned that strategic thinking requires the ability to adjust
with changing circumstances, understand how others respond, and think through
the alternatives, and have backup plans. They were able to think through how
human systems operate and what cognitive models others use to respond to their
various actions. Most importantly, they were able to transfer the skills
learned to other areas in life including prediction of events and determining
alternative actions.
The
report connects the concepts of creative thinking and analytic analysis to
determine the potential scenarios. The
authors come to a definition of strategic thinking as ‘Use of advanced
executive skills to anticipate possible scenarios in the steps to achieving
goals and to formulate flexible courses of action that take these possibilities
into account.’’ Strategy is a process of first envisioning the
possibilities and then systematically thinking through the likely outcomes of
results. It is both a freethinking and analytical process where possibilities
are explored and the most likely ones chosen. When the environment changes, so
does the strategies.
Larson, R. & Angus, R. (2011). Adolescents’
development of skills for agency in youth programs: learning to think
strategically. Child Development, 82
(1).
