Strategy Skills for the Future

The planning world is being constantly disrupted and is becoming increasingly fragmented. The proliferation of titles and roles and different applications of strategic thinking force us to pay attention to what this means for individual strategists and how we should arm up to deal with change and continue to thrive as a discipline. So rather than posit various future scenarios we’ve gone to the nitty gritty and focused on the skills that we as a community believe are axiomatic to our future health.

With some pretty extensive research.

Firstly, we interviewed 25 strategy leaders, CSOs, Heads of Planning, CEOs and a couple of clients. These were depth interviews with leading thinkers where we discussed the skills they think are going to be really important, as well as their views on how we should meet the challenges ahead.

Then we went on to survey you, the APG community. In total, 317 Planners and Strategists completed our Future Skills Survey.

We’re really glad you responded with such vigour and enthusiasm and we hope that you find the data interesting, and our conclusions both helpful and provocative.

Which skills are the most valued?

The top rated skills required for Planners and Strategists are universal:

1. Understanding people (at 9.5, this was the top-rated skill.)

Even the die-hard tech and data experts said, overwhelmingly, that it was crucial to understand people holistically and be the experts at what motivates them– and not just how they behave online.

2. Understanding effectiveness (9.4)

How is the idea supposed to work, and how is it supposed to get the client their predetermined return? The business end of things was felt to be critical.

3. The ability to define a problem (9.3)