Assessing the Unfocused Strategist

The Compass View
One cannot build or implement any strategy if he or she is not capable of staying focused on the target and/or unable to think geometrically. 

The elevation of one's goal usually creates a higher level of competition with greater resources.

The Origin of the Problem
We believed that this level of dysfunctionality begins at the elementary schools where the kids are assumed that they are technology literate. Playing games and pushing buttons do not necessarily make these kids expert-thinkers. Learning how to stay focused is the first step of learning and thinking.

Technology is a good tool when one is focused.

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As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks Are History
By TAMAR LEWIN

At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers’ science lectures. Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for “digital sections” of several English, history and science classes.

And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create — and share — lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.

Textbooks have not gone the way of the scroll yet, but many educators say that it will not be long before they are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.

“Kids are wired differently these days,” said Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish school system in Lake Charles, La. “They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite.

The Problem of Multitasking 
Technology simplifies the process of completing tasks. Whenever some of these kids are performing non-technology based tasks, they become ADD driven. They lived for the moment and cannot stay focused on target that takes a long timeline. Amateurs multi-task. Professionals multi-process (or multi-thread).

The Process of Transposing 
The practice of reversing data back and forth while minding the grand picture is not difficult. It just take some understanding of the process and some degree of internal preparation. The real challenge is performing regression analysis.

The Process of Extrapolating 
Drawing significant data from specific cases for more general cases is the key to building an understanding toward a Big Tangible Picture. Due to laziness,  most people (including adults) cannot even perform this task well.

“They don’t engage with textbooks that are finite, linear and rote,” Dr. Abshire continued. “Teachers need digital resources to find those documents, those blogs, those wikis that get them beyond the plain vanilla curriculum in the textbooks.”

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html?_r=1&hp

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We understand what are some of the possible problems that the new generation of strategists are facing. A strategist who consistently executes or adjusts their strategy without a focus or a reason, could be a person who operates without a plan. A person without a plan is one who has no goal.

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Side note: 
The work cycle for transforming two-dimensional information to a three dimensional format can be lengthy and laborious. Some professionals are not willing to perform this task because of the constant change of data.
One increases their opportunity of succeeding by observing the data from a multi-dimensional view.  This is how one connects the dots and reap the rewards.