Invisible Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking doesn't always show up as a big idea.


It's often hidden in the work already being done.

Recognize it. Articulate it. Change outcomes for professionals and organizations.

What is Invisible Strategic Thinking?  

Strategic thinking is one of the most valued skills in today's workplace, influencing how professionals are evaluated, developed, and considered for advancement. 

We tend to associate strategic thinking with big ideas, bold initiatives, and highly visible decisions. But strategic thinking can also show up in quieter forms:

  • Recognizing patterns and connecting information

  • Challenging assumptions

  • Evaluating tradeoffs

  • Anticipating and mitigating risks

  • Considering downstream implications

When those behaviors happen as a part of everyday work, the thinking behind the work can become nearly invisible.

The result may be recognized as only execution without naming the strategic thinking that produced it. Invisible Strategic Thinking is embedded within everyday work and is often overlooked or misidentified as execution only.

What Invisible Strategic Thinking Looks Like  

Invisible Strategic Thinking often shows up in the questions asked, the connections made, and the decisions shaped as work moves forward. It can look like:

  • Recognizing Patterns and Connecting Seemingly Unrelated Information

    Noticing that an issue surfacing today is connected to something the team learned from a previous project, customer conversation, or data point.

  • Challenging Assumptions

    Pausing before solving the problem presented and asking, “Are we solving the right problem?”

  • Evaluating Tradeoffs

    Looking beyond whether an option can work to consider what may be gained, lost, delayed, or deprioritized by choosing it.

  • Considering Downstream Implications

    Looking beyond the immediate decision to ask how it will affect other teams, customers, processes, priorities, or future work.

  • Anticipating and Mitigating Risks

    Identifying what could create problems later and adjusting the approach before those problems arise.

These everyday actions can lead to better decisions and better outcomes.

Why Recognizing Invisible Strategic Thinking Matters

For Professionals

When invisible strategic thinking is recognized, professionals may feel seen and appreciated in a new way. Their contributions are more fully valued, including the judgment, foresight, and decision-making embedded in everyday work.

That recognition can create greater opportunities for development and advancement.

For Leaders

Recognizing strategic thinking in its less visible forms gives leaders a more complete view of the capability already present on their teams.

That visibility helps leaders more accurately identify, develop, and leverage talent to support team and organizational goals

For Organizations

Recognizing the full range of strategic contributions across the workforce can strengthen talent decisions and leadership pipelines by revealing capability that might otherwise be overlooked.

Greater visibility into that capability can contribute to stronger engagement, improved retention, and better use of the talent already present in the organization.

Meet Charisse

Charisse Pierce is a keynote speaker, coach, and senior HR and Compensation professional whose work explores how strategic thinking is recognized, articulated, and valued in the workplace.

After nearly two decades working at the intersection of people, strategy, and business outcomes, Charisse began questioning a familiar workplace pattern: high performers recognized for their ability to execute but not for the strategic thinking that informed their execution.

She recognized her own experience within this pattern. Despite years of doing work that required strategic thinking, she sometimes struggled to recognize and articulate the strategic impact of her own contributions.

That experience raised a larger question: What if there are other forms of strategic thinking that don’t look the way we expect? That question became the foundation for Invisible Strategic Thinking, Charisse's work examining strategic thinking embedded in everyday work that may be misidentified as execution only, and what can happen when professionals, leaders, and organizations learn to recognize and articulate it.

Through speaking and coaching, she helps professionals and leaders recognize and articulate strategic thinking that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Learn More

Invisible Strategic Thinking Ways to Engage

Invisible Strategic Thinking can be experienced in formats designed to meet organizations and individuals where they are, from keynotes that introduce a new way of thinking, to interactive workshops that provide opportunities for application, to executive cohorts that help participants integrate it into everyday practice, or individual coaching that provides personalized support.

Whether audiences are discovering this idea for the first time or learning to apply it to their work, every engagement is informed by experience, research, and real-world workplace examples that provide practical insights participants can immediately apply in the workplace.

These experiences benefit professionals ready to articulate their value with greater clarity and confidence, leaders who want to better recognize and develop strategic thinking across their teams, and HR professionals looking to increase engagement and retention of key talent within their organizations.

  • Introduces Invisible Strategic Thinking through relatable stories and practical workplace examples that help professionals and leaders recognize the strategic thinking already present in everyday work.

  • Participants work through practical exercises and engage in discussion and reflection to strengthen their ability to identify, articulate, and evaluate strategic thinking in real workplace situations.

  • A deeper shared learning experience for professionals or leaders to practice applying the concepts over time, strengthen their ability to recognize and articulate strategic thinking, and integrate those practices into how they work and lead.

  • For professionals seeking personalized support in recognizing the strategic thinking already present in their work, articulating its impact, and applying those insights to their development and career goals.

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Invisible Strategic Thinking 

Research

Invisible Strategic Thinking is being explored through ongoing research into how strategic thinking is defined and recognized in the workplace, especially when it is embedded in everyday work.

The research examines strategic thinking, including how feedback about being “more strategic” is understood, how confidently people can explain what strategic thinking means in the context of their work, and how often strategic contributions are recognized or overlooked.

    • How is strategic thinking defined and understood in the workplace? 

    • How often is strategic thinking embedded in everyday work overlooked or mistaken for execution or tactical work? 

    • When people are told to “be more strategic,” how clearly is strategic thinking defined and what guidance are they given? 

    • What impact can recognition, feedback, or lack of recognition have on professional confidence and identity?

  • If you are an individual contributor, people leader, mentor, or coach and have experienced any of the following, you are invited to participate:

    • Received feedback to be more strategic 

    • Given feedback that someone should be more strategic 

    • Mentored or coached someone looking to be more strategic 

    • Struggled to articulate your strategic impact

    • 30-minute virtual conversation 

    • 3–5 minute questionnaire 

    • Confidential participation

Interested in participating?
Complete the IST Research Form