Expert Practice Forum

A community for developing expertise. And the experts behind it.

Expert Practice Tool Belt

Shaping Strategy with Your Expertise

An interactive reflection workbook for subject matter experts

The key idea: Strategic influence is not about becoming less technical or trying to make every decision. It is about deciding where you want your expertise to shape strategy, understanding the wider context, and connecting your judgement to the choices, trade-offs and outcomes that will make a difference.

Your reflections stay with you. This workbook does not submit, transmit or store your responses. When finished, use the button at the bottom to prepare a PDF and save a copy to your device. If you leave this page before saving, your answers may be lost.

1How much strategic impact do you want?

Not every expert wants or needs the same strategic impact. Choose the level closest to the contribution you would like to make over the next 12 months.

Contribute when askedProvide sound expert input into decisions that others frame.Shape options earlierHelp define the choices before a direction or solution is set.Influence priorities & trade-offsHelp decide what matters, what gets resourced and what risks are accepted.Help shape broader strategyContribute to organisational direction beyond my immediate technical area.

The strategic decisions I most want to influence are: I want more strategic influence because:

2Assess your current position

Think about your work today. Choose Often, Sometimes or Rarely for each statement. Mark your two strongest areas and the two that most limit the impact you want.

I understand our strategic priorities and how my expertise connects to them.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

I understand the customer, market, regulatory or competitive forces affecting my area.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

I translate technical issues into implications for value, risk, cost, customer, speed or growth.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

I can make a recommendation when evidence is incomplete, while making assumptions and trade-offs explicit.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

I know who shapes important decisions and what matters to them.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

I am involved early enough to shape options, not only asked to implement them.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

I have relationships outside my technical function that broaden my context.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

My organisation expects and enables experts to contribute to or challenge strategic thinking.

How often? OftenSometimesRarely

Strength Limits impact

Strengths selected: 0 of 2. Areas limiting impact: 0 of 2.

The biggest gap between the strategic impact I want and the influence I have now is:

See the whole system. Some barriers are yours to work on. Others sit in the system around you.

3What’s getting in the way?

Tick anything that feels familiar. This is not a score. The aim is to separate personal patterns you can change from organisational conditions you may need to navigate or influence.

Personal patterns

I stay in the HOW and wait for others to define the WHAT, WHY or WHEN.I lead with technical detail or correctness rather than strategic meaning.I wait for more certainty before offering a view or recommendation.Once I favour a technical path, I do not always seek evidence that would change my mind.I focus on risks or problems without framing viable options and trade-offs.My knowledge of customers, markets, business priorities or commercial context is thin.I have few relationships with decision makers or people outside my function.I tend to raise concerns after the direction is largely decided.

Organisational conditions

Experts are consulted mainly after strategic choices have already been made.Strategic priorities and context are not shared clearly with technical teams.Technical and business groups use different measures, language or definitions of success.My role or workload keeps me focused on delivery rather than strategic thinking.Important decisions happen in forums or networks I have limited access to.Challenge or dissent from experts is discouraged or carries a social cost.Siloed structures make cross-functional relationships and shared understanding difficult.Conflicting incentives or unclear accountabilities pull technical and business priorities apart.

The personal pattern I most want to change: The organisational condition I most need to navigate or influence: The one thing I could do differently, even if the conditions never change:

4Where do you want to have more influence?

Think about the next 6–12 months. What issue, decision or opportunity would benefit from your expertise being heard earlier or more strongly?

The strategic issue or opportunity I most want to influence is:I want to influence it because:

What impact do you want to have?

Choose the most important impact.

Help others understand the issue betterShape the options being consideredInfluence a priority, trade-off or decisionChallenge an assumption or current directionHelp create a new opportunity or direction

5Broaden your lens: a Market Context scan

Thinking about the strategic issue or opportunity you identified above, assess your understanding of each lens as it relates to your strategic choice.

Outcome

What strategic, customer or market outcome are we trying to achieve?