Strategic thinking is not an annual-planning exercise. It is the discipline of seeing the system around a decision, choosing what matters, testing assumptions and making trade-offs visible before action begins.

Course Overview

This program develops the strategic-thinking capability women managers and leaders need when decisions extend beyond their immediate function. It focuses on framing issues, reading business context, identifying leverage points, testing assumptions and converting analysis into clear recommendations.

Participants work with real strategic questions from their roles, including competing priorities, uncertain information, cross-functional consequences and decisions where no option is risk-free.

For organizations, the course can support high-potential programs, women-in-leadership pathways, manager academies and succession pools where participants need to move from operational excellence toward enterprise-level judgement.

B2B course snapshot

Where this program fits

Best fit

Women managers, high-potential leaders and senior specialists preparing for broader business responsibility

Delivery

Live classroom, live online, or private in-house delivery with flexible duration.

Built around

Strategic framing, systems thinking, scenarios, assumptions, trade-offs, prioritization and executive recommendations

Take back to work

A strategic decision canvas and action plan for a live business priority

Built for Corporate Cohorts

Private delivery can be aligned to the sponsor’s capability goals, participant roles, internal frameworks, business priorities and real workplace scenarios. HR, L&D, Talent and functional leaders can use the program as a standalone cohort or as part of a wider academy, succession pathway or women-in-leadership portfolio.

What Female-Forward Means Here

The program strengthens strategic authority without prescribing a particular leadership persona. The focus is on judgement, evidence, challenge, decision quality and visible contribution.

What Participants Will Learn

Frame strategic issues
Separate the underlying decision from symptoms, noise and inherited assumptions.

See the wider system
Identify stakeholders, dependencies, incentives and second-order consequences.

Use scenarios
Explore plausible futures without pretending uncertainty can be eliminated.

Make trade-offs explicit
Compare options against strategic criteria, risk and opportunity cost.

Challenge assumptions
Test what must be true for a recommendation to work.

Communicate strategic recommendations
Present the issue, choices, consequences and recommendation with executive clarity.

Capability journey

From insight to workplace application

Frame the issue

See the system

Test the choices

Make the recommendation

Course Outline

Module 1: From Operational to Strategic Thinking

Recognize the shift from solving today’s problem to shaping longer-term choices.

Levels of thinking
Business context and strategic questions
Symptoms versus causes
Enterprise consequences

Module 2: Systems and Stakeholder Thinking

Understand how decisions interact across functions and interests.

Dependencies
Incentives
Stakeholder effects
Second-order consequences

Module 3: Scenarios and Uncertainty

Use structured uncertainty rather than false precision.

Scenario logic
Critical uncertainties
Assumption testing
Signals to monitor

Module 4: Priorities and Trade-offs

Choose what not to do as deliberately as what to pursue.

Strategic criteria
Opportunity cost
Resource constraints
Decision thresholds

Module 5: Strategic Recommendations

Turn analysis into an actionable leadership position.

Options
Consequences
Risk
Executive framing

Module 6: Strategic Action Plan

Apply the framework to a current business priority.

Decision statement
Assumptions
Stakeholders
Next actions

Who Should Attend

Women managers moving into broader leadership scope
High-potential women in succession pipelines
Senior specialists expected to contribute to strategy
Organizations developing enterprise-level judgement

Organizational Benefits

Strengthen strategic thinking below executive level
Improve the quality of cross-functional decisions
Prepare women for broader leadership and succession roles
Create a common language for strategic choices and trade-offs
Connect leadership development to live business priorities

Work products

Tools participants can use at work

Strategic issue map

Scenario matrix

Assumption checklist

Decision trade-off canvas

Executive recommendation brief

B2B Deployment Options

Use the program as a private cohort, as one component of a structured Women at Work pathway, or inside a function-specific academy. Multi-location live-online delivery can support geographically distributed teams.

Delivery Format

The program is live and instructor-led. It can be delivered in a classroom, live online, or in-house. Duration is flexible and should reflect participant level, selected depth, organizational objective and the amount of applied practice required.

For HR, L&D and business leaders: Explore in-house training or request a customized cohort.

Business Problems This Program Is Designed to Address

This course is designed around workplace problems that organizations can observe in real roles. The aim is to give participants a structured way to diagnose situations, make stronger decisions, practise difficult conversations and return to work with tools that can be used immediately.

Managers solve urgent problems without examining strategic consequencesThe course develops the habit of framing the real decision, understanding the wider system and considering what today’s choice creates tomorrow.

Teams jump from data to recommendation too quicklyParticipants learn to make assumptions, criteria and uncertainty visible before concluding that one option is best.

Strategic discussions generate many priorities and few choicesThe program emphasizes trade-offs, opportunity cost and resource focus so strategy becomes a pattern of decisions rather than a list of ambitions.

Recommendations are technically strong but hard for executives to act onParticipants practise concise option framing, consequences, risk and decision asks.

Applied Practice and Scenario Work

The learning design uses realistic management situations rather than abstract discussion alone. Private cohorts can calibrate the scenarios to the participant population, industry and operating context.

A business unit has more initiatives than capacityParticipants use strategic criteria to identify what should continue, pause, stop or be redesigned.

A market assumption suddenly changesParticipants revisit scenarios, determine which assumptions are broken and decide whether the strategy or only the execution needs to change.

Two attractive investments compete for the same resourcesParticipants compare strategic fit, expected value, risk, timing and opportunity cost.

A leader must recommend a direction with incomplete evidenceParticipants state confidence, assumptions and signals to monitor rather than pretending the uncertainty has disappeared.

Application principle: participants should leave each major topic able to explain what they would do differently in a real role, which stakeholders they would involve, what evidence they would use and how they would know whether the action worked.

For HR, L&D and Program Sponsors

Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making for Women Leaders can be delivered as a standalone private cohort or embedded inside a broader capability pathway. The sponsor can define the target population, role level, business context, expected behaviours, priority scenarios and work products before delivery.

A stronger deployment does more than count attendance. Participants can apply one tool to live work, discuss the result with their manager and bring the learning into an existing talent, performance, project or functional review. This connects development to execution without making unsupported ROI promises.

Before the cohort: define the capability gap and participant profile.
During delivery: use role-relevant scenarios, practice and work products.
After delivery: reinforce application through manager conversations, peer review or sponsor follow-up.
At pathway level: combine this program with adjacent courses where participants need broader capability.

Pricing

The public-course fee below follows the current Women at Work offering structure for Saudi Arabia and the GCC. Program length and structure can vary by cohort and delivery context. Public fees exclude VAT or other applicable taxes.

$4,500

Per delegate
Individual booking

$3,825

Per delegate
3 delegates (15% off)

$3,750

Per delegate
6 delegates (pay for 5)

For in-house or customized delivery, request a proposal.

How This Fits Into a Wider Development Pathway

For corporate cohorts, the tools and action plans from this program can feed into development plans, talent reviews, project reviews, functional academies or sponsor debriefs. The course can also be paired with adjacent programs so the learning journey reflects the capability the organization is actually trying to build.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we use our own organizational scenarios?

Yes. Private cohorts can be calibrated around your operating context, role levels and common workplace situations while protecting sensitive information.

How should managers support participants after the course?

Agree one or two work applications, then review what the participant tried, what changed and what further support is needed.

Can this be combined with other Women at Work courses?

Yes. It can sit inside a multi-course pathway for managers, high-potential women, functional leaders or another defined population.

Part of the Women at Work pathway. Explore the full Women at Work professional development pathway.

Can this be delivered only for our organization?

Yes. Private delivery can be calibrated to the participant population, business context, capability priorities and internal terminology.

Is the duration fixed?

No. Delivery depth and schedule are adapted to the cohort and organizational objective.

How Participants Work During the Program

Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making for Women Leaders is designed as an applied learning experience rather than a sequence of lectures. Participants move repeatedly between concept, diagnosis, practice and workplace application. The exact balance can be adjusted for the cohort, but the learning design should keep participants working with decisions and situations that resemble the responsibilities they actually hold.

1. Diagnose

Participants begin by defining the real problem, decision or capability gap rather than accepting the first description at face value.

2. Practise

They test language, analysis, tools or decision approaches in a low-risk setting and receive challenge from the facilitator and peers.

3. Build

Participants create a work product linked to their role rather than leaving with notes alone. Relevant outputs can include Strategic issue map, Scenario matrix, Assumption checklist, Decision trade-off canvas, Executive recommendation brief.

4. Challenge

Assumptions, blind spots and trade-offs are surfaced through peer review, facilitator questions and comparison with alternative approaches.

5. Apply

Each participant identifies where the learning will be used, who needs to be involved, what action happens first and what evidence will show progress.

The core pathway covers From Operational to Strategic Thinking, Systems and Stakeholder Thinking, Scenarios and Uncertainty, Priorities and Trade-offs, Strategic Recommendations, Strategic Action Plan. For private cohorts, examples and practice can be weighted toward the modules most relevant to the sponsor’s capability priorities without reducing the integrity of the wider program.

Manager Reinforcement and Evidence of Application

A course becomes more valuable when participants have a clear opportunity to use the learning after delivery. For employer-sponsored cohorts, TheSkillGrid can design the program so managers and sponsors know what participants are expected to practise without turning development into unnecessary administration.

Before delivery: the participant and manager can identify one current situation where the course is likely to be useful. This gives the learning an immediate workplace anchor.
Immediately after delivery: the participant selects one or two tools or behaviours to use first, rather than trying to apply every concept simultaneously.
During the following work cycle: the manager can ask what was tried, what response it produced, what became clearer and what still needs adjustment.
At sponsor level: patterns across the cohort can inform future learning priorities, manager support or pathway design without claiming that attendance alone caused a business result.

What Good Application Can Look Like

Evidence of application should be appropriate to the topic and role. Useful signs include clearer decisions, better-prepared stakeholder conversations, stronger use of a practical tool, improved escalation, more explicit trade-offs, better role clarity, or a work product that is being used in a real process. These are observable behaviours and outputs, not guaranteed performance claims.

Related Programs

Related programs in TheSkillGrid’s wider capability architecture include:

Build the Right Development Pathway

TheSkillGrid can combine this course with adjacent programs into a coherent private cohort or development pathway.

Discuss a Cohort

Upcoming Dates & Venues

Explore proposed 2027 dates and venues for this course. The city, trainer, venue, duration and fee are subject to confirmation. Use the proposed-date link to request availability, not a confirmed booking.

No sessions currently scheduled.
Request course availability with your preferred date, location and group size. We will confirm available public-session and private-team options before any booking or payment.

Strategic Thinking and Decision-Making for Women Leaders