13.1 Strategic Thinking and Results Focus (AFH-1 Section 13A)

13.1 Strategic Thinking and Results Focus (AFH-1 Section 13A)

E6/TSgt PFE only — ADTC B. Chapter 13 is on the 2026 TSgt catalog (AFH-1 chapters 11–20) and is not on the 2026 SSgt PFE chapter list. Staff Sergeant testers skip this chapter.

Quick Answer: Organizational management is organizing, planning, leading, and controlling resources to achieve established goals. Strategic thinking is large-and-small-scale, long-and-short-term thinking to identify and achieve those goals — and it is not "above an enlisted member's pay grade."

Organizational Management

AFH 1, 15 February 2025, opens Chapter 13, Developing Organizations, by defining organizational management as the process of organizing, planning, leading, and controlling resources within an entity with the overall aim of achieving established goals. That process gives leaders the ability to make decisions and resolve issues for the organization and its people.

Some enlisted members treat strategic thinking as "above their pay grade." AFH 1 rejects that. Thinking strategically matters when you establish goals and plan how to achieve them in any unit or work center. It can be applied at any level, across an entire enterprise or on a specific project.

Strategic Thinking — Both Scales, Both Horizons

Strategic thinking is thinking on both a large and small scale, long- and short-term to identify and achieve desired goals. An option that confines it to MAJCOM-level planning, or only to the long term, contradicts paragraph 13.2.

When retired USAF general officers were asked which Airmen most excelled at strategic thinking, they named four behaviors:

"Work your boss's problems" means viewing the issue from the next echelon so the course of action actually helps that leader — not doing the commander's job for them.

Strategic Thinking Mindset — Three Components

Airmen at all levels should adopt a strategic thinking mindset. Strategy sets priorities, goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (metrics/measures) aligned from the lowest echelon to the highest, so all Airmen are marching down the same Path, toward the same Target. When performance is not reaching the target, AFH 1 says Lean, Six Sigma, or Theory of Constraints may be used, pointing to DoDI 5010.42 and DoDI 5010.43. Those methods are taught in Section 13C.

The three fundamental components:

• Intellectual Flexibility — a willingness and proclivity to adjust understanding, opinions, or approach when conditions change or new information arrives. "Flexibility is about bending, not breaking" — adapt without abandoning long-term strategy. Example: critical training is denied for budgetary reasons. Do not ignore the need or keep pushing only the original request. Send one Airman to the training to teach the rest of the unit, or use a nearby unit whose members already have the training.
• Intellectual Inclusiveness — welcoming information and opinion from a broad range of sources (individuals, groups, disciplines). Look beyond your immediate organization — formal and informal networks, peers from past assignments, other Services, former instructors or classmates.
• Intellectual Humility — comfort with being wrong or having an incomplete understanding, plus a tendency to check oneself by examining issues as if one's understanding is wrong.

Four Activities in Action

Strategic thinking consists of scanning, questioning, conceptualizing, and testing:

• Scanning — identifying emerging patterns in the environment by taking in, deconstructing, and synthesizing information to apply it to the future (expert panel; historical data for trends).
• Questioning — asking questions of others and oneself: framing issues broadly, exploring problems rather than aiming to solve them immediately, and considering input from all stakeholders.
• Conceptualizing — identifying possibilities for future direction: a broad range of options (brainstorming), analytic tools, and rejecting options only after exploration.
• Testing — informed speculation about impact: role-play how stakeholders will hear the course of action; pilot-test on a small scale to catch early problems.

Results Focus — SMART and Group-Centric Goals

Optimal performance requires setting goals to stay on track. But not all goals are alike. Goal setting is most likely to improve performance when goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART).

• Specific — who, what, where, when, which requirements and constraints, and why (purpose).
• Measurable — criteria for progress toward and attainment of each objective, target, or milestone.
• Attainable — applicable resources available; possible within acceptable levels of risk; prefer action-oriented statements. "Attainable" does not imply that goals should be easy. Research finds difficult or challenging goals improve performance more than easy or only moderately difficult ones.
• Relevant — linked to mission, vision, and goals; meaningful to the user. "Good objectives must be obtainable, yet purposeful."
• Time-Bound — a date for completion; targeted dates provide periodic and overall accountability.

Interdependent work may require group-centric goals (how individuals contribute to the group). Ego-centric goals that strictly maximize individual results may backfire when collaboration is needed. Help-desk example: a per-person ticket quota can disincentivize training and coaching new teammates. A group-centric goal for the entire work unit is more likely to increase overall performance, because it rewards both processing tickets and helping others resolve them.

Official source: AFH 1, 15 February 2025, Section 13A.