GIST Planning Board and Strategic Thinking Cards

There are many reasons why innovation fails to take off after much of the fanfare introduced at its launch. One key reason is that the owners of the innovation do not think through their longer term strategies, and when conditions change, they either lack the disposition or resources to allow them to sustain the diffusion of the innovation to reach its critical tipping point, where the change could take place without further interference from the owners.

Thinking strategically involves looking not just at the past and present, but also at the future. Only after the successful completion of this phase could we strategically plan for the future. In short, regardless of the innovation introduced strategic thinking helps you anticipate changes in the environment, and plan for them so you are prepared and not go under.


The GISTTM Strategic Thinking Cards and Planning Board is a methodology that comes with a set of cards and board that take you through a series of steps where you think critically, strategically and creatively about your strategies and action plans to introduce innovative solutions into your organisation and marketplace.

The methodology presents four phases and these are:

Grounding the Problem. In this phase, a set of questions are presented to help you identify your users' requirements. You may like to view the slide-share below by clicking on the board.

GIST Planning Board - Panel 1

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: planning creativity)

Ideation and Refinements. Here, the board guides you in generating and refining innovative solutions.

Strategy Development and Leveraging. The planning board now asks you about your strategies of sustaining the change.

Putting Them Together. Finally, you are led into putting together a plan that introduces the innovative solution into your organisation or market.

There are several ways the methodology could be brought into your organisation. These are some of the suggested approaches:

Since 2008, the GISTTM Strategic Thinking Cards and Planning Board has been introduced to the trainers at the National Community Leadership Institute, innovation activists from the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts Innovation Teams and Land Transport Authority of Singapore.

This article was updated on 14 Sept 2008, 12 Feb 2009 & 31 Mar 2009.
Copyright 2007, 08 & 09. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.