Think slow to move fast
Why taking time to think clearly up front saves you months of fixing avoidable mistakes later.
👋 Hi! It’s Jennifer. Welcome to my fortnightly newsletter where I challenge conventional business wisdom to help you become a different kind of thinker, leader and operator.
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Read time: 8 min.
At the beginning of my leadership career at Dell, I was asked to lead a cross-functional project to reduce complexity and cost across the peripheral hardware division.
I wanted to show that they had chosen the right person and that I could solve the problem, so I did what most ambitious people do.
In preparation for our first kick-off meeting, I worked my as* off to prepare a 15-page slide deck, packed with tactical ideas about what we should do.
I thought I was going to get a big pat on the back.
Instead, the VP sponsoring the project only said three words when I was finished:
"Junior thinking, Jennifer.”
Well, that sucked.
What is junior thinking?
Junior thinking is surface-level thinking.
It's when someone looks at a problem and jumps straight to action without pausing to understand the full picture.
It can sound like this:
Sales Director: "Sales are low. We need to sell more."
Sales Rep: "What should we do?"
Sales Director: "Have the outbound team do more cold calls. We need more leads."
You might think, "Wow. That's a good sales director. When presented with a problem, he quickly assesses what's wrong and finds a solution."
But this was actually a poor decision because he only looked at what was on the surface. He should have taken the time to dig deeper.
For example, ask:
What's the quality of the calls we're getting today?
Where exactly is the drop-off in our funnel?
What’s our conversion rate by lead source?
How are different reps performing?
There are many pieces in the value chain. Not just "we need more leads so let's do more cold calling."
How junior thinking creates operational-only leadership
When leaders consistently think at the surface level, they get stuck in operational mode.
They become good at executing tactics, but lose sight of whether those tactics make sense.
You'll end up:
Making poor strategic decisions because you don't take time to gather facts or understand context
Changing direction every quarter without understanding why the previous approach failed
Creating endless action lists while still feeling like you're not getting enough traction
Everyone is so focused on doing, there's never time any time left for thinking.
The hidden costs of surface-level thinking
Most leaders don't realize how expensive junior thinking actually is.
These costs don't show up as line items on your P&L, but they're quietly draining your resources and slowing your progress.
For example:
You solve the same problems repeatedly.
Because you're treating symptoms instead of root causes, issues keep coming back. The sales team that gets more leads without fixing their conversion process will be back asking for even more leads next quarter.
You waste resources on the wrong solutions.
Like the company that decides to launch an AI feature because "AI is hot." Six months and significant development time later, customers aren't using it. Why? No one asked what problem it actually solves or whether customers even want that problem solved.
Your team stops thinking strategically too.
When leaders reward quick action over careful thought, teams learn to bring you solutions that sound good rather than solutions that work. They stop asking deeper questions because they know you want immediate answers.
You create a culture of firefighting.
Instead of preventing problems, you're constantly putting out fires. Your team becomes reactive rather than proactive. Planning gets pushed aside for whatever crisis emerged this week.
You lose competitive advantage.
While you're busy executing tactics, competitors who think strategically are identifying better opportunities and building stronger foundations. They're playing chess while you're playing checkers.
The costs compound over time.
What starts as a quick decision to avoid "analysis paralysis" becomes a pattern of expensive missteps that your company can't afford.
What is strategic thinking?
Strategic thinking means stepping back before stepping forward.
Instead of jumping to the first solution, you pause to understand what you're really solving and why it matters. You look beyond the immediate problem to understand the bigger picture.
This approach actually speeds things up in the long run.
When you take time upfront to think through the problem properly, you spend less time fixing things that break and more time on work that makes an impact.
If we applied strategic thinking to that AI feature example, before building anything, you'd ask:
What specific customer problem does this solve?
How do we know customers have this problem?
What evidence do we have that they'd pay for this solution?
What's the simplest way to test whether customers actually want this?
You might discover that while customers mention AI in surveys, what they really want is faster processing of their existing workflows.
So instead of building a flashy AI feature, you optimize the speed of your core product, which is something customers will actually use and value.
Why leaders resist strategic thinking
I've experienced leaders who actively push back against deeper thinking.
Here are the most common objections I hear:
"That's too academic."
This usually means "I don't know how to think strategically, so I'm going to dismiss it as impractical.
But there's nothing academic about understanding your customers or testing your assumptions before spending resources.
"We don't have time for all that analysis."
The leaders who say this are usually the same ones who spend months fixing problems that could have been avoided with thirty minutes of upfront thinking.
"That's not how we think here."
Translation: "We've always been reactive, and thinking differently feels uncomfortable." But comfort zones are where good companies go to become average.
The truth is, most of these objections stem from not knowing how to think strategically, or fear that strategic thinking will slow them down.
But strategic thinking isn't about endless analysis or academic frameworks.
It's about asking better questions before you act.
Basic vs. strategic thinking: What's the difference?
Most leaders don't realize they're stuck in a basic thinking pattern.
They feel productive because they're making decisions and taking action.
In real life, basic thinking could look like this:
Making important decisions without digging deeper. Someone raises a big issue affecting your entire customer base, and you decide on the spot based on what sounds reasonable.
Accepting the first explanation for problems. Sales are down? Must need more leads. Customer complaints? Must need better customer service. You don't dig into root causes.
Only talking about tactics with your team. Everyone has learned that you like action and quick decisions, so no one brings up bigger process or strategic issues because—what's the point?
If any of these sound familiar, you're probably in the junior thinking category.
7 ways to level up your strategic thinking muscle
The good news is that strategic thinking isn't a trait you're born with.
With intention, it's a skill you can develop. Here’s how:
Catch yourself reacting. Before you jump to solutions, pause. Ask: Am I solving a symptom or the actual problem? What's the real goal here?
Question the obvious. When something seems like common sense, dig deeper. Why is this the right approach? What assumptions am I making?
Get the full picture first. Understand context, constraints, and trade-offs. Don't default to the first idea that sounds reasonable.
Test your logic. Play devil's advocate with yourself. What might you be missing? Where are you assuming instead of knowing? What could go wrong?
Look for patterns, not just problems. Don't just solve one-off issues. Ask what this situation tells you about your systems and processes.
Model the behavior you want. Slow down in meetings. Ask "why" before asking "what." Reward clarity over speed. Your team will follow your lead.
Practice with small decisions. Before approving that marketing campaign or new hire, ask one extra "why" question. Build the habit on lower-stakes choices.
For instance, let's say your customer support team tells you that they need more people because response times are slow. Basic thinking says hire more people.
Strategic thinking asks: Why are response times slow? Are the issues more complex than before? Are we getting more tickets? Are current agents spending too much time on tasks that could be automated or handled differently?
The answer might be process improvement, better training, or yes, more people. But you won't know until you dig deeper.
Without that analysis, you might hire three new people only to discover the real issue was that 40% of tickets were questions that could be answered with better documentation.
If you're in charge, you set the standard
You don't need to be the smartest person in the room. But you do need to be the one who sees the full picture before charging ahead.
Because the way you think sets the tone for how everyone else thinks.
If you move fast without clarity, they will too. If you reward rushing decisions, they'll stop asking better questions. If you keep solving symptoms instead of systems, your team will quietly do the same.
And that's how companies get stuck. Not because people don't care, but because no one ever taught them how to think deeper.
So before you make the next quick decision or approve the next great-sounding idea, pause.
Ask yourself: Are we solving the right problem? Or is it because we need to feel productive?
This isn't about being slow.
It's about being clear.
And clarity starts with you.
