strategic planning day ideas

How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session [2024 Strategic Planning Workshop]

By Ted Skinner

Annual & Quarterly Planning

At Rhythm Systems, our consultants are trained strategic facilitators who are crucial in strategic planning. They are planning experts who help you get the most ROI from your meeting with their expert facilitation skills. We have facilitated hundreds of successful Strategic Planning , Annual Planning , and Quarterly Planning sessions for our clients. In this blog post, we will share expert insights from these sessions so that you can scale up your company. Strategy planning (and expert facilitation) is vital as the longer-term strategic priorities drive the shorter-term goals, projects, and actions with complete organizational alignment .

Note to strategic CEOs: Along with our ability to educate, coach, and facilitate specific content and methodology during on-site sessions, one of the main reasons CEOs choose to bring us in to run their sessions is so that the CEO can fully participate and implement their 5 year plan template . It is impossible for a CEO to effectively facilitate a session with all the stakeholders and fully participate simultaneously. The CEO's contribution and participation are significant in reaching the desired outcome. Session facilitation is an extra burden that is better placed on another team member or an expert facilitator. You should learn to be a good facilitator by using tips and tricks or consulting with us to see if hiring an expert makes sense.

Free Guide: How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session

Strategic planning facilitation step 1: think through the purpose and outcome of the meeting.

Stephen Covey advises us to "begin with the end in mind." What is the purpose of this meeting? What do we hope to accomplish? Who should attend? What are our strategic objectives for this workshop? What work should the meeting participants get done before the meeting (research and homework)? What are the specific outcomes or outputs we are looking for from this strategic planning session? What is the role of a facilitator in a strategic planning session? Do we need a plan B for a potential 2025 recession ?

Creating an Objective Statement that you can share with the rest of the team in advance is a great way to ensure everyone who attends the meeting has shared goals and expectations for your time together. It will also clarify things for you as you move into step 2 and begin planning for the session. Make sure that this aligns with your mission statement. This differs from team meetings ; setting expectations upfront is critical for your strategic objectives. 

An Objective Statement consists of three parts:

Part 1: TO : (What is the action? What will you do? Start with a verb.)

Part 2. IN A WAY THAT : (How will you do it? List criteria, scope, involvement, success measures, specific tactics, side benefits, or any other relevant information. Use bullet points.)

Part 3. SO THAT : (Why are you doing this? Why is it essential? What is the main benefit?)

Sample Objective Statement for one company's Quarterly Planning Session

QUARTERLY PLANNING OBJECTIVE STATEMENT

TO : Conduct a practical strategic planning session

IN A WAY THAT:

• Brings the Senior Leadership Team together for two full days to develop an effective strategy
• Highlights the previous quarter's accomplishments
• Updates and advances our Annual Plan and long-term goal attainment
• It allows us to discuss-debate-agree critical topics as a team
• It prepares us to overcome any potential obstacles to hitting our year-end goals
• Identifies 3-5 Company Priorities, complete with owners and clear success criteria
• Identifies clear Individual Priorities for each member of the leadership team
• Prepares us to begin thinking about next year's Annual Plan
• It allows us to identify strengths and weaknesses
• Answers the key questions facing our company and industry
• It helps us clearly define and communicate our business strategy to the entire organization
• Fun ideas for strategic planning are always considered and change up the energy in the room

SO THAT : We finish this year strong and set ourselves up for a solid start to next year.

Strategic Planning Facilitation Step 2: Plan all the Details in Advance

Anytime you bring your team together for a meeting, whether for a few hours or days, you invest time, energy, and money. To ensure you get the most out of your investment, you must be adequately prepared. The preparation checklist below will help you.

Strategic Planning Process Meeting Preparation Checklist

• Set the date – You will want to determine and set the date as soon as possible so that everyone on your team can attend. The longer you wait, the harder it is to find a time that works. If this is an ongoing, standing meeting, ensure everyone has it on their calendar every time it occurs and actively works to protect the scheduled time with the team.
• Select the Facilitator – It is essential to pick the right person to facilitate your session. The facilitator is responsible for creating the agenda, preparing content material (slides/visuals), arriving early to ensure setup and materials, testing technology, and facilitating the session. If you must choose someone on your team who will be in attendance, remember to occasionally stop during the meeting and ask their opinion if not previously shared. If you choose someone who would not usually be in attendance, ensure they understand that their job is to facilitate, not offer opinions on discussions they would not typically be involved in. Role clarity is essential.

Select a location— A meeting or planning session in your conference room can be ineffective. The opportunity to lose focus and be interrupted by operational issues increases exponentially. This is fine for short, weekly, routine meetings, but we recommend taking your team off-site for one—to two-day planning sessions. 

• Choose a Meeting Coordinator – This person is in charge of handling all of the logistics for the meeting, making sure participants have made travel arrangements, the conference room (on-site or off-site) is booked and set up for the session, and that all participants are aware of any homework/preparation that is needed for the session. Use someone on your team who is meticulous with details and have them build a strategic planning checklist for future meetings.
• Prepare the meeting material – You and the facilitator should refer to your Objective Statement when creating the agenda. Be careful not to overload your agenda. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the time you have available. Create a basic time plan to accompany your agenda. This will help you know whether or not you are on track during the meeting. Less is more when it comes to slides. The old rule was no more than 6x6 (six words long by six bullets). In today's Twitter and drive-through world, you're better served to stick to 4x4 or, better yet, 3x3. Consider revealing information one bullet point at a time, especially if you must have more than 6x6 on a slide, and always ensure it is written for your target audience.   Use our AI Goal Coach if you have any questions!
• Email the meeting agenda and pre-work to the attendees - Communicate with all attendees at least two weeks before the session, sharing the objective statement, agenda, and any pre-work you want them to do. Realize that some people - even with proper instruction - may be in the habit of attending meetings unprepared. If you consider the pre-work essential, let the team know that it's mandatory and require them to return it in advance, or instruct them to bring copies to the meeting and build time to share the output into your agenda. This will allow people to think about the strategic goals for themselves and the company ahead of the meeting.
• Last minute details - Work with the meeting coordinator to ensure all the meeting details have been addressed: supplies ordered, lunch planned, technology arrangements made, attendance confirmed, action plans, etc.

Remember to be realistic about what you can accomplish in the available time and set the agenda appropriately. The strategic planning facilitator must also keep the team focused on having the proper discussions for your organization. Understanding and working with the group dynamics is essential, especially in a large group. This related article can read more details about a virtual strategic planning session .

Strategic Planning Facilitation Step 3: Do the Hard Work of Running the Strategy Session

Three definitions of the role of the facilitator:

• "An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively, to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who, by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work."
• "One who contributes structure and process to interactions so groups can function effectively and make high-quality decisions. A helper and enabler whose goal is to support others as they achieve exceptional performance."
• "The facilitator's job is to support everyone in doing their best thinking and practicing. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding, and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone in doing their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements."

The word facilitation means to make it easy. Too bad facilitating a group of people isn't. It takes a tremendous amount of energy, focus, quick thinking, and patience to facilitate a meeting. Following the first two steps in this blog post (Step 1: THINK and Step 2: PLAN), you are set up for a successful session. But there is still much work to do.

Here are 15 Tips to keep the strategy session moving positively.

15 Expert Tips for Facilitating a Great Zoom Strategy Meeting

Set ground rules at the beginning of the meeting . Let the team discuss their expectations for full participation, candor, sidebars, interruptions, tangents, and cell phone and computer use. This conversation upfront creates an environment of accountability and high commitment to the meeting. Ground rules will help reduce the stress of group interaction and make it easier to resolve problems when they arise. Capture your ground rules on a flip chart while discussing them and post them for reference throughout the meeting. To start with some energy, I suggest using one of our Zoom icebreakers to get things started.

Trust the process . Remember that you have put a great deal of time into steps 1 & and 2, so you are going into the day with a good game plan. Sometimes, things seem disjointed, or the team needs to understand where you're going. Tell them there is a method to the madness, and ask them to trust the process with you. When utilizing a slide deck and agenda provided by Rhythm Systems, know that the function and content have been tested and proven to work many times. It may only come together at the very end, but if you are going in with a clear objective and well-thought-out agenda, the results you're looking for will follow, and problem-solving will occur.

Permit yourself to deviate from the time plan if a topic requires more time than you thought. As long as the additional time is used for good, healthy debates on important issues and not the beating of dead horses, it will be a good use of time. If you do deviate from the time plan, involve the team in deciding how you will make it up. You may choose to stay late or start early one day, or you may decide to cut or shorten the time allowed for another topic. Involving the team in this discussion and decision increases engagement, energy, and commitment.

Celebrate your progress as you move through the session . Reflect on lessons learned and breakthroughs. Acknowledge someone when they're brave enough to bring up a tricky subject. Check in with each other to ensure you're all engaged. After breaks, consider restating what's been accomplished and where you are on the agenda.

Use icebreakers with purpose. Ice breakers are quick, interactive exercises designed to get the team's brain working and mouth moving. They are usually used at the beginning of a session, after breaks, and after lunch. They can also be great for raising the energy level late in the afternoon. A quick Google search will provide hundreds of ideas for icebreakers. One of our favorites is a quick round of victories or good news. This serves several purposes. It allows team members to share information, allows them to get to know each other better, and starts the meeting positively. We recommend that you start every session with some version of good news.

Encourage full and equal participation. A team comprises many individuals, each with their personality and preferred work style. Some are naturally more dominant and expressive, while others may be more thoughtful and reserved. One type is not better than another, and the fact that they're on your team means you value their input. The facilitator's job is to recognize these different styles and run the meeting in a way that gives each person a chance to contribute. This is a good discussion at the beginning of the session as you set the ground rules.

Set clear expectations for full and equal participation and give the team a chance to discuss how they will do this. The facilitator may have to step in throughout the meeting, explicitly calling on individuals who have not spoken up. The facilitator may also design the meeting to include specific opportunities to hear from everyone. Examples of this would be small group breakout sessions or employing different brainstorming methods (see #8.)

Use visual aids effectively. Any combination of flip charts, whiteboards, sticky notes, posters, PowerPoint/Keynote, and handouts will do. We've all seen the person who used every animation tool within PowerPoint - wiggly jiggly icons, annoying animations, slides swiping in from 20 directions in 5 different ways. Don't overdo it; allow your visuals to distract from the meeting. People have different learning styles; Some are visual learners, some auditory, some kinesthetic, and some experiential, so mix it up and use all aids in moderation. Keep in mind that your body language is one of the most essential visual aids that you have; make sure that you make people feel like they are being heard.

Use different methods for brainstorming. Round robin, freewheeling, group pass, and silent reflection are all proven methods you may try. Brainstorming aims to produce a comprehensive list of potential ideas, solutions, or plans. When done well, brainstorming should increase participation, reduce inhibition, stimulate ideas, increase creativity, and be a group process.

Strategic Planning Brainstorming Methods:

• Focus on quantity first and capture as many ideas as possible.
• Encourage and welcome all ideas. Ask the team to dig deep and think beyond the obvious. Every idea submitted should be captured.
• Hold off on judgment, criticism, or reality checks - this should be a "safe time." Ideas will be discussed and debated later.
• Use short phrases and bullet points, not paragraphs and lengthy explanations.
• "Piggyback" on others' ideas. Outlandish ideas can be stepping stones to good, workable ideas.
• Although giving a brief overview of brainstorming rules can be helpful, there's no need to go into an elaborate explanation. "Let's brainstorm annual priorities moving us toward our 3-5 year strategic plan . Remember, let's not judge the ideas but capture and understand them first." Then, begin your chosen method of brainstorming. As you move through the process, anticipate that someone will break the rules - that's when the facilitator steps in and corrects.

Round Robin

Ask for a volunteer to start the brainstorming process with one idea. The facilitator captures the idea on a flip chart for all to see. Ask the volunteer to choose whether to go to the right or the left, allowing the person sitting next to them to offer one idea. The facilitator continued to chart the answers, going around the room until everyone could contribute at least one picture. You can then take a second pass around the room if the ideas are flowing freely, or you can open it up to anyone who has another idea not previously mentioned.

Freewheeling

Suppose you're working with a group where equal participation is not an issue. In that case, you can open the brainstorming session up by asking for ideas and allowing people to offer suggestions in any order. Use the participants' words to chart all ideas with short bullet points. This method can go fast, so ask for a volunteer to help chart answers using a second flip chart.

Each person in the group starts with a piece of paper, writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person. The following person builds on the original idea, adding a few thoughts. Continue around the room until the owner returns their original piece of paper. You can then ask each person to take a minute to review their original idea and share it with the team.

Silent Reflection

Some people need a little time to think and formulate their ideas. Instruct the team that you give them a certain amount of time (5-15 minutes, depending on the topic) to think and write down their ideas. You can ask them to write their thoughts on sticky notes, one idea per note, or list them on paper. If you use sticky notes, you can ask them to read one statement at a time and place them on the wall, grouping all similar ideas. If they are written on notebook paper, you can use the round-robin method to share and chart the ideas.

Use a Parking Lot.

Stay on track by creating a place to capture ideas inappropriate to the discussion at hand but that you don't want to lose. Make it visible to everyone using a whiteboard, tear sheet, etc. This helps you keep the meeting focused without chasing too many "rabbit trails." It is important to honor all ideas, questions, and concerns during a session, and by placing the item in your parking lot, you send the subtle message that all contributions are essential. Refer to the parking lot items while facilitating when appropriate and review any unresolved items at the end of your session, moving them to an action item list. In a strategy meeting, you must keep the team on task; using a parking lot can help you accomplish that.

Deal with difficult people ahead of time.

Before your meeting, think about participants who tend to be outspoken, dominate, or argue in meetings. Think also about participants who may have felt bullied or intimidated or have a history of not participating openly. Have a conversation with these people before the session, explaining your concern and asking for their help in creating a healthy and productive environment. When talking to the dominant person, helpful language might include, "Jim, I'm trying to increase participation in this meeting. I appreciate your outspokenness and value your input. If it's ok with you, I'd like you to go last so I may first hear the rest of the team's thinking before you share yours." Be sure to reevaluate and give that participant a chance to share.

This is also an excellent topic to discuss while setting ground rules at the beginning of the session. Discuss the expectations for politeness and tone during the meeting, and ask the team for permission to point it out if things get off track. If a conflict arises during a meeting, the facilitator must be prepared to step in and take control of the meeting. Anytime the discussion becomes accusatory or personal, the facilitator can ask the participant to reword statements so that they are focused on solutions, facts, and business issues, not people and blame. An excellent technique for redirecting a heated discussion is to ask the team to discuss their learnings rather than their frustrations. Be sure to do this whenever the language becomes personal; before you know it, your team will police this behavior themselves. Conflict resolution is the central role of the facilitator.

Keep the energy high. Enthusiasm is contagious - and so is negativity. Some people need to doodle while they think, some need toys like a Koosh ball or rubber Gumby, others need talk time with other participants, and others need to stand up or walk around the room from time to time. Think through your meeting day and plan ways to keep the energy high for the entire time to keep the group paying attention.

Have participants work in pairs, write something down, work together on puzzles, make mini-presentations on topics assigned before and after breaks, schedule group breakout sessions, etc. Remember that the room's energy is often a notch or two below the facilitator's, so it is vital to keep your energy high. Try to get plenty of sleep the night before, eat well, have plenty of water on hand, and take breaks as needed, as group facilitation is challenging!

Get to a consensus. Many discussion topics require moving the group from several individuals, independent ideas to one agreed-upon group decision. Consensus can be defined professionally as an acceptable resolution everyone on the team can support. It does not mean that everyone on the team has to agree that this is their number one favorite resolution, just that they will support the decision in the future. Supporting a decision means that you will speak positively about the decision to others and do everything in your power to ensure the decision results in a positive outcome. You will not say," They decided."

Explaining the definition of consensus and support to the team at the beginning of the discussion can help resolve the issue. An essential step in reaching a consensus is ensuring that all ideas are evaluated and everyone's perspective is heard. This is important in getting buy-in for the conclusion and generating the best ideas and solutions. Structuring a process for team decision-making is a critical facilitation skill.

Expert Tips for Strategic Planning Decision-Making:

• Use the brainstorming tips above to identify all viable solutions (see #8)
• Combine and link similar ideas
• Use structured methods, like The Six Thinking Hats, to help take the emotion out of the discussion.
• Set a time limit for discussion on each potential solution
• Make sure everyone is participating in the debate and, make sure everyone is actively listening and applying their listening skills
• Work to narrow the options down to as few as possible
• Don't be afraid to call for a vote to see how close the group is to completing the agreement
• If there are just one or two holdouts, seek to understand what and how firm their objections are
• Engage the group in troubleshooting to minimize the potential negative impact identified by any complaints or concerns raised
• Restate the most popular resolution, adding one or two points addressing the concerns raised, and ask the holdouts if they can support that decision
• Sometimes, people will get caught up in the moment and continue the debate just to argue. Ask the holdout if they will lose sleep if the group moves forward with the proposed resolution. Refer to the definition of support and ask if they will support the decision.
• With consensus, there is often compromise. Only some get everything they want out of the final decision. However, because you created an environment where everyone has had an opportunity for input, the conclusions reached will often be very successful and highly supported.
• If you are running a virtual strategic planning session,  visit the link to learn some additional tips to help you get the most out of your planning session.

Document and publish the Who-What-When. Who-What-When action items are leading indicators of successful meeting outcomes. How often do teams meet, discuss, and debate critical topics, then set the next meeting date only to discover that no progress has been made at the next meeting? As the facilitator, it is essential that you make sure that every critical discussion ends in a documented action captured in an action list of Who is accountable (one person only), What they will do, and When it will be completed. Create a habit of ending meetings with a review of the Who-What-When and beginning discussions with confirmation on completing the actions assigned.

Finish strong. People won't always remember what you do or say, but they will never forget how you made them feel. And what they will remember most is how they felt at the end of the meeting. Whether you completed every objective you laid out or worked through the agenda, it's essential to recognize the team's accomplishments and celebrate their focus, contribution, time invested, and hard work. Finish the meeting by recapping the decisions, reviewing the actions committed, and confirming the next steps. We also recommend allowing everyone to share how they feel as they leave. You can go around the room and ask each person to share a one-word/one-phrase closing statement or share one takeaway or breakthrough they gained during the meeting.

Ask for feedback . Great facilitators are not born overnight. They develop and improve over years of experience, and the most experienced facilitators know that asking for feedback is the best way to improve. Before they leave, ask the team to write down one bright spot from the meeting and one area to work on or do differently next time. Please feel free to email everyone after the session asking for feedback. Or, you can ask for a quick one-on-one conversation with a few trusted advisors.

You would like to encourage feedback on the agenda, pre-session communication, design of the day, homework, and how you performed and handled difficult situations during the session. If you want to receive feedback, please take it seriously. Don't take it personally or complain to others about it. All feedback, even negative feedback, is a gift. Thank the person who shared with you, and I'd like to make every effort to incorporate all helpful suggestions into your next session. Stay encouraged and stick with it. You will improve every time you facilitate, so please volunteer and look for opportunities to practice. Over time, the tips in this blog post will become second nature. Good luck!

This blog post shares tips and tricks for facilitation from the Facilitator guide written by Chris Cosper and Barry Pruit and adapted to a blog post by Ted Skinner. If you'd like to download the strategic planning manual, please click here . We hope you enjoy the facilitation techniques outlined in this article to keep group discussions positive and productive. We hope this answers your question about how to lead a strategic planning session; if you want to get the best ROI on your investment of time and energy, please feel free to  drop us a line , and we'll see if it makes sense for you.

Need help aligning your team to achieve your growth goals? Rhythm Systems software was ranked the #1 easiest software to use, with the highest ROI, fastest implementation, and highest adoption rate on G2.  

Read our other strategic planning and facilitation articles below:

Annual Planning: 9 Tips to Focus & Align Your Team with a Great Plan

Annual Planning Playbook: 5 Steps to Create a Winning Annual Plan

How CEOs Can Avoid High-Cost Mistakes in Annual Planning

Best Practices for Annual Planning

16 Strategic Planning Tips to Keep Your Strategic Plan Alive

The CEO Strategy-Execution Gap...And How To Fix It

Choose Your 3-Year Strategic Growth Initiatives Wisely With This 4-Step Process

5 Steps to Getting Started on 3-Year Strategic Plans with Winning Moves

Have you been able to validate your 3 Year Strategic Plan?

Robust 3 Year Strategic Plans to Grow Revenue and Stay Competitive

Don't Confuse Strategic Thinking And Strategy Execution Plans

9 Steps to a New Revenue Growth Strategy [Infographic]

Photo credit: iStock by Getty Images

Ted Skinner

Photo Credit: iStock by Getty Images

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14 tips for running a strategy day that works

The Strategy Day has a bad reputation. But done well, it can make a valuable contribution to a broader process for developing and executing business strategy.

Have you ever been to one of those strategy offsites which feels great, energising and engaging at the time, but once you get back to the office you realise nothing has really changed?

I like to call this "strategy theatre". It's mostly for entertainment. It pretends to be strategy. It looks a bit like strategy. But it isn't.

Real strategy takes time and effort. It involves hard choices.

Strategy Away-days, Strategy Offsites or just Strategy Days have a terrible reputation for being a waste of time. For indulging out-of-touch executives in their ivory towers. For producing strategies that just sit on the shelf. Until next year's strategy day comes up with the next one.

But, well run strategy offsites can play a vital role in a well designed strategy development and execution process.

Here are 14 tips for running a strategy day that actually delivers results.

1. Don't expect to build a strategy in a day

Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither will your strategy be. But that doesn't mean you can't do meaningful work in a day.

Strategy is a process, a conversation, a way of thinking, planning and executing.

It's not an event or a deliverable. It's not annual strategy day.

But a strategy away day can be a valuable part of that conversation. Just don't assume its enough on its own.

Be clear on what you will and won't achieve on your strategy day. And be clear about how you will achieve everything else you need to achieve to develop and execute a strategy successfully.

2. Remember that it's still a meeting

A strategy day is a particular kind of meeting. But it is still a meeting. So all of the usual good practice for meetings applies.

• Set clear objectives.
• Set a clear agenda.
• Communicate both up front.
• Distribute any pre-reading, allowing plenty of time for people to actually read it.
• Make sure the pre-reading is relevant, concise and of a very high standard.
• Make any expectations of what you want done in advance clear with plenty of warning.
• Think about who you actually need there. There is a perceived status attached to attending strategy away days. But who do you really need there? And who will really add value?
• Keep to time. But be flexible if you need to be. You can't rush strategy.

3. Choose the right venue

Choosing the right venue is an important first step.

There are two objectives:

• Minimise distractions. Encourage people to turn off their mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Discourage them from 'checking into with the office' or 'popping back to their desks' during breaks. Each interruption breaks their flow. Takes them out of 'strategic thinking' mode and back to day-to-day fire-fighting mode.
• Allow space to think. Getting people to carve out a whole day to think about strategy is a good starting point. But it is difficult to think strategically when you're crammed into a stuffy windowless room. Find a venue which provides plenty of space to move around. Find a new environment that encourages creativity. Find an environment that doesn't remind them of the immediate day-to-day problems which will still be waiting for them tomorrow.

For both of these reasons, it is often best to leave the office for an offsite venue.

4. Bring people into the room

Many people aren't naturally strategic thinkers. Even those that are often live there lives in a much more tactical fire-fighting mode. So the first thing you need to do is to set them up to spend a day thinking differently.

The right venue will help (see above).

But the first agenda item is critical for setting the scene and for setting up the participants. This could be:

• An inspiring introductory talk. This could be delivered by an external speaker or by one of the participants. It should be on a topic or topics of particular relevance to the organisation at that point in time. But it should be forward-looking and expansive. It should focus on 'the art of the possible', and not on the challenges of the past. It should focus beyond the organisation - beyond the industry even - rather than on the organisation itself. It should throw up questions more than answers.
• An inclusive question. An inclusive question is a question that everyone in the room can answer, and for which there are no right or wrong answers. It should be phrased so that the answers are positive and connect people. The aim is to get people out of day-to-day problem-solving mode, and primed for thinking strategically. A good example is: What is the one thing that makes you most proud to be associated with this organisation?
• Set expectations. A more conventional opening is to ask each attendee to state their expectations of the meeting. Ask them to complete the sentence: "I'd be happy if by the end of today we'd ...". Record their answers on a flip chart.
• Name the elephant in the room. Whilst it is best to start the day on a positive note, sometimes you can't avoid the fact that there are one more shadows hanging over it. Perhaps the organisation has just posted a particularly poor set of results, lost a large contract, or is facing a hostile takeover. In that case, there is no point in trying to sweep them under the carpet. Allow participants to name them. To get them off their chest. Write them down on a flip chart. They are more likely to be able to move past an issue if everyone is clear that it is out in the open.

5. Understand when to be divergent and when to be convergent

Developing and executing strategy requires a combination of divergent and convergent processes.

Divergent processes involve gathering data and generating ideas. Casting the net as wide as possible. Using macro scanning and brainstorming. Imagining. Asking 'what if?' Thinking about benefits. In divergent processes, there is no such thing as a bad idea. No stone that should be left unturned.

Convergent processes involve analysis and making choices. Narrowing things down. Focusing and prioritising. Choosing what you will do as well as what you won't do. Planning. Considering feasibility and costs.

But as much as developing and executing strategy requires you to alternate between the two, it is important never to mix them.

We've probably all heard that you should never evaluate the ideas generated during a brainstorming session. This is because brainstorming is a divergent process, and evaluating is a convergent process.

So decide if the purpose of your strategy day is divergence or convergence, and design the day accordingly. If you must do both on the same day, aim for divergence before lunch and convergence after lunch.

See also:  Alternating between divergent and convergent processes.

6. Work on the business, not in the business

Your strategy day is an opportunity to talk about the bigger picture. About the shape of the business. Which markets should it be in? How should it compete in those markets? What should it look like in 10 years time?

It is not an opportunity to dive into the operational minutae of your existing business. To identify and fight fires.

Those things are important, of course. But indulging in them on your strategy away day will take people out of strategic thinking mode and into operational mode. And more often, those issues are better delegated to other people.

7. Make visible notes as you go

Obviously, you want to remember all the good stuff that people talked about.

But if people see the notes, it makes it easier for them to feel heard and then to progress to the next thought without worrying that their great insight will be lost.

There are a number of different ways of achieving this:

• Flip charts,
• PostIt notes on a board,
• On-screen capture.

Remember that the note-taker wields enormous power in the room. How you capture the notes makes a big difference. Who's words do you use? What do you leave out? What do you include? So choose that person wisely. I've seen many a session all but destroyed because note-taking was delegated to a junior person who did not really understand the nuances of what was being discussed.

Sometimes it makes sense to let delegates take then pen and draw what they're describing for themselves. That should be encouraged. Not just because it allows people to share their thoughts more clearly. But also because it creates a sense of movement and energy in the room.

On-screen capture has the advantage of making it easy to distribute exactly what was captured immediately after the event. There will be plenty of opportunities to refine and develop the output later. It's usually hugely valuable to get out an accurate record of what was actually discussed as soon as possible.

8. Be clear on the actions

You don't want your strategy day to be nothing more than a talking shop. So make sure you draw out clear actions. Actions don't need to be strategic decisions themselves. An action can be to:

• gather more data,
• consult with more people, or
• work up some options,
• to stop doing something, etc.

Use (simple) templates to send everyone out of the room to continue working but in alignment. And be clear how and when you will follow up.

9. Plan a post-event communication

If you take any number of senior decision-makers out of your business for a day, people will notice.

And they will start to speculate. And talk. Especially if the company is facing difficulties or uncertainties. If not handled well, that can further erode trust and alignment.

These days, it is quite common to share diaries. Either generally, or with subordinates or support staff. So it is worth thinking about how your strategy day appears in peoples diaries. This is part of the communication.

Then, plan a general communication with a few days of the meeting. You may not be able to talk about exactly what was discussed. But there is always an opportunity to say something positive.

10. Where is the data?

Strategy should be an evidence-based process. All-day workshops don't always lend themselves to that.

Consider what data you need before the workshop. Do you want to distribute it ahead of time? Or do you want someone to present it on the day?

Record actions to gather and distribute data after the workshop. Make sure they are assigned to the right people. One technique is to do a round at the end of the workshop. Ask everyone what, after the day, they most wish they knew now.

Predistributed data is better for convergent processes. Divergent processes tend to generate data needs after the workshop.

• Types of evidence and where to find it
• Using online research to build an evidence base | StrategicCoffee

11. Use a facilitator

There are a number of reasons to get an external facilitator:

• Participation : Using a facilitator means that everyone else gets to participate fully. Let the facilitator worry about process, time-keeping, etc.
• Objectivity : Using an external facilitator ensures they are objective, and have no vested interests.
• Skills : An experienced facilitator should have the right skills. These include facilitation skills, strategic thinking, and possibly even industry knowledge. But make sure they are a generalist so that they are not bringing any bias into the process.
• Cost : Hiring a facilitator may be a little bit more expensive. But it is worth it to ensure you get the most value out of taking a number of expensive senior resources out of the office for a day.

See also:  Expert Facilitation will Transform your Meetings - Destination Innovation

12. Don't confuse strategy with team-building

Team-building is another great reason for having an away day. A strategy away day may have some team-building benefits. But don't confuse the day.

A strategy day is all about the business. A team-building day is all about the people and the inter-personal dynamic.

Think back to the difference between working on the business, and not in the business, above. Also, you will need a different kind of facilitator with different skills for a team-building day.

13. Don't mix other issues into it

Resist the temptation to tackle other issues 'while we've got everyone in the room'.

Your strategy day is designed to get everyone thinking strategically.

Every time you do something other than strategy, it draws people back into their day to day firefighting mode and out of strategic thinking mode.

For the same reason, you should avoid letting people step in and out of the meeting. When they do, they then miss part of the conversation and thread of logic. But as importantly, their thinking pattern changes.

But be pragmatic. If disaster strikes during the day you will have to adjust. There is no point in having the perfect strategy if the business was destroyed while you were designing it!

14. Get people to move

Strategy days can be quite intense. The session immediately after lunch can be particularly challenging for many people. It isn't called the graveyard shift for nothing.

A little bit of movement reinvigorates the brain.

Sometimes it's enough just to ask people to change seats. Some people believe that simply changing seats is enough to change people's perspectives.

Another technique is to play a little game for a few minutes. A little bit of fun can enhance creativity. But try to make it a game connected to the strategy or the strategy process. Remember this is not a team-building day.

The strategy day has a bad reputation. But done well, it can make a valuable contribution to a broader process for developing and executing business strategy. And now, you know how.

• Types of Strategy Meetings
• Strategy: The Great Pretenders

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Article • 12 min read

Team Building Exercises – Strategy and Planning

Engaging ways to build core skills.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.– Reid Hoffman.

How does your company approach strategic planning?

Traditionally, strategy is developed by an executive team and rolled out to the rest of the company for implementation. But today's rapidly changing commercial environment, coupled with the growing popularity of agile business practices, means that many organizations are now moving away from a formal, top-down approach.

Our current climate calls for a more flexible method that allows teams to shape their own path (while following organizational goals and guidelines). So, it's important that your team has the strategic thinking and planning skills it needs to contribute effectively.

Individuals with strong skills in these areas are also better at aligning their efforts with the broader objectives of the organization, so that their work contributes to a meaningful end goal.

This article explores three team building exercises that can help your people develop their strategic thinking and planning skills.

Strategic Thinking and Planning Exercises

Use the exercises below to strengthen your team's strategic thinking and planning skills. The activities should also help to improve communication and collaboration skills.

You can use them in various ways, for example with a group of new managers, or to refresh the skills of senior leaders.

Exercise 1: Early Bird vs. Second Mouse

This exercise was inspired by the saying (often attributed to American comedian Stephen Wright): "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

In it, two teams explore the implications of the phrase through presentation, debate and discussion.

This exercise helps teams analyze different strategic positions. It also emphasizes teamwork , presentation , argument and debate, and group decision making .

People and Materials

• Between eight and 30 people.
• A presenter from each team.
• Two flip charts, with pens.
• Flexible, typically 30-60 minutes.

Instructions

• Divide the group into two equal teams. Make one the "early bird" and the other the "second mouse."
• Give both teams five to 10 minutes to develop a short presentation outlining why their strategy is the best for business.
• A member of each team gives their presentation.
• When the presentations are over, ask each team to elect someone to debate the question, "Is it better in business to be the early bird or the second mouse?"
• Combine the teams into one big group and ask for a show of hands to determine which strategy is, indeed, the best.

Advice for the Facilitator

This simple exercise can be adapted in various different ways, depending on your objectives. For example, you may wish to make the exercise about generic business practice or specific to a particular industry or situation. You could also try debating which strategy is best for a particular scenario and then, after the vote, ask if people's opinions would be different if you changed the scenario.

You could ask the group to vote on which strategy is best at the beginning of the exercise and again at the end of the debate, to see if opinions change.

Possible topics for discussion after the exercise include different strategies for different situations, the relative virtues of adaptability versus consistency, how much people's values influence their choice of strategy, and so on.

Exercise 2: United Hearts

In this exercise, teams develop a strategy and compete for points in a card game. The United Hearts Game was published in " Quick Team Building Activities for Busy Managers ," by Brian Cole Miller. This is an adaptation of his original game.

This game strengthens strategic thinking skills. It also reminds players to stay flexible with their strategy and adjust it according to events.

• Between six and 15 people.
• One deck of cards.
• Thirty minutes.

Rules of the Game

The aim is to get as close to 30 points as possible by winning hearts. Aces are low, Jacks are worth 11, Queens 12, and Kings 13 points. All other cards have face value.

Each round begins when the dealer places a heart card face up on the table. Team leaders then pick a card from their own deck and place it face down. When all three have laid down a card, they flip them over and the highest card (irrespective of suit) wins the heart. The rest of the cards from that round are discarded.

When all of the cards have been played (13 rounds in all), teams count up the number of hearts they have won. The closest to 30 wins.

In the event of a tie, the team with the highest value heart is the winner.

• Put people into three teams of two to five members – group sizes don't need to be equal – and ask each to designate a "leader" who will play for them.
• Remove the hearts from the deck, and give each team a suit of cards.
• Explain the rules of the game, and give each team three minutes to plan how they will play.
• Before the game begins, each team is given time to discuss their strategies but, once it gets underway, discussion is no longer allowed, although team members can indicate which card to play through non-verbal gestures.
• Interrupt the game after the fifth and ninth rounds to allow the groups to analyze their progress and, if necessary, adjust their strategies.

When the game is over, ask the members of each team to describe what their initial strategy was, whether they thought it was successful, and how it evolved over time.

Discuss how their strategies would have differed if the aim of the game had been to get as high a score or as low a score as possible.

Ask them if other roles, besides leader, emerged within the team. For example, one person may have decided to keep track of which hearts had already been played, while another could have kept track of their competitors' running totals.

Adapted from "Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes." by Brian Cole Miller. ©️ 2003 by Brian Cole Miller. Used by permission of HarperCollins Leadership. www.harpercollinsleadership.com

Exercise 3: Capture the Flag

Capture the Flag is a classic outdoor game for larger groups. The goal is to successfully capture the other team's flag, without being caught on "enemy territory."

This game is excellent for building strategic thinking and communication skills. Teams assign roles (such as guards and raiders) and use battlefield tactics to successfully capture the opposing flag. It can be a great exercise to help new teams get to know each other, or to break down barriers between hierarchies or departments.

This game only works if all participants are prepared to play a vigorous outdoor game. You won't build a happy, engaged team if you try to force unwilling people to play.

• Enough people for at least two groups of five.
• Two "flags" – anything from a towel to a company flag.
• Boundary markers (if necessary).
• A large outdoor space, ideally one with trees, hills or buildings.
• Flexible, typically 30-45 minutes.

The rules of the game are simple. The group is divided into two opposing teams. Within each team, there are guards and raiders. Guards stay on their own territory and capture any enemies who try to take their flag. Raiders infiltrate enemy territory to locate and capture their opponents' flag. Both roles report to the team leader, who makes sure everyone follows the overall strategy.

Guards capture trespassing raiders by tagging them. The prisoner must then stay where he is put until a member from his own team sets him free by tagging him again. Once a prisoner is set free, he must return to his home territory before resuming play.

If a flag is successfully captured, it must be taken back to the team's home territory. If the flag bearer is caught before she reaches her territory, the flag is returned to its original hiding place, the bearer goes to prison, and the game continues.

• Begin by dividing the available space up into three parts, with team territories at opposite ends and a neutral "no man's land" in the middle. Mark where each territory begins.
• Explain the rules, then split the group into two teams.
• Give each team 10 minutes to choose a leader, assign roles, and discuss their strategy. Teams can decide for themselves how many guards and raiders to have but, once roles have been allocated, they remain for the duration of the game.
• Instruct each team to place its flag in plain sight. It should present a challenge, but not be impossible to find.
• Each team then waits in its home territory until you blow the whistle to signal that the game has begun.
• The game ends when one team successfully brings the other's flag into its home territory. Blow the whistle again to show that the game is over.

Bear in mind that this game may not suit everyone. It can be quite physical, with lots of running and, depending on the terrain, climbing and scrambling over trails, rocks and trees.

It's important that team members approach their roles with sensitivity towards others – both their team members and their "enemies." Make sure that guards understand that they must "tag," not "tackle," enemy raiders, so that no one gets hurt.

Encourage the team to be creative with their roles, so that everyone, regardless of physical ability, can make a positive contribution. For example, some guards could act as "lookouts," while raiders could be divided into "scouts," who use stealth to discover the whereabouts of the flag or prisoners being held captive, and "runners," who create a diversion while others go after the prize.

At the end of the game, gather the group together to discuss how it went. Ask how each person's role contributed to the overall strategy. Examine each team's strategy (or lack of one) and how well it worked out for them, and identify what gave the winning team their competitive advantage.

Team building exercises work best when, as well as improving team work, they help people to develop skills that benefit them in their day-to-day jobs, too. Check out our other team building resources for skills such as creativity , problem solving and decision making , and communication .

Strategic thinking is important for aligning your own and your team's daily activities are aligned with the long-term goals and objectives of your organization.

The games in this article can help your team members learn how to think more strategically, and work together.

Apply This to Your Life

• Think about how you could incorporate one of these games into your next team meeting, Away Day , or company retreat .

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Key elements of a 'strategy planning day' for your business.

Is the thought of the strategic planning process too daunting for you to consider? Many small business owners and CEOs are inclined to put this off, thinking that such planning requires extended time away from the workplace, a commitment of additional resources and the risk of falling behind with critical deadlines.

But while it’s true an in-depth strategy planning session may take several days, there are alternatives that make the planning process more feasible for busy executives and their teams.

One such option is what’s called a “strategy planning day”—a single, focused day (at a venue generally offsite) with a schedule of intensive activities that are designed to “generate ideas [and] be done in an environment that stimulates freedom of thought and involve the right people.”

The structure of a strategy planning day may vary, depending on your business needs and other circumstances. But certain elements should be included in order to get the most bang for your buck. These include:

A skilled facilitator. It’s tempting for the CEO or owner to lead a strategy discussion, but that’s not necessarily in the company’s best interests. An objective third-party, skilled in encouraging a free-ranging discussion (but not letting the discussion get out of hand), is generally more effective in getting people involved than a business leader with “skin in the game.”

A clear view of key objectives. A vague goal of “strategy” is unlikely to move the needle in terms of efficient business planning. As part of the preparation phase, it’s vital to outline specifically what goals you intend to achieve by the day’s end—be they new product ideas, ways to enhance customer service, a revamped approach to vendor relations, etc. Knowing the “why” behind the planning session helps everyone involved stay focused on the task at hand.

Want additional insight? Read 4 Step Guide to Strategic Planning now to learn more

A request for outside-the-box ideas. At least a brief portion of the strategy planning day should be set aside for brainstorming that adheres to no prescribed limits. Encourage team members to toss out the “craziest” solutions they have for ongoing business problems. The goal is to uncover some kernel of an idea that might lead the way to a genuinely practical solution that’s so far eluded the best minds in your business.

A few constraints. At the same time, introducing some constraints into the strategy discussion may serve to overcome commonly held misperceptions. John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing notes that business leaders “sometimes can’t get past why something won’t work thoroughly enough to get behind any sort of unified plan.” Addressing these constraints, he says, “give everyone a common point to attack when trying to determine strategies that will help eliminate or overcome the hurdles.”

A SWOT analysis. Analyzing your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is always a good idea. When you allocate a set period of time for SWOT analysis, it helps to frame a broader discussion of your company’s place in the marketplace, its standing with respect to competitors, current (and future) forces driving sales, and so on. A strong SWOT analysis also helps to set the baseline for future strategy day sessions.

A list of planned action steps. The end result of a strategy planning day is having concrete action steps to implement upon a return to “business as usual.” Each objective should come with its own list of proposed actions, including specific steps to overcome existing roadblocks to success. Assign action steps to a team or to individual team members, along with a schedule for getting things done. Keep interest alive by promoting the work of these teams and individuals with everyone in the organization.

Following your strategy planning day, it may be time to embark on a broader approach to strategic planning. TAB’s “Strategic Business Leadership” process is designed with small and mid-sized businesses in mind. We invite you to download our free white paper today and learn more about how strategic planning can help guide your business toward greater success.

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Icebreaker activities

Got 5 minutes? Then you've got time to start making the personal connections that help us do our best work together. We hand-picked a few that build relationships as well as help move your work forward. 

USE THIS PLAY TO...

Get to know the people you work with and let them get to know you. 

Prime your brains for strategic planning, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

If you're struggling with team cohesiveness , or shared understanding on your  Health Monitor , running this play might help.

Running the play

Pull these tricks out of your hat when you're waiting for people to trickle into a meeting, or at the beginning of an offsite centered on brainstorming and problem-solving. Have fun!

Whiteboard or butcher paper

• Index cards

"Dicebreakers" print-out

SUPER QUICK ICEBREAKER QUESTIONS

Got a minute or two while people trickle into the meeting? Toss out a question and have a bit of fun. 

QUESTIONS WITH PURPOSE

What will be the title of your autobiography?

• Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts
• Purpose: Prepare for activities like crafting a vision statement.

What is your superhero name?

• Theme: Naming stuff is hard!
• Purpose: Practice packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase.

Who was your first mentor, and what qualities made them a good (or lousy) one?

• Theme: Teamwork and support is important
• Purpose: Reinforce the idea that relying on each other is a part of growth – good for projects or teams with lots of dependencies.

When did you call customer service to complain? 

• Theme: Empathizing with customers
• Purpose: Remembering what it feels like to be on the customer side of a bad product or service puts us in a compassionate frame of mind before discussing trade-offs or designing a new user experience.

What is one thing you learned from a project that went wrong? 

• Theme: Failures are learning opportunities
• Purpose: Focus on risk identification and mitigation.

"JUST FOR FUN" QUESTIONS

Print and assemble one of our  icebreaker dice   for a little extra fun, or just choose one of the questions below.

• What animal would you choose to be, and why? 
• What is the last dream you remember? 
• How do you let teammates know you're in deep work mode? 
• Where would you vacation if money were no object?
• Books, magazines, or podcasts?
• What car did you learn to drive on?
• What is one thing you're grateful for today? 
• When you read or watch TV, do you go for fiction or non-fiction?
• Coffee, tea, or soda?
• Can you remember a bumper sticker that made you smile? 

FILL IN THE BLANKS

I have never ________________.

My friends love me for my ________________.

If my pet could talk, it would say ________________.

One ____________ is better than ten ________________.

ICEBREAKER ACTIVITIES FOR MEETINGS, OFFSITES, ETC.

Exorcise the demons (10 min).

Best for groups of 3 or more. Use this activity to juice up your neuropathways before brainstorming or problem-solving, and have a few belly laughs. 

• Introduce the topic you'll be brainstorming around, or the problem you'll be trying to solve. 
• Using a whiteboard or butcher paper, ask the group to grab a marker and write down the worst ideas they can think of
• After a few minutes, step back and take 'em all in (we dare you not to bust up laughing!). 
• (optional) Ask each person to share their favorite worst idea and why it stood out to them. 

This exercise helps us resist the temptation to self-censor when the real problem solving begins. Because hey: you've already heard the worst ideas the group can come up with. Now that you've flushed them out of your system, you can proceed with your regularly-scheduled brainstorming.

Mystery Person Group Sort (15-30 min)

Best for groups of 20 or more. Use this activity to kickstart creative thinking and see different thought processes in action. 

• Ask each person to write a surprising fact about themselves on an index card, and drop all the cards into a bag, box, or hat.
• Each person chooses a card at random. 
• Now the fun begins. Stand up, mingle, and find cards that align to a theme or are of a type. Keep an open mind when thinking about what constitutes the common threads. It could be "daredevil tendencies", "origin stories", "music", or anything else. There is no limit to how big each grouping can be, but you must find groupings that accommodate all the cards. 
• Have each group read their cards and share the theme they identified.
• (optional) Now, having heard the groupings chosen so far, invite the group to stand up and re-sort themselves. Some groupings will likely stay the same, while others will be dramatically different. 

Notice how the point of the exercise was  not  to figure out which fact goes with which person? That's on purpose. In fact, remember to let participants know that at the beginning of the exercise in order to stave off any anxieties around it.

Telephone Charades (15 min)

Best for groups of 10 or more. Use this non-verbal activity to, oddly enough, warm up for a day of listening. 

• Divide into teams of 5-8 people. 
• Ask one team to come to the front of the room and stand in a line, all facing in the same direction (it's important that they can't see the person standing behind them). 
• Show the person at the back of the line a word to act out silently, but don't have them do so just yet. Show it to the "audience" as well so they know what's up, but make sure nobody else in the line sees it.
• When the person at the back of the line is ready, they will tap the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. That person turns around so now the two are standing face to face (but again: the rest of the line continues facing forward). 
• The person acting pantomimes the word as best they can. Do it 2 or 3 times so the person watching can really absorb and memorize the movements. But do not tell them the word being acted out!
• Now the person watching becomes the actor – they tap the person in front of them and repeat the pantomime as best they can. (You see where this is going, right?)
• Repeat steps 4-6 until everyone in the line has seen the pantomime.
• Laugh your arse off as the pantomime morphs dramatically from how the person at the back of the line originally acted out the word. 
• If the person at the front of the line can correctly guess the word, that team scores a point. 

Make sure each team gets a chance to act, and go until you cry "uncle". Looking for words to have the teams act out? Try these: mermaid, lawn sprinkler, firefighter, Gollum, light bulb, snow shovel, jet ski, surfer, walkie-talkie, frying pan.

Three Things (5-10 min)

Best for groups of 5 or more. Use this fast-paced activity to trigger quick, unfiltered thinking before a brainstorming session. 

• Circle up and choose a person to kick things off – we'll call them Person A. 
• Person A turns to the person next to them (Person B) and names a category – e.g., "types of sandwiches". 
• Person B rattles off 3 things that fit into that category as fast as they can. No judgement and no self-censoring!
• When they're done, the entire group give a clap and yells "Three things!"
• Go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to name the category and name the three things. 

The point isn't to make sure all things named fit the category perfectly, or to come up with the wittiest response. Just let your brains relax so your neurons can fire quickly. Celebrate even the oddest contributions and set an anything-goes tone before diving into more cerebral, strategic activities. 

Be sure to run a full Health Monitor session or checkpoint with your team to see if you're improving.

For more, check out this list of icebreaker games from our pals at Culture Amp. 

If you snapped pictures or grabbed video (especially of Telephone Charades), share them afterward. Try to resist getting a case of the giggles all over again – and good luck with that.

Related Plays

    Rules of Engagement

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Drop your email below to be notified when we add new Health Monitors and plays.

Thanks! Now get back to work.

Got feedback?

Drop a question or comment on the Atlassian Community site.

If you have five minutes, the Icebreaker Activities Play can help you make personal connections and spark the kind of creative thinking that moves work forward.

Run Time 5-30 mins

People 3-100

What you'll need

• Video conferencing with screen sharing
• Digital collaboration tool
• Dicebreakers cutout
• Meeting space
• Whiteboard or butcher paper

Instructions for running this Play

Pull any of the following icebreaker activities out of your hat in any order while waiting for people to trickle into a meeting, during onboardings and trainings, at the beginning of offsites, or any time you want to put people at ease and spark creativity. Have fun!

Super quick icebreaker questions

Have an extra minute or two? These thought-provoking questions make fantastic, fun icebreakers.

Make people think, get conversations started, and warm up before tough brainstorming sessions.

1. What would be the title of your autobiography?

• Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts.
• Purpose: Preparing for activities like crafting a vision statement.

2. If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself?

• Purpose: Practicing packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase. This is a killer icebreaker for marketing teams!

3. Who was your first mentor, and what qualities made them a good (or lousy) one?

• Theme: Teamwork and support are important.
• Purpose: Reinforcing the idea that relying on each other is part of growth. Use this icebreaker for projects or teams with lots of dependencies, and during leadership meetings.

4. Have you ever called customer service to complain? What happened?

• Theme: Empathizing with customers.
• Purpose: Putting everyone into an empathetic state of mind before discussing trade-offs or designing a new user experience.

5. What's one thing you learned from a project that went wrong? 

• Purpose: Focusing on risk identification and mitigation.

JUST-FOR-FUN QUESTIONS

Spark conversation, especially in less formal meetings. You can also print and assemble one of our dicebreakers for a little extra fun.

• What's the last dream you remember? 
• What are your favorite books, magazines, or podcasts?
• What car did you use to learn how to drive?
• What's one thing you're grateful for today?
• Do you prefer coffee, tea, or soda?
• Can you remember a bumper sticker that made you smile?

Get to know new coworkers or teammates.

I have never ________________.

My friends love me for my ________________.

If my pet could talk, it would say ________________.

One ____________ is better than ten ________________.

Curious how we created these vital signs?

First, we ran organization-wide surveys to gather data. Then, we applied the principles of outcome-driven innovation from Anthony Ulwick’s book, What Customers Want , to give each vital sign an opportunity score.

Icebreaker activities for meetings, offsites, and more

Loosen up and get engaged with these fun icebreakers for meetings. 

Exorcize the demons 10 MIN

Juice up your neural pathways before brainstorming or problem-solving, and have a few belly laughs. Best for groups of three or more.

• Introduce the topic you'll be brainstorming about, or the problem you'll be trying to solve. 
• Using a whiteboard or butcher paper — or, for remote teams, a digital collaboration tool — ask the group to write down their worst ideas.
• After a few minutes, step back and take 'em all in (we dare you not to fall on the floor laughing!).
• (Optional) Ask each person to share their favorite worst idea and why it stood out to them. 

This exercise helps teams resist the (often strong) temptation to self-censor when real problem-solving begins. After you’ve heard the worst ideas and flushed them out of your system, you can proceed with your regularly scheduled brainstorming.

Mystery person group sort 15-30 MIN

Kickstart creative thinking and see different thought processes in action. Best for large groups of 20 or more.

• Each person writes a surprising fact about themselves on an index card and drops their cards into a bag, box, or hat.
• Each person chooses a card at random from the bag.
• Now the fun begins. Participants stand up and mingle, with the goal of finding cards that align with a theme or are of a similar type. Keep an open mind when thinking about what constitutes the common thread between cards. The thread could be daredevil tendencies, origin stories, music, or anything else. There's no limit to how big each grouping can be, but you must find groupings that accommodate all the cards — nobody gets left out.
• Each group reads their cards and shares the theme they identified.
• (Optional) Invite everyone to stand up and re-sort themselves. Some groupings will likely stay the same, while others might be dramatically different.

Notice how the point of the exercise was not to figure out which fact goes with which person? That's on purpose. In fact, remember to let participants know this at the beginning of the exercise in order to stave off any anxieties.

Tip: MAP OUT YOUR DATA

If it’s helpful to visualize each of your vital signs relative to the others, you can plot your results on a scatter plot.

When to remove a vital sign

If average satisfaction is higher than average importance, the vital sign is probably not very important to your team, or your team is satisfied with it already. In the future, you can replace the vital sign with one you want to watch more closely.

Telephone charades 15 MIN

Warm up for a day of listening with this non-verbal activity. Best for groups of 10 or more.

• Divide into teams of five to eight people. 
• Ask one team to come to the front of the room and stand in a line, one behind the other, all facing the same direction (it's important no one can see the person standing behind them). 
• Show the person at the back of the line a word to act out silently, but don't have them do so just yet. Show the word to the audience as well so they know what's up, but make sure nobody else in the line sees it.
• When the person at the back of the line is ready, they tap the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. That person turns around and faces the person who knows the word.
• The actor pantomimes the word as best they can two or three times so the person watching can really absorb and memorize the movements. Do not let anyone say the word being acted out!
• The person watching then becomes the actor – they tap the person in front of them and repeat the pantomime as best they can. (You see where this is going, right?)
• Repeat steps four to six until everyone in the line has seen the pantomime.
• Laugh as the pantomime morphs dramatically from the original. 
• The person at the front of the line tries to guess the original word. If they get it right, the team scores a point. It’s up to you how strict you want to be!

Make sure each team gets a chance to act. You can continue as long as you like. Here are some example words your teams can act out: mermaid, lawn sprinkler, firefighter, Gollum, light bulb, snow shovel, jet ski, surfer, walkie-talkie, or frying pan.

Three things 5-10 MIN

Trigger quick, unfiltered thinking before a brainstorming session with this fast-paced activity. Best for groups of five or more.

• Circle up and choose a person to kick things off – we'll call them Person A.
• Person A turns to the person next to them, person B, and names a category, like "types of sandwiches.”
• Person B rattles off three things that fit into that category as fast as they can. No judgment and no self-censoring!
• When they're done, the entire group claps and yells, "Three things!"
• Go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to name a category and three things. 

The point isn't to make sure all things named fit the category perfectly, or to come up with the wittiest response. The point is to laugh and have fun. Let your brain relax so your neurons can fire quickly. Celebrate even the oddest contributions and you’ll set an anything-goes tone before diving into more cerebral, strategic activities.

Tip: DON’T SKIP THIS STEP!

Asking questions and not discussing the outcome is often worse than not asking at all.

How to hold a strategic planning meeting: A simple, step-by-step guide for facilitators

If you’re running or facilitating a strategic planning meeting, there are many factors to consider.

It’s much more than just bringing everyone together to have an open discussion — and it doesn’t just happen on its own, either.

There are several steps you can take to ensure that your strategic planning meeting runs smoothly, but it all starts with preparation.

Today, we’ll explore a few ideas to help you hold a successful session, starting with the basics.

Try Miro’s Strategic Planning Template

• What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is the process of analyzing a current situation within your organization and making sure it’s aligned with your specific objectives. If it isn’t, you and your team must develop a plan to “correct the path.”

So, why is strategic planning important?

In short, strategic planning helps you get from where you are today to the future you want. It’s a way of breaking down big, daunting goals into manageable steps that address your current situation and guide your work.

Here’s where strategic planning meetings come into play.

Meetings are the cornerstone of the strategic planning process.

These meetings are typically held by facilitators , but anyone can lead a strategic planning meeting.

We’ll provide you with specific instructions to hold a successful meeting a bit later, but first, let’s answer a crucial question.

What is the purpose of a strategic plan meeting?

Broadly speaking, a facilitator will use meetings to either:

• Gather specific information and feedback from team members, executives, and stakeholders.
• Help team members work together to solve problems, think strategically, and create new ideas to improve the organization.

These meetings aim to provide clarity in decision-making.

This is not a typical meeting where participants spend time reporting out. Strategy planning is all about brainstorming and collaboration .

This way, you can develop solutions to tangible problems in your organization and set the tone and strategic direction for your team.

Who needs to be included?

The best way to ensure that you get all of the most relevant voices in the room is to create an invite list.

Include people from each relevant department, if possible.

This way, you can cover a more complete spectrum of your company’s operations and activities.

You’ll want to include upper management, but don’t stop there.

Bring in members of the sales department, investor relations, human resources, and any other relevant departments or stakeholders.

You might also consider inviting people from outside of the organization who can provide a fresh perspective.

This is particularly useful for organizations that are doing business in a new market or have started offering new products.

• Best practices for running a successful strategic planning session

Now that you understand the importance of effective strategic planning meetings, the question becomes, how do you actually hold one?

Let’s cover a few of the best practices:

Build buy-in before the meeting starts

First, you’ll want to build buy-in with everyone involved.

Keep what you’re doing top-of-mind, whether that’s through casual conversations or company-wide memos.

In addition, make sure to have a clear agenda prepared, so everyone knows what they can expect out of the meeting. Start by defining the goal, then detail how you’ll get there.

Also, get all the materials you need together in advance.

That may look like coordinating with IT to make sure everyone has access to company software, sending out pertinent documents in advance, or mapping out who will be speaking at the meeting.

Make sure to communicate your expectations clearly so that everyone knows what is expected of them and why.

You’ll want to spend time in your planning stages to keep the tone positive, while at the same time being realistic about what’s possible.

Ultimately, your goal should be to align the team around a shared vision and mission so that you can move forward with a shared perspective.

Now, how can you communicate this agenda?

We suggest you use a centralized space where everyone can see your agenda.

For example, you can use Miro’s Agenda template to create and share your agenda with participants.

You can also use the template to keep notes during the meeting and add refinements later.

This way, everyone can see what’s been discussed and the next steps for moving forward.

Remember; this should be a collaborative effort, so consider asking for ideas from everyone about what they’d like to see covered.

Just don’t forget to actually take those ideas into consideration.

Develop a transparent strategic planning process

During the strategic process, you’re inviting employees to have meaningful discussions around the company’s vision statement, strategic goals, and strategic objectives.

It’s important to have a roadmap in place for how you will facilitate the process so that employees know what to expect.

Your meeting should be an open, engaging discussion with transparent dialog. During the meeting, everyone should get a turn to talk.

Make sure you have a clear process that allows everyone to participate and feel heard, no matter what their role is.

In the planning stage of a meeting, it’s important to have as much input as possible.

You can involve everyone by holding a virtual brainstorming session with this brainstorming template . Once you create a board, you can invite people to collaborate in real time.

This template helps you create a more engaging and collaborative session while allowing every person on the team to contribute their thoughts.

Create an agenda and stick to it

We all know what happens when an agenda is not set or adhered to.

Creating an agenda for your meeting helps you and your participants stay on track. This agenda should include topics, questions, milestones, and people.

Milestones are the larger topics that will be broken down into smaller questions, and these questions should flow to the ultimate goal of narrowing down your strategic priorities.

You can create milestones by putting together a list of discussion questions that will help your participants get on topic and help you check in with the group.

Your agenda might include an opening discussion, a brainstorming session on ideas, and a closing review of the next steps.

When developing your agenda:

• Keep it short: The last thing you want is your meeting to drag on for no good reason, so try to limit each agenda item to ten minutes or less. The whole meeting should only take an hour or two, at most.
• Be selective: Don’t include too many topics or ideas that will bog down your meeting.
• Create a contingency plan: You never know what might happen during your meeting, so always have a backup plan in case your agenda falls through.
• Plan for breaks: For longer meetings or workshops, set aside at least half an hour to take a break, such as during lunchtime.

Make it interactive

As much as possible, you’ll want to make this a collaborative effort, so it’s important to get everyone involved.

For example, you might want to break the group down into smaller sub-teams to brainstorm opportunities for new product features.

You could also task each group with creating a list of opportunities for particular departments within your company.

The point is that you’ll want to encourage open and honest dialog about challenges your company is facing and, where possible, break down any barriers that might stand in the way of progress.

Make sure to collaboratively create strategy documents, provide regular updates on progress, and discuss strategic issues in real time.

This way, you can work side-by-side to improve your performance, no matter where in the world your team members happen to be.

• How to run a strategic planning meeting in 7 steps

To get the most out of each session, you should prepare thoroughly — from the agenda to who you’ll involve and how.

Whether you’re holding a remote, hybrid, or in-person meeting, this process will help you out.

1. Define a clear outcome for the meeting

A strategic planning meeting can go totally off-the-rails if it’s held without a defined objective. That’s why the very first step is to define a clear, tangible goal for the meeting.

For example, your objective might be to better align social media with your marketing strategies .

In this case, your meeting might include a discussion on the purpose of social media, its role in the planning process, and how to better align your social media campaign with your organizational goals.

If your goal is to develop a new product , your meeting might look different.

Consider discussing who the target audience would be and how you can get in front of them. You could also discuss how the product should be positioned in the marketplace and what strategies you’ll use to get it there.

You can also set specific strategic planning meeting themes as part of your objectives, such as business growth or innovation.

The point is to be as specific as possible with your goal. That way, it’s easier for everyone to stay on task and make the right decisions.

2. Break the ice

A strategic planning meeting can be a big undertaking, so it’s important to break the ice by engaging participants in some friendly conversation.

You may want to ask participants what they think of the company’s latest direction or engage them in a fun icebreaker activity. You can also ask them what they think of the new business strategy and how they would implement it.

Or you could ask participants to complete an activity that allows them to interact with one another and develop a better understanding of each other’s unique skills.

For instance, you could assign participants to form teams, and then ask them to create a project plan to solve an issue the company might be experiencing.

You can also break the ice by having participants introduce themselves.

If you’re holding a remote or hybrid meeting, you could have participants discuss what they think in a private online chat room, or you could use an instant messaging program for the same purpose.

Make sure they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas with each other before starting the main agenda.

The bottom line? The more connected the group is prior to the meeting, the more effective the meeting will be.

3. Set clear expectations

Once you know what you want out of the meeting, the next step is to communicate any expectations of participants, such as things they should prepare in advance of the meeting.

Here are some useful guidelines to keep in mind when you’re setting expectations:

• Provide details: The more detail you provide, the clearer it will be as to what’s required.
• Assign roles: Make sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities within the meeting audience.
• Use timelines: Use timelines to remind everyone of what needs to be completed before the meeting and send reminders if necessary.
• Communicate effectively : Encourage participants to talk with their teams about the fact strategy planning is happening. They may want to set up smaller meetings to gather input for the strategy planning workshop or to share the outputs after the meeting to give employees a chance to ask questions.

4. Set ground rules for behavior

Before the meeting starts, make sure everyone knows the rules.

This is especially important when working with external stakeholders.

For example, you might say something like:

“The goal of this meeting is to develop the strategic plan for the next quarter. We want to minimize distractions, so please don’t check your phone during the meeting.”

Another good idea is to let participants know how they’ll be evaluated. For example, if you’re trying to make progress on a project, you might say something like:

“Let’s try and reach a consensus on the first three points. If we can do that, we’ll consider the meeting a success.”

If you’re dealing with a remote or hybrid team, you should take the time to define online behavior standards. For instance, you could say something like:

“If you have a question, please type it in the chat window. Using outside chat programs is not permitted during the meeting.”

This way, you’ll have everyone invested in the outcome.

5. Identify potential challenges

Before the meeting starts, it’s always good to identify potential areas of conflict that might derail the process.

For example, what would happen if someone had to leave halfway through? Will the meeting continue without them, or will you reconvene once they’re back?

You should also consider how to handle difficult participants. Can you remove a difficult participant from the meeting before they hijack all of your time?

What happens if a disagreement comes up and it’s not resolved?

You should prepare for all these things in advance and have a plan ready if they do happen. For example, consider using a countdown timer for specific agenda items or presentations, so that time is allocated fairly.

If you identify potential challenges early on, you can keep an eye out for them as the meeting proceeds.

6. Encourage full participation

Remember that you’re asking people to spend time — and sometimes travel — to participate in your meeting.

It’s essential that everyone feels like they have the opportunity to participate. The best way to do this is by mentioning at the beginning of the meeting that you’d like everyone’s input throughout.

Make sure to keep an eye out for people who aren’t speaking up. If it seems like they may have something to contribute, ask them for their thoughts on the topic.

Also, make sure everyone knows that participation is critical. If you need to take a vote on something, remind people what the vote is about and why it matters.

Finally, make sure you’re speaking in terms that everyone in the room can understand. If there are people who are new to the organization, spend a moment explaining any acronyms you use.

This will allow everyone to feel like they can give their input with ease, leading to a more successful meeting.

7. Use visuals and brainstorming tools to communicate ideas

Having everyone on the same page is critical, even if they can’t be in the same room.

Here’s where visuals and collaboration platforms come in handy.

Using collaborative tools, like our brainstorming templates helps you organize work and removes some of the stress of coming up with ideas on the spot.

It also encourages people to provide input and makes them feel like they have a stake in the outcome.

For instance, you can use Miro’s Reverse Brainstorming template to come up with innovative ideas and display them in real time. You can save the meeting content on the board too, so you can send it to participants after the meeting.

This can be especially useful if you have multiple participants in different locations involved at the same time. They may not be able to physically attend the meeting, but they can still provide valuable input.

Also, we provide you with a fully customizable strategic plan template .

You can adapt this template to fit your exact business needs and standardize your meetings with ease.

• Sample agenda for a strategic planning meeting

You need to make sure your strategic planning meeting agenda is detailed and thorough enough to keep you on task.

Start with an overview of what you’ll be discussing, then move into individual department updates. This is where you highlight progress against targets.

Finally, spend some time outlining your organizational goals moving forward and, of course, always leave time for questions.

To help you better understand what a strategy planning session might look like in the real world, here’s a sample agenda:

• 10am–11am: Welcome and meeting goals
• 11am–12pm: Leadership team updates
• 12pm–1pm: Department updates
• 1pm–2pm: Lunch break
• 2pm–3pm: Analyze challenges and problems
• 3pm–4pm: Ideate solutions
• 4pm–5pm: Discuss and gain consensus on solutions and goals
• 5pm–6pm: Assign tasks and responsibilities for strategy execution
• 6pm–7pm: Q&A
• It all comes down to solid preparation and visuals

The best way to ensure your meeting runs smoothly and effectively is to prepare it with anticipation. By creating a clear agenda, you’re able to get the most out of your session.

Also, the use of visuals and brainstorming tools helps you collaborate with your team and communicate your critical points more effectively.

You can hold your planning meetings in a more visual way by creating a board and sharing with your team.

Also, you can use the strategic planning meeting template to get started with fewer headaches.

Want an action-oriented framework to help your team continuously improve?

Try the strategic planning template, miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together..

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Keep reading

How to facilitate an okr planning workshop.

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How to Do Strategic Planning Like a Futurist

You don’t need a time line; you need a time cone.

Chief strategy officers and those responsible for shaping the direction of their organizations are often asked to facilitate “visioning” meetings. This helps teams brainstorm ideas, but it isn’t a substitute for critical thinking about the future. Neither are the one-, three-, or five-year strategic plans that have become a staple within most organizations, though they are useful for addressing short-term operational goals. Futurists think about time differently, and company strategists could learn from their approach. For any given uncertainty about the future — whether that’s risk, opportunity, or growth — we tend to think in the short- and long-term simultaneously. To do this, consider using a framework that doesn’t rely on linear timelines or simply mark the passage of time as quarters or years. Instead, use a time cone that measures certainty and charts actions.

I recently helped a large industrial manufacturing company with its strategic planning process. With so much uncertainty surrounding autonomous vehicles, 5G, robotics, global trade, and the oil markets, the company’s senior leaders needed a set of guiding objectives and strategies linking the company’s future to the present day. Before our work began in earnest, executives had already decided on a title for the initiative: Strategy 2030.

• Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist, CEO of Future Today Institute, and professor of strategic foresight at the New York University Stern School of Business. She is the author of The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream ,  The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity , and The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology .

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12 Strategic Planning Exercises to Help You Get Amazing Results Next Year

by Greg Head | Dec 28, 2016

If you are like most early-stage entrepreneurs, you set aggressive goals. You probably got a lot done this year, but you still came up short on achieving everything on your plan. Now it’s time to assess how you did this year and determine what needs to happen next year.

When you fell short, did you under-execute or did you set your goals too high? It was probably a little of both.

Great execution requires serious planning, especially as your team grows. Making clear strategic decisions and aligning everyone to the same goals are powerful “force multipliers” for your business. Strategy is simply the answer to the bigger questions, and what your execution depends on.

If you’re not taking time every quarter to ask deep questions and create goals for your company, you’re in a state of MSU (“Making Sh#% Up”). MSU creates misalignment, confusion, frustration, and the bad habit of missed commitments. This problem multiplies as your business grows.

Here are 12 powerful strategy exercises to help you think differently, set strategic priorities, align your plans, and get better results.

Strategic Planning Basics

These are the simple, time-tested strategic planning questions that are widely used in goal-setting, prioritization, and execution:

• Strategic Planning – What’s the current situation? What are we trying to accomplish? What do we need to do to get there from here in the next quarter, year, or 3 years? (see Strategic Planning for Dummies)
• SWOT Analysis – What are our internal Strengths and Weaknesses?  What are our external Opportunities and Threats? ( SWOT  explained)
• Continuous Improvement – What is working? What’s not working and needs to be improved? What lessons have we learned? ( Continuous Improvement  explained)
• People & Organization – Do we have the right people in the right roles? (Jim Collins calls this “A-players in key seats.”) Are all the major functions and priorities of the business “owned” by responsible leaders? How does our organization, staff, and culture need to change to accomplish our goals?

Check out Verne Harnish’s One-Page Strategic Plan and checklist for some simple tools to guide your discussion and final result.

Getting the Big Things Right

These questions will keep you out of the weeds and focus you on the real reasons you are in business:

• Serving Stakeholders  How well did we serve our stakeholders–employees, customers, partners, owners/investors, and our community? Which of these did we serve best and worst? How can we improve? (see  Shareholders First? ,  Harvard Business Review)
• Purpose and Values – Did we stay true to our stated Purpose (our larger cause)? Did we live up to (or fall short of) our stated Values? Are we hiring and firing to our Purpose and Values?
• The Dan Sullivan Question – If we were having this discussion 3 years from today, and we were looking back over those 3 years, what has to have happened for us to feel happy with our progress? ( The Dan Sullivan Question, Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach)
• Hedgehog Concept – Three questions: 1) What are we deeply passionate about? 2) What can we be the best at?  3) What drives our economic or resource engine? Where do these three intersect (our hedgehog focus)? ( Hedgehog Concept , in “Good to Great,” by Jim Collins)

New Thinking Creates Different Results

These questions will help you expand your thinking and see things differently. You can make room for more productive actions when you let go of bad habits, unproductive beliefs, and outdated processes:

• New Possibilities – What would we do if we could not fail? What would we do if we had no fear and no excuses? What would be possible if we had no limits on our resources, staff, or time?
• Stop Doing List – What thoughts, beliefs, and habits are no longer useful and should be left in the past? What types of customers and employees should we stop pursuing/hiring? Which initiatives should be stopped so we can use the resources more productively?
• Fire Your Old Self – If you fired yourself and hired the best candidate in the world to replace you, what would they do differently to get better results? How can you start doing that immediately? Who do you need to be to create the results you want?
• The One Thing – What’s the ONE Thing we can do right now, and by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? (see Gary Keller’s “ The One Thing”)

Even disciplined entrepreneurs who take planning seriously don’t accomplish all of their big goals. They face unexpected internal challenges, external forces they can’t control, and massive “learning opportunities.” No problem, just keep moving and start again.

The growth game is won by the leaders and teams who keep their eyes on the big goals and continually adjust to make progress. Keep moving forward.

Growth Tactics

20 Essential Strategic Thinking Exercises for Maximum Impact

• 1 The Importance of Strategic Thinking Exercises
• 2 Exercises to Enhance Strategic Thinking Skills
• 3 Encouraging Strategic Thinking in Your Organization

Strategic thinking is a crucial skill for business leaders, managers, and employees in today’s fast-paced, competitive world. It involves generating long-term goals, anticipating trends, and making informed decisions to gain a competitive advantage. In this article, we will explore various strategic thinking exercises that can help you and your team think more strategically, strengthen your strategic thinking skills, and become a strategic thinker.

The Importance of Strategic Thinking Exercises

Strategic thinking is essential for leadership, creativity, and achieving an organization’s goals and objectives. It allows business leaders to analyze their company’s position, envision new ideas, and develop a strategic plan to execute those ideas. By encouraging strategic thinking, managers can foster an environment where employees are continually seeking new ways to improve the organization and achieve positive outcomes.

Exercises to Enhance Strategic Thinking Skills

In this article section, we will explore 20 exercises specifically designed to enhance your strategic thinking skills. Strategic thinking techniques are essential for leaders to navigate complex challenges, make informed decisions, and drive organizational success.

These exercises will help you sharpen your strategic thinking abilities, expand your perspectives, and unleash your creativity. By engaging in these exercises, you will cultivate a strategic mindset and develop the skills necessary to tackle the ever-evolving business landscape. Get ready to strengthen your strategic thinking muscles as we dive into these 20 exercises!

1. Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is an exercise that encourages participants to envision various future scenarios for their organization. By brainstorming potential situations, team members can anticipate potential challenges, develop new ideas, and create actionable plans to tackle those challenges. This exercise helps to improve strategic thinking skills by allowing participants to analyze trends, evaluate the possible outcomes, and customize their approach based on the insights gained.

2. Brainzooming

Brainzooming is a team-building exercise that promotes strategic thinking by challenging participants to generate new ideas and solve problems creatively. In this exercise, team members are encouraged to think outside the box and explore new perspectives. By combining creativity with strategic thinking, participants can develop innovative solutions that deliver a competitive advantage.

3. SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that helps individuals and organizations identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This exercise allows participants to evaluate their current situation, anticipate future trends, and develop strategies to address potential challenges. By understanding their organization’s position, participants can make informed decisions and execute plans that align with their goals.

4. Objective Setting

Setting clear objectives is a critical step in strategic thinking. This exercise involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your organization. By focusing on your goals and objectives, you can ensure that your strategic thinking efforts are aligned with your organization’s priorities and desired outcomes.

5. Competitive Analysis

Understanding your competitors is essential to strategic thinking. In this exercise, participants are encouraged to analyze their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By evaluating the competitive landscape, team members can develop strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and gain a competitive advantage.

6. Trend Analysis

Trend analysis is an exercise that focuses on identifying emerging trends and understanding their potential impact on your organization. By staying informed about industry trends, participants can anticipate changes, adapt their strategies, and capitalize on new opportunities.

7. Communication Skills Development

Effective communication is vital for strategic thinking. In this exercise, participants are encouraged to practice their communication skills by presenting their ideas, engaging in discussions, and collaborating with others. By improving their communication skills, team members can better articulate their strategic vision and gain buy-in from others.

8. Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a visual tool that helps individuals and teams organize their thoughts, ideas, and information. By creating a visual representation of your ideas, you can better understand the relationships between different concepts and identify new connections. This tool can be particularly useful for brainstorming, problem-solving, and strategic planning sessions.

9. PESTLE Analysis

PESTLE analysis is a strategic tool that examines the external factors affecting an organization. It stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors. By assessing these factors, you can identify potential opportunities and threats in the external environment and develop strategies to address them. This analysis helps to broaden your perspective and consider various external influences on your organization.

10. Gap Analysis

Gap analysis is a tool that helps you identify the difference between your organization’s current state and its desired future state. By understanding the gaps in performance, resources, or capabilities, you can develop targeted strategies to bridge those gaps and achieve your goals. This tool can be useful for strategic planning, resource allocation, and performance improvement initiatives.

11. Game Theory

Game theory is a strategic tool that examines decision-making and interactions between different players in a competitive environment. By using game theory, you can understand the potential outcomes of various strategic decisions and develop optimal strategies based on the behavior of other players. This tool can be particularly helpful for understanding competitive dynamics and developing strategies to outperform your competitors.

12. Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard is a strategic management tool that helps organizations track their performance across multiple dimensions, including financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth perspectives. By monitoring performance across these dimensions, you can ensure that your strategic initiatives are balanced and aligned with your organization’s overall objectives. This tool can be useful for performance measurement, strategic planning, and decision-making.

13. Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is a strategic analysis tool that helps organizations understand the competitive forces within their industry. The five forces include the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, the threat of substitute products or services, and the intensity of competitive rivalry. By analyzing these forces, you can develop strategies to enhance your competitive position and achieve long-term success.

14. Reverse Brainstorming

Reverse brainstorming is a creative problem-solving exercise that involves identifying potential problems instead of solutions. By focusing on potential issues, participants can gain a deeper understanding of the challenges they face and develop strategies to prevent or mitigate them. This exercise encourages strategic thinking by requiring participants to anticipate potential obstacles and develop proactive solutions.

15. The Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats exercise, developed by Edward de Bono, is a technique that encourages participants to approach problems and decisions from different perspectives. The six hats represent different modes of thinking: white (facts and information), red (emotions and feelings), black (critical judgment), yellow (positive aspects), green (creativity and new ideas), and blue (process and organization). By switching between these different modes of thinking, participants can develop a more comprehensive understanding of the situation and develop well-rounded strategies.

16. Role Playing

Role-playing exercises require participants to assume different roles within a hypothetical scenario. By stepping into the shoes of others, participants can gain a better understanding of different perspectives, anticipate potential reactions, and develop strategies that consider the needs and motivations of various stakeholders. This exercise enhances strategic thinking skills by encouraging empathy and a broader understanding of the situation.

17. The Five Whys

The Five Whys exercise is a technique used to identify the root cause of a problem by asking “why” five times. By continually asking why a problem exists, participants can uncover the underlying issues and develop targeted strategies to address them. This exercise encourages strategic thinking by requiring participants to analyze problems deeply and develop long-term solutions.

18. Pre-Mortem Analysis

A pre-mortem analysis is an exercise that involves imagining that a project or initiative has failed and then identifying the reasons for the failure. By anticipating potential pitfalls and challenges, participants can develop strategies to prevent or mitigate those issues before they occur. This exercise promotes strategic thinking by encouraging participants to think critically about potential risks and develop proactive solutions.

19. Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Ocean Strategy exercise encourages participants to identify untapped market spaces and create new demand by developing innovative products or services. By focusing on differentiation and low cost, participants can create a competitive advantage and achieve long-term success. This exercise enhances strategic thinking skills by encouraging innovation and the exploration of new opportunities.

20. The Four Quadrant Matrix

The Four Quadrant Matrix is a strategic decision-making tool that helps participants prioritize tasks or initiatives based on their importance and urgency. By categorizing tasks into four quadrants (urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important), participants can allocate their resources and time more effectively. This exercise encourages strategic thinking by requiring participants to evaluate priorities and make informed decisions.

Encouraging Strategic Thinking in Your Organization

To encourage strategic thinking within your organization, consider implementing workshops, team-building exercises, and brain training activities that focus on strategic thinking skills. Providing employees with the tools and resources to think strategically can lead to increased innovation, improved decision-making, and a more successful organization.

In conclusion, strategic thinking exercises are essential for developing the skills necessary to become a strategic thinker. By practicing these exercises regularly, individuals and teams can improve their ability to anticipate trends, evaluate potential challenges, and develop innovative solutions to achieve their goals. Take the time to invest in your strategic thinking skills and watch your organization thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

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Fun Strategic Planning Exercises - 6 Last-Minute Ideas

Tools , Creativity , Fun Strategic Planning , Strategic Planning , Strategic Thinking

Strategic planning is typically serious stuff. That doesn't mean, however, that doing strategic planning is best served by conducting things in a boring way. Frustrations with boring strategy sessions are probably why so many people visit our website looking for creative ideas on fun strategic planning exercises.

We've previously published some fun strategic planning exercises . Suppose however, you are in a strategy session where things are dragging. You probably can't stop, research different strategic thinking exercises, and incorporate them into your strategy session.

What can you do right away to turn deadly strategic thinking exercises into fun strategic planning exercises?

Strategic Planning Exercises Can Be Fun

Here are six creative ideas for last minute changes to turn around a boring strategy meeting by fashioning quick, fun strategic planning exercises and activities:

Create a competition

Split your whole group into smaller groups and turn your strategy work into a competition. Challenge each group to do more of whatever it is you need - more ideas, more variations, more scenarios, more whatever. Cheer for the team that wins, then give everybody another chance with the next small group exercise.

Rearrange working groups

After splitting your big group into smaller groups, keep changing the composition of the small groups. Try to make sure every person has a chance to work closely with every other person in the group. Variety can break up the monotony of a boring meeting.

Change your meeting place

Take a break and see if there's a different room or place you can move to for the rest of your meeting . If you always have strategy meetings in the same place, changing the venue can add some fun. Go outside. Go the cafeteria. Go to a meeting room that's much bigger than the number of people you have in the meeting would ever need. Just go somewhere different!

Tell people you expect the outrageous

Often participants won't push strategy ideas very far unless you say it's okay to be outrageous . Even better, ENCOURAGE being outrageous. Change a typical strategy exercise (say Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) to have people imagine the most outrageous possibilities for each area. Once you have outrageous ideas, you can always dial the creative ideas back to be more realistic .

Increase the meeting's speed and variety

Spending long periods thinking about the same thing using the same perspective is deadly. Create fun strategic planning exercises by taking only five or six minutes on a boring exercise before varying the creative perspective. For the next round, address the same issue question from a customer, competitor , or industry supplier perspective. Next time, have small groups adopt a different perspective than previously or have them build on (or tear apart and improve on) ideas the small group before them used.

Take more and shorter breaks with fun food or drinks

Give people more short breaks where they stand up, move around, and even do jumping jacks, stretches, or relaxation techniques. Send somebody out to get fun food for an upcoming break. Get some milk shakes from a fast food place. Hit up the deli or bakery section at a nearby grocery store for fun salty or sweet snacks. Looking forward to something fun at the next break can alleviate tedium and make boring questions seem like fun strategic planning exercises.

Plan If You Can

It's always best to plan ahead to add some fun into a strategic planning session. If you don't have the opportunity, or are forced to try something different on the spur of the moment, these six creative ideas are all proven to add to the fun! - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

You might also like:.

Team Strategic Thinking Exercises - 7 Vital “Ands” in Strategic Thinking

Strategic Planning Exercises - Asking Questions People Can Answer

Strategic Planning Process - Creating a Workshop to Develop Strategy

Date published: 11/09/15

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11 top tips for facilitating strategic planning sessions

Strategy can no longer be an analytical decision-making process that takes place behind closed doors, involving just a few individuals. Today, it demands creativity and broad participation.

The way forward involves innovative approaches and inclusive participation. That’s why we’re taking a deep dive into these issues with a few of our own expert voices:

• Jim Kalbach , Chief Evangelist at Mural
• Katie Scheuer , Sr. Consultant at Mural
• Farrah Buhaza , Sr. Professional Services Consultant at Mural

Each brings a unique perspective — from using creativity and participatory approaches to employing advanced digital tools and fostering engaging environments.

The discussion helps reveal the nuances of facilitating successful strategic planning sessions in this fast-paced, interconnected world. You’ll discover how to shift strategy from an analytic process to a creative, inclusive journey, adapting to the complexities of remote and distributed work environments.

1. Use creative methods to structure the strategic session

"In today's hyper-competitive and global world, strategy has become more of a creative exercise."‌ - Jim

Creative methods level the playing field, enabling all participants to contribute equally and more freely.

“Here's the thing: Particularly with strategy sessions, there might be many loud voices — people who dominate the conversation,” Jim says. “If you just go in with a blank piece of paper and say, hey, we're going to discuss this, what tends to happen is the discussion tends to center on just a few people in the group. If you have exercises, everybody can participate.”

Jim advocates for structuring strategic sessions using creative methods, emphasizing the shift from traditional analysis to a more dynamic, participatory approach. "It doesn't just have to be bullet points and reading of data," he says, proposing brainstorming, dot voting, and clustering as techniques to enliven the process. 

Plus, the State of Meetings report from Mentimeter reveals that 46% of Gen Z leaders are introverts, often distracted by texting (42.7%) or checking social media (44.6%) during meetings. To encourage engagement, 62% of respondents suggested integrating non-verbal (47%) or anonymous (45%) participation methods. This data underscores the need for creative, inclusive methods in strategic planning sessions, catering to the diverse communication styles of participants, especially among younger generations.

Use icebreakers and participatory methods: Kicking off a meeting with an icebreaker , or building brainstorming sessions and clustering exercises into your meetings encourages participation from the get-go.

Related: 5 actionable tips to improve meeting engagement

2. Ensure clarity and alignment to maximize productivity

A clear and focused agenda sets a definitive course for the session, minimizing confusion and maximizing productivity. It makes sure that every participant understands what'll be discussed and the purpose behind each topic.

"Make sure that you're very clear on the agenda for the session. . . and also that all your participants are included in the know and are very aware of it," Farrah advises. 

Implementing a structured agenda with clear objectives can transform a potentially meandering meeting into a focused strategy session. This approach is especially critical in complex projects or when diverse teams are involved.

"Make sure that the topics you're covering are relevant and that people understand the why of each section," she says. This is crucial to making sure that participants see the value in each discussion point and how it ties into the larger objectives of the organization.

“Having that alignment up front is really important." - Farrah

Share the agenda with all participants well in advance of the strategy meeting. Encourage team members to review the agenda, prepare their inputs, and come with a clear understanding of their role in the meeting. This preparation provides that strategic planning sessions lead to desired outcomes. 

Lean on your tools : Katie recommends embracing technology, like AI, to pre-populate ideas and streamline the strategic planning process.

3. Use visual tools for simultaneous and inclusive participation

Visual tools like digital whiteboards allow simultaneous contributions, breaking the bottleneck of one-by-one conversations.

" Visualization isn't just about color, pictures, and frameworks — it's also about ensuring that everybody can express themselves in different ways." - Jim

Jim champions using visual tools in strategic planning sessions, advocating a shift from traditional verbal discussions to more inclusive, engaging formats.

"If you throw in a visual platform like Mural, everybody can talk at the same time," he explains. 

This method transcends the limitations of traditional verbal-only sessions by offering multiple means of expression. And data from Mentimeter backs this up. Approximately 62% of participants believe that various engagement options in meetings, such as the ability to like, comment, react, and participate in polls, would significantly enhance their productivity. ‍

P.S . As an online platform with digital whiteboarding capabilities, Mural offers a range of features that cater to various needs, from brainstorming and strategizing to planning and problem-solving. With its Facilitation Superpowers® , a collection of tools designed specifically for guiding and managing sessions, Mural stands out as an excellent choice for facilitators looking to enhance engagement and productivity.

Using Mural's free planning templates, teams can engage in activities ranging from daily stand-ups to complex quarterly business reviews , making every aspect of collaboration visually accessible and interactive.

4. Time your sessions but leave room for organic discussions

The art of a successful strategic planning session lies in its delicate balance: meticulously structuring time while nurturing human connections . 

As Farrah says, "It's about having a structure, having it time-bound but also allowing for a bit of flexibility." This approach is akin to a thoughtful conversation — planned yet open to the natural dynamics of discussion and interaction.

Echoing this sentiment, Katie emphasizes the importance of personal connections: "Before diving into the meeting agenda, prioritize building relationships." This initial investment in warm-up activities or open-ended questions can transform the atmosphere, paving the way for more meaningful and productive strategic discussions.

"Set aside time to connect. Allow time (5-20 minutes) in a warm-up activity or open-ended question." - Katie

Start with a short, engaging activity to build rapport among participants, then transition into the structured, time-bound agenda. This method provides for a focused yet flexible approach to strategic planning.

5. Choose the right mix of people for effective collaboration

"Consider the audience. Who needs to be included?"

Katie's advice highlights a crucial aspect of strategic planning sessions: Carefully considering who needs to be in the room. 

"More people can increase complexity. Fewer people might mean the discussion is less inclusive/diverse." -Katie

The challenge lies in striking a balance. The right mix of participants provides a comprehensive representation of perspectives, fostering a richer, more holistic discussion. However, it's equally important to avoid overcrowding the session, which can lead to logistical challenges and dilute the focus of the conversation.

In a scenario where a new product is being discussed, including representatives from development, marketing, and customer service can provide a well-rounded view. However, keeping the group size manageable makes sure that each voice can be heard and contribute effectively.

According to a study by Mizen, Taneja, and Bloom (2022), online meetings were found to be more efficient for smaller gatherings of 2 to 4 people, while in-person meetings were preferred for gatherings of 10 or more. This finding can help you decide whether to meet online or in person based on the number of participants. Make meetings manageable: If you are a remote-first company, you can use breakout rooms to break up the strategic planning meeting into smaller groups and ensure everyone has the chance to contribute to the discussion.

Related: How to create a stakeholder map [templates & examples]

6. Involve remote participants actively to give them a voice

In modern strategic planning sessions, the hybrid meeting poses a problem. When some participants are physically present while others join remotely, how do you ensure remote participants don’t feel sidelined?

Jim sheds light on this conundrum, pinpointing the risk of remote participants feeling left out in a conversation dominated by those in the room. "It's really just a conversation in the room, and people are listening," he notes, underscoring the need to intentionally include remote participants.

"Facilitation needs to adjust to the setting. You can't think that your old in-person ways will work in a modern setting anymore." - Jim

To overcome this, Jim suggests adapting facilitation methods to suit ‌hybrid environments. For instance, he proposes starting discussions with remote participants to ensure their active involvement and prevent the conversation from being overly influenced by those in the room. 

"You have to change the way you facilitate the meeting," Jim advises, advocating for techniques like “popcorning” in remote settings where the last person speaking chooses the next speaker.

Building on Jim’s recommendations, Farrah offers a best practice for managing larger groups in hybrid settings: dual facilitation . This approach involves having separate facilitators for in-person and remote participants, ensuring focused attention and engagement for both groups.

Farrah also suggests thoughtful gestures like sending lunch vouchers to remote participants during an offsite meeting, replicating the in-person experience, and fostering a sense of inclusion. "So it's trying to be really intentional and mindful about how you mitigate those gaps and make people feel included," she says.

7. Pre-engage participants for focused sessions

Start participant engagement well before the scheduled strategic planning session. This proactive approach not only saves time during the actual meeting but also ensures that all attendees come well-prepared, significantly boosting the session's productivity.

“Engage them before you start the live session. Gather as much information as you can, even if it's passively." - Jim

Jim’s mantra, "Get started before you get started," serves as a guiding principle for facilitators to gather vital information and stimulate participant involvement ahead of time.

Sending out a brief survey or questionnaire in advance can help warm up participants to the session's topics and encourage them to think about their contributions. This practice can be particularly effective for executive participants who may be hesitant to do extensive pre-work.

Related: Pre-work: Your guide to pre-meeting action items

8. Take a digital-first approach to avoid workshop amnesia

One of the greatest challenges in the aftermath of strategic sessions is what Jim calls " workshop amnesia " — a phenomenon where the energy and decisions of a meeting dissipate once everyone returns to their daily routines. This issue often leads to a loss of momentum and a lack of clarity about decisions and actions post-meeting. 

Jim's solution lies in leveraging digital tools not just as a medium but also as a strategy to sustain momentum and keep ‌decisions and discussions top of mind.

"Workshop amnesia is real. You have this big event, people are engaged, but come Monday, it's like, 'What did we decide? Who's doing what?' That's the challenge." - Jim

By incorporating visual work platforms like Mural, especially towards the end of the session, strategic planning facilitators can effectively pivot into the digital realm for follow-up. 

"Think digital as an output. It's the way to keep the momentum going," Jim advises. This approach makes sure that the energy, ideas, and decisions from the session are immediately captured and accessible for future reference and action.

“You don't often think of documentation when you think of facilitating results. But any of these sessions we do, it's because we're trying to get to an outcome, and at the end of that outcome, you always need to document those results, those takeaways, then share them back with relevant stakeholders.” - Farrah

Wrap up digitally: Implement a digital-first method in your session's conclusion and subsequent follow-ups. For instance, use digital tools for the final prioritization exercise, making it a part of the session's digital footprint. This method not only ensures efficient follow-up but also helps combat the typical post-workshop drop in momentum and engagement.

Related: 7 tips to take more effective meeting notes

9. Incorporate multiple tools for distributed teams

Strategic planning sessions demand tools that foster engagement, collaboration, and efficiency. Integrating innovative tools can transform these sessions from standard meetings into dynamic, interactive experiences.

"If the only channels used are audio/visual and screen sharing, it gets monotonous." - Jim

• Visual collaboration platforms : " Visual whiteboards for collection of thoughts and ideas throughout the session, as well as before and after, can change the game," points out Jim. Tools like Mural offer a digital space for teams to brainstorm and strategize, enabling visual thinking and collaboration beyond traditional boundaries.
• Real-time polling tools : Jim also emphasizes the value of polling tools like Menti or Polleverywhere. "Polls are great in general, but leaders particularly appreciate them for the data and real-time feedback they provide," he notes. These tools inject an interactive element into the session, allowing for immediate participant input and engagement.
• Mobile devices : Leveraging smartphones for quick polls and instant feedback is another tactic Jim recommends. This approach harnesses the ubiquity of mobile devices, making participation more accessible and spontaneous.
• Large touch screens in physical meetings : For in-person elements of a session, Jim suggests incorporating large touch screens. These tools enhance presentation dynamics and facilitate a more interactive form of feedback, enriching the overall experience.

10. Master the right techniques for impactful strategic sessions

‍ Strategic planning success isn't just about the tools — it's equally about the techniques. Farrah, Katie, and Jim offer valuable insights into the methods that elevate these sessions from routine discussions to impactful strategic exercises.

• Intentional turn-taking and time management : Farrah recommends using liberating structures like the “One Two for All” approach. "This allows everyone to contribute individually and then in groups, ensuring diverse voices are heard," she explains. Additionally, using timers can keep discussions on track and prevent any single topic or individual from taking over the session.
• Blended meeting formats and design thinking : Katie advocates for blended meetings and adopting design thinking methods . These approaches infuse strategic sessions with creativity and flexibility, accommodating various participant needs and working environments. 
• Structured methods for collaboration : Jim's emphasis on structured methods provides a roadmap for productive sessions. "Utilize techniques like lightning decision jams, clustering, and dot voting to guide the session," he advises. These methods ensure that every participant's voice is heard and that the session remains focused on its objectives.

11. Adopt the rules of hybrid engagement 

‍ Hybrid meetings , which blend in-person and remote participation, present unique challenges that require a nuanced approach to building effective and inclusive engagement.Jim, Katie, and Farrah offer insightful strategies to navigate these complexities, providing a framework that facilitates dynamic interaction and equal participation across both physical and digital spaces. Their combined approaches address the challenges of hybrid settings, ensuring that every participant, whether dialing in remotely or sitting in the meeting room, can contribute effectively and meaningfully. Jim's approach: Rely on structured individual and group activities

• Encourage independent brainstorming in “heads down activities” for unbiased contributions.
• Use smaller breakout groups for focused discussions, enabling deeper exploration of ideas.
• Consolidate thoughts in larger sessions, which helps to foster collective decision-making and idea integration.
• Ensure remote participants are equally engaged with in-person attendees through digital tools.

‍ Farrah's strategy: Balance confidence and participation

• Allocate time for individual reflection, using digital platforms like Mural for anonymous input.
• Employ affinity clustering to organize ideas, highlighting common themes and diverse opinions.
• Actively facilitate discussions to encourage quieter participants, ensuring a balanced dialogue.

‍ Katie's insights: Factor in the practical aspects of meeting management

• Allocate buffer time in the agenda to accommodate technical issues and side discussions.
• Consider the number of voices included in the meeting, allowing some to participate asynchronously for efficiency.
• Make sure you’re including diverse perspectives, using assessments of diversity and inclusion to guide participant selection.
• Adapt facilitation techniques for diverse teams and industries, allowing extra time for processing and alternate participation methods.

Flexibility: The key to successful facilitation Effective facilitation in strategic planning sessions is a balancing act. It requires a readiness to adapt and evolve with the changing dynamics of teams and technology. Embracing digital-first approaches — while keeping the human touch — is crucial.

“A good facilitator will recognize that something isn’t working and shift accordingly. So just because you’ve planned everything out in detail doesn’t mean you can stick to that plan or even have to stick to that plan.” - Jim 

As facilitators, your role isn't just to guide discussions but to inspire collaborative action and meaningful outcomes. The true success of a session lies in its ability to adapt to unforeseen challenges and turn them into opportunities for growth and innovation. ‍

Make sure your strategic planning sessions are as successful as possible by employing the best tools. Mural offers a free plan to help you run better meetings, collaborate more effectively, and elevate every voice.

About the authors

Bryan Kitch

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• What is strategic planning? A 5-step gu ...

What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. In this article, we'll guide you through the strategic planning process, including why it's important, the benefits and best practices, and five steps to get you from beginning to end.

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. The strategic planning process informs your organization’s decisions, growth, and goals.

Strategic planning helps you clearly define your company’s long-term objectives—and maps how your short-term goals and work will help you achieve them. This, in turn, gives you a clear sense of where your organization is going and allows you to ensure your teams are working on projects that make the most impact. Think of it this way—if your goals and objectives are your destination on a map, your strategic plan is your navigation system.

In this article, we walk you through the 5-step strategic planning process and show you how to get started developing your own strategic plan.

How to build an organizational strategy

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What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a business process that helps you define and share the direction your company will take in the next three to five years. During the strategic planning process, stakeholders review and define the organization’s mission and goals, conduct competitive assessments, and identify company goals and objectives. The product of the planning cycle is a strategic plan, which is shared throughout the company.

What is a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is the end result of the strategic planning process. At its most basic, it’s a tool used to define your organization’s goals and what actions you’ll take to achieve them.

Typically, your strategic plan should include: 

Your company’s mission statement

Your organizational goals, including your long-term goals and short-term, yearly objectives

Any plan of action, tactics, or approaches you plan to take to meet those goals

What are the benefits of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can help with goal setting and decision-making by allowing you to map out how your company will move toward your organization’s vision and mission statements in the next three to five years. Let’s circle back to our map metaphor. If you think of your company trajectory as a line on a map, a strategic plan can help you better quantify how you’ll get from point A (where you are now) to point B (where you want to be in a few years).

When you create and share a clear strategic plan with your team, you can:

Build a strong organizational culture by clearly defining and aligning on your organization’s mission, vision, and goals.

Align everyone around a shared purpose and ensure all departments and teams are working toward a common objective.

Proactively set objectives to help you get where you want to go and achieve desired outcomes.

Promote a long-term vision for your company rather than focusing primarily on short-term gains.

Ensure resources are allocated around the most high-impact priorities.

Define long-term goals and set shorter-term goals to support them.

Assess your current situation and identify any opportunities—or threats—allowing your organization to mitigate potential risks.

Create a proactive business culture that enables your organization to respond more swiftly to emerging market changes and opportunities.

What are the 5 steps in strategic planning?

The strategic planning process involves a structured methodology that guides the organization from vision to implementation. The strategic planning process starts with assembling a small, dedicated team of key strategic planners—typically five to 10 members—who will form the strategic planning, or management, committee. This team is responsible for gathering crucial information, guiding the development of the plan, and overseeing strategy execution.

Once you’ve established your management committee, you can get to work on the planning process. 

Step 1: Assess your current business strategy and business environment

Before you can define where you’re going, you first need to define where you are. Understanding the external environment, including market trends and competitive landscape, is crucial in the initial assessment phase of strategic planning.

To do this, your management committee should collect a variety of information from additional stakeholders, like employees and customers. In particular, plan to gather:

Relevant industry and market data to inform any market opportunities, as well as any potential upcoming threats in the near future.

Customer insights to understand what your customers want from your company—like product improvements or additional services.

Employee feedback that needs to be addressed—whether about the product, business practices, or the day-to-day company culture.

Consider different types of strategic planning tools and analytical techniques to gather this information, such as:

A balanced scorecard to help you evaluate four major elements of a business: learning and growth, business processes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

A SWOT analysis to help you assess both current and future potential for the business (you’ll return to this analysis periodically during the strategic planning process). 

To fill out each letter in the SWOT acronym, your management committee will answer a series of questions:

What does your organization currently do well?

What separates you from your competitors?

What are your most valuable internal resources?

What tangible assets do you have?

What is your biggest strength? 

Weaknesses:

What does your organization do poorly?

What do you currently lack (whether that’s a product, resource, or process)?

What do your competitors do better than you?

What, if any, limitations are holding your organization back?

What processes or products need improvement? 

Opportunities:

What opportunities does your organization have?

How can you leverage your unique company strengths?

Are there any trends that you can take advantage of?

How can you capitalize on marketing or press opportunities?

Is there an emerging need for your product or service? 

What emerging competitors should you keep an eye on?

Are there any weaknesses that expose your organization to risk?

Have you or could you experience negative press that could reduce market share?

Is there a chance of changing customer attitudes towards your company? 

Step 2: Identify your company’s goals and objectives

To begin strategy development, take into account your current position, which is where you are now. Then, draw inspiration from your vision, mission, and current position to identify and define your goals—these are your final destination. 

To develop your strategy, you’re essentially pulling out your compass and asking, “Where are we going next?” “What’s the ideal future state of this company?” This can help you figure out which path you need to take to get there.

During this phase of the planning process, take inspiration from important company documents, such as:

Your mission statement, to understand how you can continue moving towards your organization’s core purpose.

Your vision statement, to clarify how your strategic plan fits into your long-term vision.

Your company values, to guide you towards what matters most towards your company.

Your competitive advantages, to understand what unique benefit you offer to the market.

Your long-term goals, to track where you want to be in five or 10 years.

Your financial forecast and projection, to understand where you expect your financials to be in the next three years, what your expected cash flow is, and what new opportunities you will likely be able to invest in.

Step 3: Develop your strategic plan and determine performance metrics

Now that you understand where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to put pen to paper. Take your current business position and strategy into account, as well as your organization’s goals and objectives, and build out a strategic plan for the next three to five years. Keep in mind that even though you’re creating a long-term plan, parts of your plan should be created or revisited as the quarters and years go on.

As you build your strategic plan, you should define:

Company priorities for the next three to five years, based on your SWOT analysis and strategy.

Yearly objectives for the first year. You don’t need to define your objectives for every year of the strategic plan. As the years go on, create new yearly objectives that connect back to your overall strategic goals . 

Related key results and KPIs. Some of these should be set by the management committee, and some should be set by specific teams that are closer to the work. Make sure your key results and KPIs are measurable and actionable. These KPIs will help you track progress and ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Budget for the next year or few years. This should be based on your financial forecast as well as your direction. Do you need to spend aggressively to develop your product? Build your team? Make a dent with marketing? Clarify your most important initiatives and how you’ll budget for those.

A high-level project roadmap . A project roadmap is a tool in project management that helps you visualize the timeline of a complex initiative, but you can also create a very high-level project roadmap for your strategic plan. Outline what you expect to be working on in certain quarters or years to make the plan more actionable and understandable.

Step 4: Implement and share your plan

Now it’s time to put your plan into action. Strategy implementation involves clear communication across your entire organization to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities and how to measure the plan’s success. 

Make sure your team (especially senior leadership) has access to the strategic plan, so they can understand how their work contributes to company priorities and the overall strategy map. We recommend sharing your plan in the same tool you use to manage and track work, so you can more easily connect high-level objectives to daily work. If you don’t already, consider using a work management platform .  

A few tips to make sure your plan will be executed without a hitch: 

Communicate clearly to your entire organization throughout the implementation process, to ensure all team members understand the strategic plan and how to implement it effectively. 

Define what “success” looks like by mapping your strategic plan to key performance indicators.

Ensure that the actions outlined in the strategic plan are integrated into the daily operations of the organization, so that every team member's daily activities are aligned with the broader strategic objectives.

Utilize tools and software—like a work management platform—that can aid in implementing and tracking the progress of your plan.

Regularly monitor and share the progress of the strategic plan with the entire organization, to keep everyone informed and reinforce the importance of the plan.

Establish regular check-ins to monitor the progress of your strategic plan and make adjustments as needed. 

Step 5: Revise and restructure as needed

Once you’ve created and implemented your new strategic framework, the final step of the planning process is to monitor and manage your plan.

Remember, your strategic plan isn’t set in stone. You’ll need to revisit and update the plan if your company changes directions or makes new investments. As new market opportunities and threats come up, you’ll likely want to tweak your strategic plan. Make sure to review your plan regularly—meaning quarterly and annually—to ensure it’s still aligned with your organization’s vision and goals.

Keep in mind that your plan won’t last forever, even if you do update it frequently. A successful strategic plan evolves with your company’s long-term goals. When you’ve achieved most of your strategic goals, or if your strategy has evolved significantly since you first made your plan, it might be time to create a new one.

Build a smarter strategic plan with a work management platform

To turn your company strategy into a plan—and ultimately, impact—make sure you’re proactively connecting company objectives to daily work. When you can clarify this connection, you’re giving your team members the context they need to get their best work done. 

A work management platform plays a pivotal role in this process. It acts as a central hub for your strategic plan, ensuring that every task and project is directly tied to your broader company goals. This alignment is crucial for visibility and coordination, allowing team members to see how their individual efforts contribute to the company’s success. 

By leveraging such a platform, you not only streamline workflow and enhance team productivity but also align every action with your strategic objectives—allowing teams to drive greater impact and helping your company move toward goals more effectively. 

Strategic planning FAQs

Still have questions about strategic planning? We have answers.

Why do I need a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is one of many tools you can use to plan and hit your goals. It helps map out strategic objectives and growth metrics that will help your company be successful.

When should I create a strategic plan?

You should aim to create a strategic plan every three to five years, depending on your organization’s growth speed.

Since the point of a strategic plan is to map out your long-term goals and how you’ll get there, you should create a strategic plan when you’ve met most or all of them. You should also create a strategic plan any time you’re going to make a large pivot in your organization’s mission or enter new markets. 

What is a strategic planning template?

A strategic planning template is a tool organizations can use to map out their strategic plan and track progress. Typically, a strategic planning template houses all the components needed to build out a strategic plan, including your company’s vision and mission statements, information from any competitive analyses or SWOT assessments, and relevant KPIs.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. business plan?

A business plan can help you document your strategy as you’re getting started so every team member is on the same page about your core business priorities and goals. This tool can help you document and share your strategy with key investors or stakeholders as you get your business up and running.

You should create a business plan when you’re: 

Just starting your business

Significantly restructuring your business

If your business is already established, you should create a strategic plan instead of a business plan. Even if you’re working at a relatively young company, your strategic plan can build on your business plan to help you move in the right direction. During the strategic planning process, you’ll draw from a lot of the fundamental business elements you built early on to establish your strategy for the next three to five years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. mission and vision statements?

Your strategic plan, mission statement, and vision statements are all closely connected. In fact, during the strategic planning process, you will take inspiration from your mission and vision statements in order to build out your strategic plan.

Simply put: 

A mission statement summarizes your company’s purpose.

A vision statement broadly explains how you’ll reach your company’s purpose.

A strategic plan pulls in inspiration from your mission and vision statements and outlines what actions you’re going to take to move in the right direction. 

For example, if your company produces pet safety equipment, here’s how your mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan might shake out:

Mission statement: “To ensure the safety of the world’s animals.” 

Vision statement: “To create pet safety and tracking products that are effortless to use.” 

Your strategic plan would outline the steps you’re going to take in the next few years to bring your company closer to your mission and vision. For example, you develop a new pet tracking smart collar or improve the microchipping experience for pet owners. 

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. company objectives?

Company objectives are broad goals. You should set these on a yearly or quarterly basis (if your organization moves quickly). These objectives give your team a clear sense of what you intend to accomplish for a set period of time. 

Your strategic plan is more forward-thinking than your company goals, and it should cover more than one year of work. Think of it this way: your company objectives will move the needle towards your overall strategy—but your strategic plan should be bigger than company objectives because it spans multiple years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a business case?

A business case is a document to help you pitch a significant investment or initiative for your company. When you create a business case, you’re outlining why this investment is a good idea, and how this large-scale project will positively impact the business. 

You might end up building business cases for things on your strategic plan’s roadmap—but your strategic plan should be bigger than that. This tool should encompass multiple years of your roadmap, across your entire company—not just one initiative.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a project plan?

A strategic plan is a company-wide, multi-year plan of what you want to accomplish in the next three to five years and how you plan to accomplish that. A project plan, on the other hand, outlines how you’re going to accomplish a specific project. This project could be one of many initiatives that contribute to a specific company objective which, in turn, is one of many objectives that contribute to your strategic plan. 

What’s the difference between strategic management vs. strategic planning?

A strategic plan is a tool to define where your organization wants to go and what actions you need to take to achieve those goals. Strategic planning is the process of creating a plan in order to hit your strategic objectives.

Strategic management includes the strategic planning process, but also goes beyond it. In addition to planning how you will achieve your big-picture goals, strategic management also helps you organize your resources and figure out the best action plans for success. 

Related resources

Grant management: A nonprofit’s guide

How Asana uses work management to optimize resource planning

How Asana uses work management for organizational planning

Solve your tech overload with an intelligent transformation

A Strategy Day Agenda for the Lazy Facilitator

We’ve facilitated close to 100 strategy days and, while they all have a similar theme, none are exactly the same. Getting your strategy day agenda right is critical.

The key thing to decide on before the day is what a successful strategy day looks like. Once you’ve got that nailed you can work back to ensure the agenda meets the required outcome. I use Roger Martin’s 5 steps to creating grea t strategy :

1) What is winning to us? 2) Where will we play? 3) How will we win? 4) What do we need to win? 5) What systems do we need?

There isn’t an absolute right or wrong way to put a strategy day agenda together. The agenda below works very well as long as all participants understand the purpose of each session.

There is a great deal of inter-dependency between the sessions and there is nothing wrong with changing the order or timing. For example, you may wish to discuss your target market, positioning or other strategic issues before you settle on the vision or value proposition.

A draft strategy day agenda

External environment scan.

A review of your external environment needs to be a key part of your strategy day agenda. Strategic thinking in this context is about identifying, considering and understanding possible future operating environments for your organisation. You can then think about the possible options you have in front of you for your business. This way you can position your organisation for advantage in its external environment.

Situation analysis (inside the business and the market)

Situation analysis marries the insight from the external environment to the strengths and weaknesses inside your organisation. The traditional way of doing this is by using a SWOT analysis and then a TOWS analysis – two great explanations here from Mindtools.

Morning break

Breaks are a must. Forget them (and the food and coffee) at your peril.

What is our customer value proposition?

How are we different in a way that matters to the people we want to matter to? I’d marry this exercise with competitor analysis using the three circles exercise to help you understand where your advantage is.

Vision – What do we want to build?

The objective is to define where or what your ‘point B’ is. Where are you now (Point A) and where are you going (Point B)?

Management might come to the session with a predetermined future it wants to achieve. Or the strategy day agenda could include a collective discussion about where the business needs to go. Regardless, it’s important to get your Point B sorted out. A great exercise for doing this is the On the Cover visioning exercise .

A light lunch is best. You don’t want people feeling sleepy in the afternoon sessions!

What customers do we want? What industries do we want to be in? Our target market.

Defining the target market is a critical component of the strategy day agenda. Start by defining the kind of clients you want to work with. This is about the characteristics they should have to fit your ideal profile.

For example, take our profile of our ideal client:

• Leadership currently based in Western Australia
• B2B markets (professional, business, industrial, mining, oil & gas, healthcare and agriculture)
• turnover of +A$5 million
• Leadership and company aligns with our own values
• Leadership has keen desire to grow the business in local and overseas markets
• Recognises the importance of a digital strategy
• Has at least a $xx annual marketing budget
• Has no, or an under resourced, marketing department

Note: your ideal customer will change as your business changes. For example we’ve recently become a Hubspot Partner Agency which means our ideal client no longer needs to have their head office in Australia.

Once you’ve established the kind of clients you want, you or your marketing team will then need to develop individual buyer personas for each target audience. This is to ensure you connect with the right people in the right organisations.

What will we offer our customers? What value? What will be insourced and outsourced?

Services! To win you need to leverage your strengths to offer the right people a level of value that’s better than the competitors. To be able to optimise that value you need to understand those people and what their pains are. This is about looking inward to what you do well and outward to what the client wants and needs. And outward to what competitors are doing and how you can position relative to them to offer a better alternative.

Look at the time horizon as you’re doing this as well. What have you done in past that’s got you wins? What are you doing now that’s working? What do you need to do in the future? What technologies do you need to adopt to stay competitive? And keep and eye on your competitors.

Afternoon Break

Take one, you need to give your brain a break.

How big or small do we want the business to be? And by when?

I call this the Point B thinking. Arguably, this could be part of your visioning work. Some businesses actually like to pull this out and focus on business size as a separate part of their strategy.

Are we small and flexible? Are we large and offer less risk? Do we use a distributed model and pull specialist teams teams together for each project?

Have you considered all the options? For example, being small doesn’t mean being under resourced. A vailability of collaborative technology like Slack or Google Hangouts and work collaboration tools like ASANA or Teamwork means you can win by having a great, flexible team that’s distributed globally.

What does ‘big’ or ‘small’ mean? Is it still relevant?

How should we position relative to our competitors?

No strategy day agenda is complete without market positioning. Positioning is relative. It is about how you are different (to your competitors) in a way that matters to the people you wish to matter to.

Positioning is about leveraging what and how you do things so it’s perceived as being more valuable to your target markets than the competitors. Think of the way Apple positions relative to Microsoft, Virgin relative to Qantas, Lexus relative to Mercedes and BMW or Officeworks relative to Staples.

How are you going to leverage everything that makes your business different and more valuable to your target buyers than the competitors?

What’s our general pricing structure?

Pricing is the the way you define in dollar terms the value of the services you offer. It’s an often forgotten piece of the strategy day agenda, but it’s a critical piece of the strategy process. Pricing reflects your position strategy, the vision, type of customers you’re targeting and how you are going to position in the market relative to the competition.

To develop your pricing strategy take into consideration your own value (and required profitability), the value to the customer and the alternatives being offered by the competition.

Summary of key issues and objectives

Pull it all together on a page and summarise the key issues you need to address. There will always be issues. Your job in the strategy session is to identify which issues are of strategic importance and are going to hinder (or accelerate if solved) you getting to your strategic goals. We compile a simple list and undertake ‘dot-voting’ to ensure everyone is focusing on the right issues.

Quantify and list the key objectives that will get you to you where you need to be. For SME’s I suggest limiting this to no more than 5-7 key objectives. Any more than this is often difficult to manage.

Then establish the next steps – develop a roadmap to ‘get there’. This is where we leave strategy and move into strategic planning. Who does what, when, where and how. This can be as simple or as complicated as you like. The key to success is to assign responsibility, time and KPI’s to each of the key objectives.

At the strategy level a good way to do this is via a simple roadmapping matrix that lists the key objectives and then breaks each into a series of top level actions that need to be undertaken to realise the objective. This is a simple overview planning exercise that can help the team link strategy to action for further development after the strategy day.

Final World

Your strategy day agenda doesn’t need to be complicated. It can be simple as long as it includes the key areas you need to focus on. If you’d like assistance get in touch today with one of our strategy facilitation experts.

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About the author: shane davies.

Your Strategy Planning Meeting Agenda (with Template)

Have you been asked to pull together a strategy planning meeting agenda? And you’re wondering what other people do in their strategic planning sessions… I’ve been there!

In this article, I’ll explain what a strategic planning meeting can cover and share a sample agenda you can customize for your strategy sessions.

Strategy planning doesn’t just happen. You can’t put people in a room and expect there to be a 3-year plan at the end of it. The conversations need a structure to help keep the pace and ensure the meeting runs smoothly. And that’s where the agenda comes in, as part of your pre-meeting prep.

What should a strategic planning meeting include?

A strategic planning meeting should include:

• A review of organizational objectives
• An assessment of how you are doing against those objectives
• Decisions around what needs to be sped up, slowed down, started or stopped in order to better align activity with the objectives.

If you think about the point of having a strategy discussion, it’s really to either define the strategy or to decide if you are on track with delivering the strategy . What you need to include in the meeting has to tie back to those points.

In other words, what do you want to get out of your strategic planning process? Is it a new strategic plan? An update to the last one because something drastic has changed? A review with some ‘light editing’ to ensure decisions are being taken that keep you on track to meet your goals?

What goes into your meeting (and therefore, your agenda) will very much depend on where you are in the strategy planning cycle.

When do strategic meetings happen?

There’s no fixed cadence for strategy conversations. Some businesses use quarterly meetings. Some might do a lot of planning during the existing structure of board meetings. As long as sufficient time is put aside for strategic thinking, you can set whatever frequency of meeting you like.

I would recommend quarterly review sessions, with a longer goal-setting session once a year, but do whatever works for you. If you are putting together your first strategy or doing a complete overhaul, you’ll need to spend a lot more time on it to get the strategic process set up and the relevant data collected.

Planning a successful virtual strategy meeting

Strategy meetings tend to be quite long. You might put a full day or even two aside for your planning, perhaps another full day the following week for the follow up.

For that reason, it’s often better to do them in-person instead of remote, but do what works best for you and the team.

Personally I would prefer to meet in person as in my experience you get better engagement with the process.

If you have to hold the workshop remotely, with people dialling in, make sure you schedule enough screen breaks. I put a break in at least after every 90 minutes — people just can’t focus for that long.

You can also use breakout rooms to set people up to work in small groups (in person or remotely using your collaboration software) so they can interact more easily.

Sample strategy planning meeting agenda template

Every effective meeting needs an agenda, and the great thing about strategic sessions is that you can tailor the agenda to cover the topics that would be the most valuable to wherever you are in the planning cycle. The strategic planning agenda below assumes you are meeting in-person, and is suitable for a strategic review session.

9.30am: Welcome

Use this time for introductions. Do an ice breaker exercise if your attendees won’t think it is cheesy (mine would).

I start by sharing the meeting objectives and making it clear this is a strategic meeting so people don’t get carried away with the detail. Discuss ways of working e.g. who is capturing what actions, what you’ll do if there is a stalemate for a decision, what decision-making tools you are using.

You might want to introduce ground rules for the session such as

• No taking calls in the room
• Take space, make space
• Share your experience

etc. I think my delegates would find this a little patronizing as they have all worked together for many years, but I can also see that there would be circumstances in which it is appropriate to refresh expectations.

If you think they would value having some guardrails for acceptable behavior during the conversations, then by all means add time for that into the agenda at this point.

10am: Big picture strategy

Present the overall roadmap, for example, a timeline for the 5 year plan. Make sure everyone is clear on where the organization is going and what big chunks make that up. For example, perhaps you have a couple of different portfolios that support the strategy.

You can use this time to talk about the current situation, the company’s strategy and how your department fits into that. This section should answer the question: where are we now?

10.30am: Coffee break

Give people time for a bathroom break and to get something to drink. Bonus points if you provide the coffee!

10.45am: Progress review

Have each executive or leader in the room share their area’s progress against their area of the strategic plan. They can bring in team members to present specific topics if that would help, and if their expertise is needed as part of the debate.

These presentations don’t necessarily need to be formal, but they should cover what objectives the department is working to, how they link to the big picture strategy and whether they are on track. Talk about whether milestones are on track to be hit. Present the budget figures related to the area and the confidence levels around meeting those.

This section of the agenda might be long, depending on how many leaders you have to get round, so adjust the rest of the agenda to fit your timings. I’d suggest everyone gets 30 minutes but it depends on what you think they have to share and how much discussion there will be about each area. If possible, timebox the updates so you keep the meeting moving.

Alternative session: Where do we want to be?

If you haven’t got strategic progress to report, use this time to:

• Brainstorm where you want to be
• Agree where you are going
• Create a vision for the next 3 years
• Document the vision and mission.

12.45pm: Lunch break

Schedule in some time to eat and return calls. I think people get back to the meeting more quickly if you provide lunch in the room.

1.30pm: Key issues

It’s worth parking the discussion of any major issues that affect multiple areas until after everyone has had a chance to present their updates, because then it’s easier to see the bigger picture and what might be affected.

Use this time to review anything that dropped out of the morning’s conversations. There might be new opportunities, challenges, resource constraints, market changes and more.

This section of your day should answer the question: what might stop us from getting where we want to go? Think about the values, skills, culture and risks that might block your progress.

2.30pm: Revise plans

After you’ve discussed the challenges or opportunities that present themselves, go back to the plans and see how that information affects what you are committing to do for the next period.

Agree changes as required. This part of your agenda answers the question: what do we need to do? If you do need to do anything differently in order to get back on track or head off in the right direction, this is where you should be discussing and agreeing.

3.30pm: Action planning

I like action planning! Strategy meetings should be all about decision-making, so you should ring-fence some time to talk about how to turn those decisions into action items . List out what needs to be done and allocate owners and timescales to each.

One thing that should definitely be on the action list is how you are going to communicate the decisions made today to everyone else in the team. Add them to the decision log . Make sure someone is responsible for creating and circulating meeting minutes .

This is an important part of the strategy meeting and it answers the question: how will we do it?

4.30pm: Any Other Business

Use this time for the ‘one last thing’ that people want to bring up. If you’ve had a parking lot up on the wall, check that all the topics have follow up actions planned so the conversations can continue outside of the room.

5pm: Wrap up and close

Finally, wrap up the meeting, draw it to a close and if you are going to meet again, put the date in the diary. Then go down the pub!

Tailoring the strategy agenda

As you’ve probably realized, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy meeting agenda that will suit every need. If you are starting from scratch and are using the time to write your strategy, you’ll need to put time aside for brainstorming new ideas, a presentation of market research analysis or feedback from customer focus groups.

If you are reviewing the projects that make up the strategy, you might bring each project manager in to present their project, before discussing as a team what initiatives need to be brought into the portfolio to ensure the strategic goals can be met.

The important thing is to always go back to the why: why are you meeting and what do you want to get out of the time? You can’t go wrong if you start there.

5 Considerations for a strategy planning workshop

So you’re ready to draw up that meeting agenda. Here’s what to consider before you get going.

1. Set the objective

I like to write the objective for any meeting at the top of the agenda. It helps focus people’s minds and keeps the conversation on track. Think about what you are meeting for and what the leadership teams are expecting to get out of it. Here are some examples:

• To define the 5-year growth plan for the organization
• To establish the projects we want to focus on to meet our strategic goals for the next 12 months
• To review the new products we intend to bring to market in the next 3 years
• To set the IT agenda for the next 24 months

You can hold strategic planning workshops for departments, teams or for the business overall. You can plan for the long term or adopt a rolling wave planning approach to plan ongoing. So which is it for you?

2. Let people know what is going to happen

Set expectations for the meeting. Let people know what contributions are expected from them. What do they need to prep in advance? Ask them for their agenda items – you might not include them as ‘real’ agenda items but it would help to know what talking points they intend to bring up.

Share any papers, timelines, business cases, strategy documents etc that make useful background reading. The more ready people are to contribute, the more you will get done during the meeting.

3. Prepare for conflict

As the meeting facilitator, you’ll have a good idea of the topics that will come up. And the potential flashpoints. For example, there are always conversations about budget. Doing anything strategic seems to cost a lot, and investing in one area means another area doesn’t get the investment.

Try to spot any sources of potential disputes in advance so you have pre-meeting conversations to manage expectations and ensure everyone comes to the session with an open mind (and the data to support their case). Healthy debates are to be encouraged!

Think about how to resolve conflict as a team if you can’t get to consensus. There are several group decision-making techniques you could try. In my experience, it’s often the most senior person in the room who makes the final call – strategy is not always a team game. It might not feel fair, but there are often political, economic, commercial and environmental reasons for decisions that might not always be clear to everyone in the room.

Whatever you think the outcome might be, have a few phrases to help facilitate the debate if it seems attendees are getting stuck. For example:

“Ultimately, it’s Fiona’s decision. Fiona, what do you want us to do?” “Let’s continue this conversation for another 10 minutes and if we aren’t able to reach a decision at that point, I suggest that Henry and Priya book some time to review and come back to us with a recommendation next week.” “IT are the guardians of that process. Do you agree to that approach?”

4. Prepare to go off script

I’ve been in strat planning meetings where we started with an agenda and then went totally off script… and the output was all the better for it. It’s great to have an agenda, and the template above gives you a starting point, but if it feels like the right thing to do is to delve into a particular area, then do it.

Strategy is too important to shortcut. If it feels like the meeting is taking longer, just say: “This feels like an important topic. Is everyone OK with staying with it for a little longer?” or “That isn’t something we were going to cover today but it sounds like it’s important that we get into it. Does everyone agree?”

Talk about what needs to be talked about. Strategy work takes time. The agenda is there as a guide but sometimes you just need to get it all out on the table.

5. Define success

What would a successful meeting look like? Sometimes it’s going to be OK to just talk and debate until you get to the heart of your strategy. Other times you might want to go all in on a brainstorming session and success will look like 20 new ideas.

It might be that you want to gain agreement on three new projects or prepare an update to go to the next board meeting. Think about what would constitute a successful outcome and try to guide people towards that.

Your next steps

• Agree the goals of your strategy meeting
• Write the agenda
• Socialize some of the ideas
• Adequately prepare for the session so you feel ready to facilitate it

In this article you learned what to include in your strategy planning meeting agenda and what considerations go into planning a successful strategy workshop. Don’t forget to grab a free action log template to record all the good stuff that comes out of your meeting. I hope it goes really well for you!

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Project manager, author, mentor

Elizabeth Harrin is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK. She holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University, and several project management certifications including APM PMQ. She first took her PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in 2004 and has worked extensively in project delivery for over 20 years. Elizabeth is also the founder of the Project Management Rebels community, a mentoring group for professionals. She's written several books for project managers including Managing Multiple Projects .

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Sample strategic planning agenda 2023 strategic planning process UPDATED

By Anthony Taylor - March 29, 2023

Strategic planning Agenda for your next strategy meeting.

We've been leading strategic planning meetings for the past 12 years (and counting), and we've tested dozens of different strategic planning agendas so that you don't have to. Use our experience to have the best and most effective strategic planning process. 

Need a strategic planning facilitator so you can participate in an unbiased strategic planning process? Contact us today or learn more about your facilitation options:

Free resources to support your strategic planning. 

Download these tools to complement your strategic planning agenda. 

• Strategic planning template
• Alignment Scorecard: Measure your team's alignment
• 15 questions to ask your team before strategic planning . 

What is a good strategic planning process?

• Tips to prepare for a strategic planning meeting
• Recommended Pre-Work Agenda & Timeline
• One Day strategic planning meeting agenda
• Two Day strategic planning meeting agenda
• Three day strategic planning meeting agenda

Virtual strategic planning meeting agenda

A good strategic planning process will help your team get clear and aligned on a few key areas:

• Where are we now?
• Where are we going?
• What's going to get in the way?
• How are we going to implement the plan/what do we need to do? 

If you're leading a strategic planning process with a team, getting alignment is critical. 

If you don't have a good process, you'll likely go on many tangents, "get stuck in the weeds" of the details, and not end up with a clear direction. 

A good strategic planning process needs a balance of outcomes and actions to help you reach your vision, or One Destination. 

With too many actions, you'll be busy working on a lot of tasks but might not be working in the right direction or towards shared outcomes. 

Without any actions, it means that your team will get stuck on determining "what's next" and your plan will take a much longer time to implement, or worse, not get implemented at all.

How to have a successful strategic planning meeting

After having led hundreds of strategy meetings both online and virtually (and all over the world) here are some things to consider prior to developing your agenda to ensure you have a good strategy meeting/offsite and overall strategic planning process:

Leverage Pre-work so the time you spend in the strategy meeting are used optimally. Don't present documents or research that could have been done in advance. Use the time to have discussions, and make important choices.

Have high-quality food and snacks, including breakfast with protein. Strategic planning is an incredibly taxing process for the brain and requires lots of calories. You don't want your group hitting a mid-afternoon lull when the most important work of the day is still underway. Have a good breakfast, good snacks, and high-quality meals. Avoid carb-heavy meals so people don't have a sugar crash, and save any alcohol for the end of the day after your planning session is complete. 

Go offsite if possible: When we've done sessions at people's offices, they get interrupted with day-to-day issues and takes away their ability to get outside of the day-to-day. I've also found that people are slightly more reserved because they don't want staff to know what's going on until the whole strategic planning process is complete. You'll find that while there is an additional cost to going offsite, you'll get better engagement from participants of the strategy meeting. 

Use a facilitator: If you don't have a facilitator, you are the facilitator. This means that if you're the CEO or head of HR, you're going to have a really hard time balancing the hat of facilitator, and your own role. You won't be able to participate fully if you're facilitating. Furthermore, your participants will have a harder time being honest and transparent with a facilitator who already has a bias one way or the other. 

Think strategically: People love get to get into the how/actions before fully clarifying the what and why (Mission/Vision). The result is that you'll get into rabbit holes, you'll digress, and people will get frustrated. Focus on your highest-level strategic outcomes and work your way to the actions, not the other way around. 

Wear the group hat: Strategic planning meetings get easily derailed when individual participants focus on their own needs/desires ahead of those of the group. Ask everyone to come to the meeting "wearing their organization hat" not their individual role hat. It's not a problem they advocate for their own role, but it's a group session first and foremost. 

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Recommended pre-work agenda & timeline: .

Pre-work serves two purposes: one, to make sure that your people are prepared for the upcoming strategic planning sessions so that you can make the most of your time, and two, to help align and engage participants (and stakeholders) early on in the planning process. 

One day strategic planning meeting agenda

This one-day planning agenda is great for a small company or non-profit that needs a refresher on the organization's direction.

If you want to make the most of your limited time for strategic planning, learn more about using a strategic planning facilitator for your session. 

Before sharing the agenda, we want to note that we no longer facilitate or offer to facilitate one-day strategic planning meetings. 

Most notably, because as an external team we could not accomplish full alignment or create a complete enough strategic plan with only a one-day agenda. 

If you are leading this process internally, and you’ve been able to successfully pull stakeholders into the process prior to this one-day meeting.

And/or you will have subsequent strategy meetings at a later date to complete the strategic planning process fully. This one-day meeting is the first of many strategic planning sessions, then please use the agenda below. 

If your only option is to have a one day strategy meeting, it’s better than no meeting.

We would not advise any of our clients to only have a one-day strategic planning meeting and expect to have full clarity or alignment with your current state, vision, mission, values, priorities, goals and actions within an 8-hour day. It’s jut not realistic.

That said, If all the pre-work was done we’d focus on the core conversations needed for alignment. 

“To maximize your time, make sure to get your team involved prior to your one-day strategy meeting. Our free strategic planning questionnaire offers the key questions to help start you r strategic planning process ”

• Vision: Where are we going? Watch : How to Start the Vision Planning Process
• Mission/purpose: Why do we exist? Who is the customer we serve?
• Strategic Priorities: What do we need to focus on to achieve our Vision? Watch : How to Set Strategic Priorities
• Action planning for the strategic priorities

A few things to note:

This one-day planning session is possible if you have a small team of six or less people. If you have more people, then you will likely need more time to work through the complete process. 

The survey is a survey we run with our clients to help them get in the right mindset, and ask the key questions before the session happens to cut down on some of the discussion.

Strategic priorities, KPI's and the biggest priority all roll in together, but are separated because it leaves fluidity for ample conversation and adapting the  agenda.

Two -Day Strategic Planning Session (Most common + Recommended) 

We recommend two full days for most organizations.

The reason we don't believe an organization of the above size should use a shorter agenda for their strategy meeting is that there are too many essential conversations that need to be had.

At that size, your organization needs to be fully aligned from top down and bottom up, and should consider more fully the internal and external environment, current challenges and risks, and align the plan to your long-term vision, mission and values.

That alignment takes time, but it's needed because it will serve as a guide for the other members of the team that aren't participating in the strategic planning session. 

Here's a graphic representation of the strategic planning agenda. 

DAY 1: 9:00 am-5:30 pm

Day 2: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Three-day strategic planning meeting agenda

If you have 3 days for strategic planning, we still use the two-day agenda as the foundation, but we add a couple of key conversations that vary depending on the organization.

That said, the 3rd day is always focused on execution. 

We typically break up the day into 90-minute alignment areas for problem-solving and alignment. 

We also use the time to dig deeper into action plans.

For example:

After going through the strategic planning process over 3 days, your team should be aligned and clear on the most important parts of your strategic plan. 

As you implement your plan, there will certainly be issues that arise where you need to discuss again and re-align. 

In addition to facilitating strategic planning sessions, we also support strategic plan implementation through coaching, accountability and training. 

Learn more about our how our strategic planning consultants can help you with the implementation of your strategic plan.

While the first phase of in-person offsite facilitation is usually completed in two 8-hr working days, we recommend splitting this up online to optimize engagement and to reduce screen fatigue. We recommend holding 5 x 3hr sessions, roughly one week apart. This allows enough time to take a deep dive into the work each session, with space for creative thinking, reflection and any homework between each session. 

For example:  

• While we recommend holding virtual sessions one week apart to allow for information digestion and homework time, you may wish to hold the sessions closer together or further apart, depending on your organizational needs
• While we recommend 3-hour sessions because it’s long enough to dive into the deep work, and short enough to hold attention spans, you may wish to have shorter or longer sessions, depending on scheduling needs for your team (ex: 6x 2.5hr sessions, or 4x 4hr sessions)

Tools & Resources to Enhance Participation & Engagement 

In addition to our agenda, we utilize several tools and resources to help enhance participation and engagement within virtual strategy meetings. 

While there are abundant options to consider, some of our favourites include:

• Zoom – This is a great platform to host strategy meetings as it allows the facilitator to see multiple participants at once in a grid view, to share their screen, utilize breakout rooms for small group discussions, to incorporate polling, text chat, and other functionalities
• Liberating Structures – These are techniques and activities to help boost engagement and inclusion within group meetings and are considered a best practice within adult learning
• Mentimeter – This platform allows meeting hosts to poll participants, generate group word clouds, and obtain real-time data from multiple participants at once
• PPT Presentations – It’s a good practice for the strategy facilitator to have a PPT slide deck to help guide the discussions and to provide visual feedback to participants via screen sharing. This will allow participants to both see and hear any key instructions for activities throughout the session. 

Post-work Once you’ve completed your strategic planning process, the planning work is not over. It’s important to make sure that prior implementation that you’ve:

• Solidified your priorities and defined SMART goals  
• Documented your plan in a digestible way (ex:. a PPT presentation or PDF)
• Developed a communication plan to share and cascade your strategy throughout your organization 
• Booked a time with your strategy leadership team to create your implementation plan 
• Set up a system to track and monitor your progress

If you want to learn to how to facilitate a strategic planning session, you can check out our strategic planning course where we'll walk you through each step of this agenda to help you achieve alignment with your team. 

If you read this article and you don't want to lead the process yourself, you might want to check out how our strategic planning services can help you get  alignment and clarity with your team. 

Bonus: you get to participate instead of leading the process. Learn more about the eight main benefits of using a strategic planning facilitator for your strategy meeting. 

Want to participate in the meeting instead of having to lead it yourself?

Use a facilitator to keep the meeting focused, on track, and get your team aligned. 

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Strategic Planning and a Big Ideas Collaboration Tool

Dear Colleagues,

As the semester comes to close, thanks again to all who have been involved in strategic planning over the last eight months. Your feedback has been instrumental in shaping the process.

At the well-attended workshop with Fleming Puckett on April 18, the enthusiasm for Big Ideas was exciting to witness. We were encouraged by the progress already made on proposals, as well as the evidence of collaboration among and within our three schools. (Materials from Fleming’s presentations and proposal templates are available here .)

So, with a month to go before the Big Ideas deadline on May 31, we’ve created a collaboration tool for those who are making headway. We ask that you consider sharing a few simple elements of your proposal so that other faculty and staff may see where there’s overlap and/or opportunities for building something bigger and better. We’re simply looking to foster as much collaboration as possible.

If you’re already working on the proposal template, this shouldn’t require much extra effort: Please follow this link to a Google form that will automatically populate a spreadsheet open to those with an lclark.edu email address. (We’ve also added these links on the Big Ideas page .)

We’re eagerly looking forward to June 1 when we can start poring through proposals. Remember that what you submit on May 31 doesn’t need to be perfect: we expect to provide institutional support in the summer to the most promising ideas and to work together on further proposal development and refinement.

If you’re not working on a proposal, know that we’ll have more to share with you about strategic planning in September. Finishing the strategic plan and turning Big Ideas into reality will be a community-wide effort.

As always, please let your Executive Council representative know if you have any questions, or reach out to us at [email protected] .

Executive Council

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Strategic Plan Big Ideas Generation Process

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