10 things to know before planning your strategy workshop
If you’re reading this, it’s probably because it’s no secret to you that a strategy should constantly be evolving. After all, it’s the most crucial part of a business. And if you want to get internal buy-in for your strategy, you know that you should involve your team in creating it.
So if you’ve decided to take some time away from day-to-day operations and facilitate a strategy planning meeting, session or workshop, you’re in the right place.
How do you get people away from their day-to-day task to focus on the bigger picture? How do you make the workshop engaging and impactful for stakeholders? How do you ensure the strategy gets implemented once the workshop is over?
Whether you’re organising a 2-hour session or a full day workshop, you’ll find the answers in this guide.
1. Have a clear goal
The foundation of any successful workshop is a clearly defined goal. Without it, the day can quickly lose focus and feel like wasted effort.
To help you define the goal, create a simple ‘mini mission statement’ that captures what you aim to achieve. Then, make sure everyone involved understands and agrees on this goal. To help you draft your mini mission statement, ask yourself:
What prompted this workshop?
What do you want to achieve?
How do you want participants to feel during and after the session?
What outcomes would define success?
Who is this session for?
When you set out the goal, remember to also specify the deliverables. For example, is the output a presentation, a plan, or a set of action steps?
Being crystal clear on your goal and deliverables upfront will help guide your planning and make it easier to get internal buy-in for hosting the workshop.
2. Plan the workshop in chunks
Divide the day or half-day into sections, each with a clear purpose. Remember that every section and activity should contribute to achieving the overall goal.
For example, your first chunk might be on reviewing the current strategy, the second part might be focused on setting your north star and the last one on turning your new strategy into actionable items.
The point is, if you know the purpose of each section, it will help you keep activities and discussions on track so conversations don’t get derailed.
3. Mix divergent and convergent thinking
The most effective workshops balance creativity and focus. Start with divergent thinking exercises, like brainwriting, to generate ideas, challenges or goals. Then shift to convergent thinking activities, like prioritising or voting, to refine and focus those ideas.
This structured approach ensures you explore all possibilities before deciding on a solution.
4. Be flexible
The day will not go as expected! Expect people to drop out at the last-minute, arrive late, or take a client call in the middle of the session.
Before the workshop, think about potential issues and how you’d handle them. Being flexible and ready to adapt will help you stay calm and keep things on track.
5. Test your tech
Whether the workshop is in-person, hybrid, or remote, leave enough time to set up and test your tech. Check the internet connection, the mics and speakers.
For hybrid and remote workshops, pay extra attention to this to ensure participants feel included—tech issues can easily lead to disengagement.
6. Start with impact, not housekeeping
First impressions matter! Avoid kicking off the day with admin or housekeeping. Instead, grab your participants’ attention right away with a compelling story, or a warm-up exercise.
Once the energy is up, you can then move on to practical details and the core of your workshop.
7. Manage energy levels
Workshops are demanding, and energy levels will naturally rise and fall. Keep an eye on participants’ body language for signs of fatigue:
Glazed expressions or looking around the room.
Doodling or checking phones
Yawning or slouching.
Take breaks when needed—even if it means skipping an activity. It’s more important to leave the team feeling excited and motivated to implement your strategy than ticking-off the items on the agenda.
8. Time every activity and discussion
Timing activities and discussions is a game-changer for staying on schedule and keeping participants engaged.
Allocate slightly less time than you think to each activity to maintain engagement and focus.
9. Commit to action
The biggest mistake teams make is leaving a workshop without clear next steps. The output of your strategy workshop might be a vision and how you’ll allocate your resources to move in the right direction. However, before the workshop ends, you need to turn your strategic outcomes into action items assigned to specific people with a deadline.
A 2-week post-workshop check-in is a great way to make people feel more accountable for the actions assigned to them and ensure the strategy gets implemented.
10. Send a summary
Don’t let the value of the workshop fade after the day ends. Within 24 hours, send out a concise summary highlighting key takeaways, actions, and deadlines.
Keep the summary short and digestible, with links to more detailed information if needed.
A strategy workshop is a great opportunity to shape the future of your business or your team. With this approach, you’ll leave the session with a clear, actionable roadmap that everyone is committed to bringing to life.
If you’d like more tips like this or if you need help organising your strategy workshop, you can book a free 30min call.