How to deliver a meaningful strategy away-day: Part one

With belt-tightening the dominating imperative right now, it can be hard to secure the time and investment to step out of the office to focus on strategy. We do a lot of work designing, facilitating and generally looking after creative, energising and collaborative strategy and learning experiences. In this three-part blog series we look at how to ensure collaborative time together is productive and impactful on a strategy and human level, and that big (and small) ideas translate into action.

Part one: Clarity of intent and planning for outcomes

Secure the budget, time and focus

Be specific about why you need to spend time together in this way by setting clear goals and making time to collaboratively explore what a successful session will look like. Don’t try and shoe-horn in too much. If you have evidence of the impact of your last strategy session, share it, and be honest about where it failed to deliver and how you'll overcome that this time.

One NGO we worked with created a small working group to collaboratively set goals for the strategy retreat and co-create the design. By working in this way, it was possible to see where too much content was being crammed in at the expense of a core goal which was to create a space for reflection and connection.

Downsize the extras, not the ambition

Your leadership team and others are invested in the work, not the star rating of the hotel.. If you have to do it onsite, go with it. Everything is possible when you create the right intent, set expectations and fully commit. An external facilitator will help create the space you need to do the work where ever you are.

Don't scrimp on time. Yes, people are busy, and there are urgent and important tasks on everyone's mind, but connecting, re-imagining and resetting are vital components of organisational success. More so than ever in a downturn. These need a bit of space and time.

Beware the cliff edge

Too often strategy days create a lot of energy and excitement that quickly dissipates with not a lot of action to show for it. Build a plan for delivering on your strategy from the start. It doesn't need to be (nor can it be) fixed, but go into the room with an idea of how you will channel the energy from the session and ensure ideas turn into action. You can't predict all of this in advance, but you can lay the tracks, even if you don't know exactly what the train looks like. For example, book in a debrief session to review the outcomes; ensure you have a collaborative online workspace to share the artefacts created in the strategy session and plan next steps; get your agile coach set up to help with implementation.

Remember the context – activate the thrive brain

In the efficiency era, there is a lot of uncertainty and negativity. It is easy to get into a scarcity mindset, where the brain's survival mode kicks in. Symptoms of a dominant survival brain include fear, anxiety, disappointment, anger and more. While understandable, none of these emotions are conducive to a successful strategy session. When designing the session, make sure you build in time for people to download derailing negative thoughts and vent emotions before introducing activities to help activate the thrive brain associated with creativity, empathy and curiosity (for example visualisation exercises, appreciate inquiry activities etc). You might want to build in steps in advance of the session to nurture this mindset, rather than hoping for the best on the day. For example, ask people to consider something they could bring or a story they can share about what the organisation at its best looks like. Again, an experienced team coach or facilitator can help with this.

Set expectations

This is linked to the point above about setting clear intentions. However, the focus here is on the people who will be doing the work (ie those coming), rather than stakeholders who need to be convinced about the value of doing the work in this way. Make it clear the vital role each individual needs to play and how you will work together to create something valuable and actionable. Rather than relying on calendar invites and email to convey this vital information, try and book in time in advance to talk through expectations and answer questions.

Activate the a-synch

Together-time costs money, so use it well. While sharing and digesting information may be vital for the work, it doesn't necessarily need to happen in the room. Nobody loves a pre-read, so you will need to think about how you approach the essential a-synchronistic pre-work to ensure everyone engages. For example, rather than a pack of hundreds of slides, could you share pre-information in a video and ask for questions that can be resolved in advance.

Go to Part 2 – how to enable the most productive strategy day

What did we miss? How have you managed this effectively? What else would you like to know. Tell us in the comments below and we'll incorporate into the download paper.