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The results of your strategic planning meeting are critical to your organization’s success, and you don’t want to leave anything to chance. A poorly run meeting can quickly spiral out of control. One or a handful of people dominate the conversation. Groupthink yields lousy decision-making. Sidebars and tangents take the meeting off the agenda. The results are confusing and don’t generate alignment or commitment. That is why bringing in an outside facilitator is so important.
Here are some ways that we will help you enjoy a successful strategy meeting:
- Serve as an unbiased third party.
- Bring a fresh perspective from outside of your organization.
- Ask tough questions that generate meaningful conversations.
- Keep the discussion on track and encourage all attendees to participate.
- Create a level playing field where everyone is treated as a peer.
- Encourage creative thinking and innovative ideas.
- Manage conflict with poise and remain objective.
- Drive for consensus when difficult decisions need to be made.
- Ensure that the meeting objectives are met.
Based on decades of leading strategy retreats, we have developed a proven methodology for making the strategic planning process uncomplicated and effective. Here is our approach:
- Everyone involved in the planning process will be asked to complete an online questionnaire that addresses the essential elements of strategic planning, such as a SWOT analysis. In addition, we have created a set of specific questions that focus on critical strategic issues.
- Responses from the questionnaire will be combined into an executive report.
- At the beginning of the retreat, attendees will read the executive report and work in teams to uncover trends across the responses.
- The teams will present their findings, and then we will facilitate gaining consensus on these core strategic questions. The output from this workshop will be a few very focused strategic objectives that will guide your organization into the future.
- The group will then turn its attention to discussing KPIs for each strategy. The KPIs will not be finalized at the retreat. The metrics created in the retreat will guide those who will build the final plan.
- After the retreat, we will create an executive report outlining what was discussed and the agreements/commitments made. We will also offer our insights and advice.
- At this point, the people who will be held responsible for achieving the KPIs should create their tactical plans, goals, and budgets. When the various plans are combined, it will build your overall strategic plan.
- We will review the plan and give you our input and recommendations.
- If you would like help executing your plan, our strategic partners at Pivot & Pace are world-class at strategy execution. We will work hand-in-hand with them and you to ensure that the strategic plan you have crafted is effectively implemented.
This is a general overview of how we facilitate strategic planning retreats. We will customize the process to meet your specific needs. In addition, our clients often ask us to deliver workshops on leadership, culture, and high-performance teams while everyone is on-site for the retreat.
Contact us, and we will set up a call to discuss how we can assist you with your strategic planning meeting.
