Strategy & consulting

Get your teams thinking in the same direction

Why is running team strategy sessions so tricky for internal leaders and managers?

You are too close to the project and the people.

When you work regularly with the people in the organisation, it becomes challenging to zoom out and ask the right questions. There is so much ‘history’ that guiding conversations and planning from a non-biased perspective is impossible and can be frustrating. Working with an outside professional allows you to surrender to a process to map your organisation and set up clear short and long-term goals and the steps to achieve them.

I taught Strategic Planning to communication students at Charles Sturt University and discovered that there is a better way…

There are three reasons why I got into facilitating strategic planning:

1. It is one of the only spaces in most organisations that allows a full-system approach to development.

2. Clear vision and mission are intrinsically linked to skilled communication and engaging teams.

3. My experience was that plans were made by groups but rarely used operationally to affect change.

Deep planning processes impact culture development, increased service quality, and employee satisfaction. There are many different approaches that are possible depending on the aims and current position of your company or project. It always starts with a conversation…

How long does strategic planning take?

• The minimum session time is 3 hours. It is fast and furious.

• A day-long session is better.

• Two days allow for a more sophisticated process. The opportunity for people to ‘sleep on’ ideas always generates better thinking.

• Deep engagement with staff, stakeholders, and community requires programs of 1-6 months.

You know your business but engaging teams in sustained thinking processes is a different skill.