Strategic planning
One goal your whole leadership team can work toward.
Our workshops end with one shared goal, one measure every team can move, what has to be true for each strategy to work, and named commitments for the next 90 days.
“By 2028, being number one in service means a customer’s problem is solved the first time they contact us.”
- More headcount
- Faster replies at any cost
First-contact resolution
- Every department can move it
- Customers feel it
- Finance can measure it
- Overtime can’t fake it
- Map the claims journey end to endAna, 15 Jan
- Fix the three most common repeat callsMarco, 31 Jan
- Put the measure on every team’s dashboardLiza, 28 Feb
Most planning days don’t change the plan.
They turn into a round of department updates. Each leader presents their own numbers, the room nods, and everyone leaves with the same plan they walked in with.
We start somewhere else: with your customers, then what’s changing around you, and only then your organization.
This is for leadership teams who
- Have a big target (“double the business”, “be number one in service”) that means something different to each leader
- Track 20 or more department KPIs with nothing tying them together
- Have a strategy document that was written once and hasn’t changed how anyone works
- Want leaders to challenge each other openly, without it turning into a turf war
- Need a plan the leadership team builds and owns themselves
It works for a single department’s leadership team or a whole executive committee, with up to about 24 people in the room.
What you leave with
One goal
A short statement of what your big target means for your team, signed off in the room, plus a list of what it does not mean.
One measure
A single measure every department can influence, tested against four questions before it’s agreed.
Strategies built from customer moments
The points in your customers’ experience that have to change, and the processes and teams behind them.
Keys to success for each pillar
What has to be true for each strategy to succeed, how you’ll measure it, and who owns it.
90-day commitments
Specific actions, each with a named owner and a date, said out loud in front of the room.
A headline summary within 48 hours
With the agreed goal and measure written word for word.
If you already use OGSM (Objective, Goals, Strategies, Measures), the outputs map straight onto it. If you use another framework, we map them onto that instead.
How it works
Beforethe workshop
We talk to your leaders.
A 15 to 20 minute interview with each member of the leadership team, one to one. People say things in an interview they won’t say in a room full of peers. Anyone we don’t interview gets a short survey.
We read what you already have.
Your current strategy, goals, KPIs and any customer research, cut down to one page the room can work from: the objective, the strategies and the handful of measures that actually drive decisions.
We play back what we heard.
Themes and quotes from the interviews, with names removed, go on screen at the start of the day. The disagreements are out in the open before anyone has a position to defend.
We set the room.
Mixed tables, each drawing from different departments, with no leader sitting with their own team. We agree with your most senior leader in advance which decisions they will make on the day if the room can’t agree.
Duringthe workshop
One or two days. The order stays the same:
Customers→The outside world→Ourselves
Understanding your customers
Talks from your own experts or outside speakers, captured on post-its as they go. Each table then names the customer signals it thinks matter most: what are we hearing, what is changing, and why does it matter?
Where we stand
Teams test the current plan against those signals. Which strategies cover them, which partly cover them, and what’s missing?
One goal
Everyone writes their own version of what the target means. Tables draft a statement of 25 words or fewer, the other tables question each draft, and the room combines the strongest parts into one. Then we list what the goal does not mean. That list is usually where the hardest conversations happen, such as whether growth means more headcount.
One measure
Each table proposes a measure. We test every one in front of the room with four questions, then the room dot votes. Nobody votes for their own table’s measure.
Customer moments
Tables map the customer’s experience for each outcome, mark where it goes wrong, and name the process and the team behind each problem. Tables then swap walls and add what the first table missed, especially problems their own team causes.
Keys to success
One group per strategy or pillar. Each agrees three to five conditions for success, a measure for each, and an owner. The other groups question it before it’s final.
Commitments
What will be different in 90 days, and who will make it happen? Every commitment needs a name and a date, and only people in the room can take one on.
Afterthe workshop
- Within 48 hoursA headline summary with the agreed wording.
- Full readoutPhotos of every wall, the agreed wording, and anything left on the parking wall as open items.
- Optional, at 90 daysA review session to check commitments and adjust the plan.
How we run the room
Everyone works as a strategist for the whole business.
Leaders leave their department hat at the door.
Every person has a role at their table.
Five hats so every perspective gets heard. Each hat is a job at the table, and anyone can still speak from any angle.
- Storyteller
- Challenger
- Customer Voice
- Futurist
- Connector
Every activity follows the same rhythm.
Individual thinking, then table work, then share-back with the room, then critique and a decision.
Instructions stay on screen.
With a large group, not everyone hears the brief the first time. Every activity has its steps and examples on one slide, so anyone can check what to do next.
A parking wall for the how.
Planning sessions drift into solutions. Anything about how to do something gets parked and dealt with later in the day.
Low-tech materials.
Manila paper, post-its and markers. Everything stays on the walls so the room can see how each step builds on the last.
Clear decision rights.
If the room can’t agree, the person agreed beforehand makes the call, in the room.
The questions we ask
The four tests for one measure
- Can every department move it?
- Does the customer feel it?
- Can finance measure it?
- Can it be hit by working overtime? If yes, it’s the wrong measure.
In the leadership interviews
- In your own words, what does our big goal mean for your team?
- What in the current plan is working? What isn’t?
- Which measures do you look at every week? Which ones change what you do?
- Where do your team’s priorities pull against another team’s?
- What are customers telling you that the plan doesn’t reflect yet?
- What decision has this team been putting off?
- What would make the workshop a waste of your time?
- If the team agreed on one thing by the end of the day, what should it be?
In the workshop
- What are we hearing from customers, what is changing, and why does it matter?
- Is this signal new, is it real, and would it hurt us to ignore it?
- Which of our current strategies covers this signal, and what’s missing?
- By [year], [our goal] means ___ for us.
- What does it not mean?
- If you were the CEO of this business, how would you measure it?
- If we hit every measure, how would our customers notice the difference?
- Where does the customer’s experience go wrong, which process causes it, and who owns it today?
- What has to be true for this strategy to succeed?
- What will be different in 90 days, and who will make it happen?
Formats
One-day workshop
Interviews, preparation, a facilitated day and a headline summary.
Two-day workshop
Adds a customer day with speakers and customer signals before the planning day.
Alongside your own facilitators
We design the activities and slides for a day your team runs, and facilitate the day we lead.
Add-ons
Full written plan, 90-day review session, customer research before the workshop.
Common questions
Do our leaders need experience with design thinking?
No. Every activity is explained on screen with examples, and the methods are introduced as we use them.
We already have a strategy. Do we need to start again?
No. We start from your current plan and test it against what your customers and leaders are telling you. Most teams keep their strategies and sharpen the goal, the measure and the conditions for success.
How many people can take part?
Up to about 24 with one lead facilitator, in mixed tables of four to six.
Can our CEO or COO take part?
Yes, and it helps. We agree their role beforehand, including which decisions they’ll make in the room.
What if the room can’t agree?
We plan for it. The decision-maker is agreed in advance, and unresolved items go into the readout as open questions with owners.
Talk to us
Tell us about your team, your goal and when you’re planning. We’ll suggest a format and send a proposal.
