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Here’s How You Can Design a Strategy Session at Work

By  //  May 27, 2023

Do you know what strategy is? It is one of the fundamental drivers of your business’s success. 

A strong strategy can take your venture to heights you may have never expected. But, a weak one can lead to your business’s failure. 

Therefore, it is important to create creating a strategy that aligns with your goals. And for that, you must have a strategy session put in place. 

What is a strategy workshop, and what happens in this meeting? Dig in for all the details. 

What Is a Strategy Session?

This session is specifically designed to create a strategy. It is not just about calling everyone together in one room at a particular time and discussing a company’s progress. 

A strategy session involves setting time aside to plan and streamline the resources and activities of a company. It is also where a company’s vision is created, and best practices are followed. 

The session also covers a plan to win over competitors and make decisions while following a specific framework. 

This meeting is ideal to generate ideas and share with everyone who has a stake in your company. It also proves helpful in finding solutions to all organization’s challenges and making changes in the hierarchy for the betterment of your venture. 

Who Attends a Strategy Session?

The session is a great place to invite people who can make a great difference to the company and its operations. 

Some primary attendees include your company’s senior management team, department heads, operation staff, experts, consultants, employee advocates, and a representative of your customers. 

Some strategy workshops may not require you to invite the whole company. If the meeting’s goal is related to a single department, you may only want to invite people who can contribute to the strategic discussion. 

What Outcome Is Expected from a Strategy Session?

Here are some of the results you may want to get at the end of the session. 

 

  • Action items to convert strategic ideas and initiatives into doable tasks
  • A timeline with all the milestones, mentioning the time, date, and instance of these actions to be carried out
  • Success metrics to measure the performance of the action items

A session strategy is about setting a goal and creating a plan. The duration of the workshop can be long or short, depending on the number of attendees, their input, and the overall length of the agenda. 

How to Run a Successful Session?

Now that you know how important it is to design a strategy session, prepare to arrange one. However, how can you ensure it succeeds in the first go?

Below are some best practices to follow when curating a meeting.

Start With Defining a Goal

Before you arrange a workshop, ensure to define the goal or purpose behind it. Establish the reason for holding the session, the expected outcomes, and the people you want to join. 

This step will help you shape your workshop, allowing you to create a well-balanced workshop and helping attendees know their reason for attending it. 

Write the Agenda

To keep your goals for the workshop on track, pen down the session’s agenda. There are many things that you can include in this file, such as, 

 

  • Defined objectives of the session
  • Time-boxing for the activities mentioned
  • Energizers to motivate the team
  • Much-needed short breaks
  • Slot for a short presentation on the session’s summary

Prepare Material and Data

Ensure to equip yourself with the right data and material for the meeting. If you want the session to be all about initiating new ideas, you may want to present a competitor’s campaign that has helped them achieve the same objective. 

Similarly, to help you conduct all the exercises and activities successfully, you may want to have pens, papers, virtual whiteboards, and other props for your attendees to work on. 

Organize all these things before the session so you conduct the session without any hurdles. 

Convey the Agenda

Before you conduct a meeting, ensure that everyone involved knows about it. You can convey them through casual conversation or by distributing a memo. 

Ensure to design a proper agenda and let all attendees know about it. This way, you will save lots of time defining the goal in the meeting. 

End the Meeting With Clear Takeaways and Outcomes

This step is imperative to help everyone leave the meeting with a clear idea and purpose of the meeting. So, ensure to summarize the outcome at the end and highlight all the action points. 

Make sure that your attendees are clear about the next steps and who will carry them out. 

Final Takeaway

A strategy session is an imperative part of your business’s journey as it helps bring everyone together to define a clear goal, develop ideas, and prepare action plans to implement them. 

If you haven’t thought about conducting the session, do it now. Make it fun and helpful with icebreakers and ideation exercises, and convey the agenda successfully to your stakeholders.