How to get maximum benefit from your strategic planning session

How to get maximum benefit from your strategic planning session

Recently, my colleagues James and Isabella sat me down for a 'deep dive' on my approach to facilitation of a Strategic Planning session.

It will help you in:

•  Designing your Planning Session
• Getting participants primed   
• Developing a strong vision statement 
• Providing fast follow-up

This is based on my 30 years’ experience in working with organisations, teams and communities to deliver facilitation, stakeholder engagement and team development services. 

This includes over 1400 workshops for a wide range of clients, using participatory approaches to actively involve all people in contributing to effective outcomes. 

Here’s my go to guide to help you get maximum benefit from your strategic planning session.

Go to www.andrewhuffer.com.au to get assistance with the design or facilitation of your next planning session

Transcript

How to get maximum benefit from your strategic planning session - a go to guide from Andrew Huffer.

Andrew Huffer is based in Perth, Western Australia. He brings 30 years’ experience in working with organisations, teams and communities to deliver facilitation, stakeholder engagement and team development services. 

He has delivered over 1400 workshops for a wide range of clients, using participatory approaches to actively involve all people in contributing to effective outcomes. 

Here’s a deep dive on Andrew’s go to guide to help you get maximum benefit from your strategic planning session

Part One – Designing your Planning Session 

Getting your team together and on the same page is a great move.

As you’ve probably experienced, most well-designed planning sessions will provide clarity, connection and certainty for those involved.

If you’ve put reasonable thought into the session, you should be able to:

·         Gain clarity for your team re direction and focus areas for current and future work

·         Develop a greater level of connection across your team

·         See a stronger sense of purpose amongst the team

With 30 years of practice in this space, there are a few essentials I’ve learned along the way and will share them here over the next few weeks.

As a hint of what’s to come, here are the big-ticket items we’ll cover:

·         The top three areas to consider in session design

·         Getting participants primed

·         Developing a great vision statement

·         Follow-up and tracking

The top three areas to consider in session design

1.       Give it the time it deserves

This is a good test to see if you really need a planning session. You’re busy and your team is busy.

 If you treat the planning session as another ‘busy’ exercise your team won’t give the consideration needed to produce something that matters.

 Take a deep breath and hide away for half an hour to map out the purpose of the session and the three key outcomes it needs to deliver. Think of how much time you’ll realistically need to get everyone focused, clarify the task and get them into planning mode. This should give you an indication of how much time you’ll need to run the session.

2.       Know where your team is at

Yep, it’s poor grammar, but you get what I mean…

 I recently had a client keen to do a planning session with his Board. They were moving to take on a new advocacy role and the session was focused on the strategic priorities and key activities associated with the role. Fortunately for us, a Board member had sent a ‘red flag’ email the evening before the workshop. They were nowhere near ready to do any formal planning in this space – they still wanted to understand the risks and opportunities.

 We ‘met them where they were’ and discussed the risks and opportunities and mapped out next steps around them. Pushing on with ‘Plan A’ would’ve been a trainwreck (to use a technical term!) met with resistance and leading to frustration for all.

3.       Have a clear and simple framework

I’ve already thrown out a clue on this…

 Define your purpose (the ‘why’) of undertaking the planning; then outline the three key outcomes needed. 

 Then structure your planning around three basic steps:

i.                     What – what are the critical facts, information or evidence that need to be considered?

ii.                   So What – what are the potential impacts and what does this mean for our, organisation, team or stakeholders? 

iii.                 Now What – what strategies or initiatives need to be implemented over the short, medium or long-term?

Now you’re off and running.

Part Two - Getting participants primed

 You’ve pressed the ‘go’ button and are excited about what your workshop may be able to deliver. 

 Now it’s time to sit down, take your shoes off and put on the shoes of your participants and take a walk (well imagine this at least)…

·         What might they be wanting from the session?

·         What might they be looking forward to?

·         What would they be dreading?

·         What elements of the workshop would appeal to them?

In your communications regarding the workshop be sure to paint a positive picture about why it’s being held and what it could do for the team and participants.

Provide some insight about the workshop vibe:

·         Fun and fast-paced

·         Serious and deliberate

·         Innovative and exciting

·         Something else

 Let people know they’ll have a chance to participate in a range of ways – some of which will be more appealing than others.

 In doing so, I’m a big fan of applying a model developed by Sam Kaner, a mega talented and experienced facilitator, based in San Francisco.

 Sam's model shows that we can involve workshop participants in three ways:

i.                Tap into the diversity they bring to the group

ii.               Help them to do their thinking

iii.              Deliver outcomes for the group

i.                     Tap into the diversity they bring to the group

In this mode we need to recognize, understand and give voice to the different types of people in the workshop along with the range of perspectives and experiences they bring. It’s important here for us to help them to consider each other's views and not necessarily change them in the time they have together. 

ii.                   Help the group to do their thinking

When I started out as a bright-eyed, idealistic facilitator I thought everything had to be fun. Lots of excitement, new processes, constant movement and everything happening quickly. I was fortunate enough to have an observer subtly tell me that I was just annoying the crap out of people. What I really needed to do was slow down and make sure people have plenty of time to do their thinking. This particularly includes (even in the online space) quiet time for reflection and clear focus questions.

iii.                 Deliver outcomes for the group

Often, we're under the pump to deliver outcomes. We need to be careful to get this right, with due recognition for the components (i) and (ii). Sam’s challenge for us is to keep these three components in some kind of balance.

 Part Three – Develop a strong vision statement

 A strong vision statement will provide direction for your team. My definition of vision is that it is the ‘change you want to create’. Simple!

 Now it’s time to decide, “do we really need a vision statement?” or can you crack on without one.

The case for a strong vision statement:

• It will identify what your team is aiming or striving for
• It can become a tool for assessing what activities they should become involved in
• It can unite, excite and motivate a team

 The case against:

• Perceived as being arduous to develop
• Unsure if people pay attention to them anyway
• Can be either fluffy or cumbersome

 My observation is that there is value in developing a vision statement when it is:

• Tangible and attainable (you can see what achieving it looks like and feels like)
• Exciting (it’s worth the effort)
• Easily understood (especially by those whose support you need)

Here are three examples from workshops that I’ve facilitated that hit the mark.

• A vibrant Wheatbelt community creating healthy environments and livelihoods (Wheatbelt NRM)
• People and communities have the capacity to sustain financial resilience and personal wellbeing (Financial Counsellors Network)
• An adaptable, diverse and multi-industry business community driving a strong economy (Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

Part 4. Fast follow-up 

 Fast follow-up will keep your team engaged and enthused. Importantly, fast follow-up after your workshop will help to validate their efforts, further emphasising the importance and value of their work. 

 Benefits of fast-follow-up

·         Provides further traction for action

·         Reinforces the expectation of accountability

·         Increases the return on investment from your workshop

Options for a fast follow-up

To make this easier on yourself, start with the low-hanging fruit first. Choose areas of follow-up that will be quick for you to communicate and achievable for your team. 

Have some R&R  - Make sure you have agreed Roles and Responsibilities documented by the end of your workshop. Ideally, these should be spread across your team, with senior leaders being accountable for ensuring things happen.

Use the power of 3 -  Prior to your workshop set up action templates for each participant. Ask them to identify one action they’ll take over the coming 3 days; 3 weeks; and 3 months.
 

Workshop insights - Provide a thank you to participants. Ask them to set aside 5 minutes to consider their three key insights from the workshop. Request that they share these using an online form (for anonymity and quick capture).

Plan on a page - Get the one-page summary out asap. 

Reiterate the actions - Send out an email with a summary of the workshop actions. Encourage your team to allocate time to get started on their 3 day: 3 week and 3 month actions. 
 

Identify enablers - Review the workshop outputs that need resourcing or support to make them happen. If you have influence in this space, allocate these resources and communicate this to your team. This will generate goodwill and most likely a sense of reciprocity.
 

Gamify - OK, so this is a bit harder…Identify options to gamify the plan you developed from your workshop. You’ve probably seen conference apps where you’re awarded points for contributing articles, completing polls or uploading photos. This could be adapted to focus on goals, strategies or actions that have been implemented by team members.

Now you have all the key steps to plan and run your workshop; and follow-up to maintain the momentum generated. 

If you need more detailed help with session design and facilitation, with Andrew via andrew@andrewhuffer.com.au or book a 20 minute planning session via https://andrewhuffer.setmore.com/