An executive responsible for strategy planning who was downloading our eBook on 11 Fun Strategic Planning Ideas posed an important question: How can you successfully identify and try new ways to get internal groups working together on strategic planning?
We’re always thinking about increasing the strategically combustible human surface area engaged in strategic planning.
What?
In other words: Brainzooming wants as many smart, diverse people working together as we can effectively and efficiently accomplish on any fun strategic planning initiative.
We tend to find that our ambitions for this exceed that of our clients. (See previous Brainzooming article on the damaging lack of diversity in strategic planning workshops.)
7 Ways Groups Can Collaborate on Fun Strategic Planning
Nevertheless, in answer to this new reader’s question on getting internal groups working together, here are seven ideas we've either tried, or would in a minute, to maximize internal collaboration and promote fun strategic planning:
- Identify all the potential people involved in strategic planning upfront, noting those who most need to collaborate
- Perform a skills, knowledge, and interests inventory of all your strategic planners, then pair people who complement each other based on the assessment
- Create a strategic planning event that includes people from multiple groups and features cross-group activities
- Employ an ice breaker where people reveal information they know that is helpful to strategic planning that others will be surprised they know
- Use assigned seating to nudge people who don’t work together to at least sit together
- Create strategy teams with members of various groups that will need to collaborate to complete their assignments
- Make sure each planning group identifies all the departments and people critical to success early on, then require that groups reach out to them BEFORE the planning is done
Implementing even a few of these ideas within a strategic planning process that values diversity and broad participation, will make an impact.
Want to talk more how you can translate this approach to strategic planning? Contact us, and we’ll discuss how we’d customize the process steps and participation opportunities to maximize the impact for your brand! – Mike Brown
