Going into a strategy meeting today that is sure to be a snoozer?
Even if you are going into the meeting with the same old people, the same old topics, and the same old expectations to just get a strategy done and put into a notebook on a shelf so you can go back to doing what you’ve always been doing, there is hope!
Here is a way you can turn a typical strategic thinking exercise into something new and fun that both adds variety to your strategy meeting AND could trigger some new ideas to get our strategy out of a rut!
You have no doubt heard of a SWOT analysis. It highlights your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
In many companies, the list of items on the SWOT analysis does not change all that much from one year to the next.
Are you up for changing that?
Use a New SWOT Strategic Thinking Exercise Nobody Expects
Go into your next strategy meeting with a different spin on this important, yet tired old strategic thinking exercise.
Split your group into two or four groups if it is large enough. If not, then let the entire group work on the four questions within this different SWOT strategic thinking exercise.
Once you have everyone situated, here are your four new SWOT questions:
- What are important things we avoid doing (that we should do) because they are Scary for our brand?
- What are Wild and creative ideas our competitors or other relevant companies are doing that we need to consider?
- What can we do next year that would be Outrageous and bold?
- What can we do in the marketplace that will be the most Threatening to our competitors?
Yes, try a SWOT strategic thinking exercise looking for ideas that are:
- Scary
- Wild
- Outrageous
- Threatening
This new type of SWOT analysis is good for at least twenty minutes of new thinking at your strategy meeting to get people out of the humdrum of strategic planning.
And be on the lookout for crazy ideas. You can always adjust those ideas and harvest them for great new strategies you might have never generated if you had not been looking for ideas that at first seemed ridiculous!
Contact us, and let’s customize a strategy process specific to your organization. – Mike Brown
