As we mentioned, business people are expending considerable energy preparing for strategy planning meetings. That is evidenced by our web traffic as searches for effective strategic planning exercises and effective strategy meetings jump.
Invariably, executives are seeking information on strategic thinking exercises suited to making strategic planning participants more effective and successful.
Strategic Thinking Exercises - Some Work, Some Don't
That is why whenever we’re working in the Brainzooming R&D lab on new strategic planning exercises for clients, I’m reminded of this video. It’s a Monty Python sketch called “World Forum.” In it, Eric Idle plays a talk/gameshow host quizzing the big players in communism and socialism.
Why, you may ask, does this video remind me of strategic planning exercises?
Because the Monty Python sketch demonstrates how asking questions that participants aren’t suited to answer tanks strategic planning meetings. That’s why this video was an early inspiration for the Brainzooming approach to strategic thinking exercises.
Think about how closely the sketch matches your strategic planning meeting experiences.
In the first round, the host asks experts in communism and socialism about trivia questions pertaining to English football. Despite how opinionated they are in their fields of expertise, they can’t contribute beyond what they know. In the second round, it’s only through dumb luck that one of them positively answers a question far afield from what you’d expect they know. Finally, in the third round, a few questions about their areas of expertise lead to beneficial answers. After the topic returns to English football, however, it’s back to silence.
That’s just like many strategy meetings. Employees that rarely deal with strategy formally are peppered with questions and exercises about corporate strategy and business analysis they are ill prepared to answer. As a result, participants are frustrated and feel as if they wasted their time.
It doesn’t have to be like that, though.
If you’d like to learn more about a better way to collaborate on strategy, we have suggestions for you that will really work for your organization!
Call us at 816-509-5320 or email us at info@brainzooming.com, and let’s talk about what will work best for your team. – Mike Brown
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If you’re facing a challenging organizational situation and are struggling to maintain forward progress because of it, The Brainzooming Group can provide a strategic sounding-board for you. We will apply our strategic thinking and implementation tools on a one-on-one basis to help you create greater organizational success. Contact us at info@brainzooming.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around your organizational challenges.
