Bespoke Top Team Workshops

For a bite-size, high impact route to engage the ‘top-team’ on an important issue we run bespoke, top team, structured workshops.  These are ideally suited for management away days, think-ins etc.  Some examples of workshops are below - a favourite is the 'Ambition 2030' Top Team Workshop.   

'Ambition 2030'

Top team workshop to shape and plan to achieve future ambitions

Why we find it useful:

• Avoids being a prisoner of today's problems and limitations by liberating the mind to focus on a sufficiently long term future 
• Helps bring alignment through discussion where there are multiple views of the future

 

Key Elements:

'Outside-in view' of where we stand in the market including

• relative size/share
• positioning
• reputation
• technology
• price/cost
• product/markets

 

Internal Performance including

• Customer - growth, feedback;
• Financial - profitability, return on capital, performance vs plans;
• People - morale, staffing;
• Operations - quality, cost

 

Strategic Issues Arising

• market,
• performance,
• organisation

 

Platforms for Growth

• skills,
• assets,
• relationships

 

Compelling 2030 Ambition Options

 

Tips for it to work best:

• Plenty of discussion to probe quality of views of future, fit, initiatives & milestones thus helping to build alignment

• Promote discussion and debate rather than presentation

'Outside-in' report card 

Workshop to discuss objective view of company position and performance

Why we find it useful:

• Acts as a common factbase and understanding for context/situation analysis at the start of a strategy development/planning process

• Forces attention on key metrics; reduces change that 'fluffy' items are allowed to distract debate or obscure clarity

• Combines external measures plus internal measures to avoid 'groupthink'

• Identifies priority issues to address to enable the organisation to succeed. 

 

Key Elements:

• External view of position (including industry size and growth rate, trends, competitors assessment on key metrics, relative company position)

• Internal view of position (including critical metrics available internally) e.g. 
  • Customer (growth rate, share, segments, brand/IP/tech reputation)
  • Operations (quality, cost, infrastructure)
  • People (scale, organisation, morale)
  • Financial (growth, profitability, performance vs plans/aspirations, resources)
• Key issues arising

 

Tips for it to work best:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• Allow time to prepare the 'factbase', ensuring the information is robust and drawing out key findings.  This helps focus the top team review & discussion in ensuing workshop
• Orient the workshop around discussion, enabling top team to draw out conclusions and to align upon the issues arising
• The workshop begs the follow-on question of 'so what are we going to do about it'; therefore it is usually best followed by a solutions session or strategy/planning exercise
   

sustainability Strategy     

Workshop to discuss sustainability ambitions and strategic actions

Why we find it useful:

• Makes climate/carbon issue real for the company

• Promotes discussion of key concerns, challenges and opportunities

• Supports top-team in developing an agreed approach and ambition

 

Key Elements:

• Potential ambition and peer context

• Current position

• Considerations and transition plan components

• Direction forward/next steps

 

Tips for it to work best:

• Share brief fact-pack in advance to help the team have a common understanding of the key issues and prepare for session

• Promote discussion and debate rather than presentation

• Focus on action forward, breaking down the big topic into manageable activities to gain traction. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​