Launching Leaders to Success with an Impactful Strategy Workshop
The Challenge
This session needed to focus on involving stakeholders fully in open and forthright dialogue to get diverse viewpoints, expertise and ideas and to advance the thinking on what it would take to bring this aerospace hub to life.
The client wanted to use the innovative digital facilitation technology, Stormz, which helps teams break free from the top-down format of formal meetings.
As certified Stormz facilitators, the client asked us to design and facilitate a stakeholder engagement to set direction, establish the opportunities and challenges associated with creating the aerospace hub in their city, and identify strategies and critical action steps.
And they needed this activity to occur within the context of an already booked meeting of only 4.5 hours.
The Solution
After a review of the target outcomes, proposed agenda, purpose and objectives of the session, we realized that the client had packed their schedule with ‘topics and things to cover’ rather than the ‘thinking and dialogue’ needed to achieve the desired results best. We could help them achieve their outcome much more efficiently and effectively if they allowed us to take a different approach.
This strategy is common: clients often think the more they can jam into the meeting, the better the consultation. But that’s not the case at all. Productive dialogue needs space to happen. Our approach is “less is more” and “simpler is better.” We look at these engagements through the lens of the participants’ experience and the intended outcomes.
We proposed framing the engagement as an opportunity that needed creative problem-solving. The stakeholders were the problem solvers who would contribute their creative thinking. We established one member of the guiding team as the authority for decision-making in the session so that all participants would have clarity on their role as contributors and would understand how decisions would be made.
The problem statement for the engagement was: How might we strategically establish this city as an aerospace manufacturing centre or hub?
We then worked through a six-step collaborative process with the client.
The process involved:
- Clarifying meeting purpose and outcomes
- Developing an initial workshop design
- Reviewing the meeting design and improving it with the client leads
- Converting the meeting design to the Stormz digital format, reviewing and enhancing it with the client leads
- Delivering the workshop with our facilitators
- Generating the workshop results report
The final workshop design had participants work through five phases, each designed to stimulate the contribution of specific data points. Our client would use these data points to draw conclusions, make decisions, and complete strategic plan components.
Launching Leaders to Success: The Results
We exceeded the client’s objectives and desired outcomes for the session and helped them gain stakeholders’ enthusiasm, trust and commitment. Because of the way we had the stakeholders interacting with our Stormz digital facilitation tool, we were able to deliver a results report immediately after the session.
As a result of the session, stakeholders recommended that our client shift the focus from establishing an aerospace manufacturing centre or hub to focusing on a broader economic impact. They wanted the city to become a world-class aerospace manufacturing and aviation destination and recognized the great opportunities for vertical market integration.
“No one uses tech like this in meetings. Time is money in this world. With Stormz and your facilitation skills, we experienced a cost-effective solution to getting better results faster.”
Not only did they validate the economic benefits our clients anticipated, but they also brought to light issues and concerns that needed attention. And when asked how to overcome these issues, they offered ideas beyond those our client had already developed. They also guided our client on prioritizing strategic actions such as talent development, leveraging partnerships, and attracting businesses to the city.
The stakeholders from the event were thrilled with the outcome of the session:
David Santi, Dean of Engineering & Technology at Mohawk College, said, “No one uses tech like this in meetings. Time is money in this world. I’ve seen many design thinking sessions where you’re left with many post-its on the wall, and everyone is left wondering what will happen, given all their time and thinking. You can’t leave executives feeling they’ve wasted their time. Speed to result is a priority. And with Stormz and your facilitation skills, we experienced a cost-effective solution to getting better results faster.”
Need help creating and running transformational strategy workshops for your team? Schedule a discovery call with me today.
I’ll listen to your thoughts and work with you to find a solution.
