10-Hour Strategy Slam:
15 Managers, 80 Directions, 20 Decisions
A 15-person executive team of a technology company was faced with the challenge of developing a new company strategy and identifying new key business areas before a major transaction. Beyond the inherent challenges of the task, the team members' respective schedules made it impossible to gather all these executives together for more than one day.
Description
Marina Morgan and her team were faced with the challenge of synchronizing the management team so that they could freely generate ideas and then turn those ideas into concrete strategic priorities and business metrics. Novel exercises were employed to activate creativity and remove barriers to creative thinking, as well as cultivate a playful mindset to move beyond the confines of the usual business context.
Solution
Nearly 80 new potential strategic priorities and business avenues were generated from the working session. After careful filtering, 20 most promising initiatives were selected and refined, with unique KPIs and granular metrics being developed for each initiative in the process. The session, which normally takes much longer, was completed in only 10 hours, over the course of just one day.
Results
The success of the working session demonstrated the effectiveness of uniquely-tailored methods desgined to activate creativity and remove cognitive barriers for purposes of quickly and efficiently formulating complex corporate strategies. As a result, the management team developed a clear development direction and mandate, and generated compelling presentation materials for the company's board of directors and investors.