Facilitating an Effective Strategic Planning Session

Efficiently prepare and run strategic planning sessions that produce real results.Regardless of goals, there’s one thing that can be said about all strategic planning sessions: the stakes are high. The pressure is especially great for executives who have been charged with planning and conducting this process for the department, division or organization. What are the critical preparations and how do you make sure the right people are there—and that they actively contribute? How can you prevent high-powered personalities from taking the session off-track? Most importantly, how do you make sure the goals you want to achieve are effectively defined and that you have all the right elements in place to accomplish those goals?

The tools and techniques you must have to successfully prepare and conduct a productive, results-driven strategic planning session are thoroughly explored in this seminar. You’ll address up-front contracting within the organization, sponsorship, selecting the best approach and tools, as well as determining what data is required. You’ll then learn how to smoothly facilitate the process/session and implement an effective follow-up.

Don’t let your strategic planning session turn into a missed opportunity—or a major misstep that can damage your organization’s future.

Also Available as:

• Onsite

How You Will Benefit

• Gain a clear understanding of what role the “facilitator” plays in the process
• Know which discussions and decisions should occur prior to the strategic planning session
• Determine who should be involved and to what extent
• Know how to get chief influencers at multiple levels on your team in leading roles
• Decide the best strategic planning approach/process to use and customize it
• Create a committee of influencers to support you with assigned roles and accountabilities
• Develop the right agenda, establish realistic meeting guidelines and gain agreement
• Explore various scenarios which may occur and possible approaches to handling them
• Ensure up-front clarity and agreement as to what results are expected of the process
• Build in metrics and schedule meetings to assess milestones and progress towards goals

What You Will Cover

• Defining facilitation and examples of how it applies to a strategic planning process
• Clarifying your specific role in the process
• Planning for strategic planning by contracting and getting buy-in from executive leadership
• Defining the scope, goals and specific results that will be achieved
• Deciding who will be involved in the process and to what extent
• Finding your Strategic Planning Champions and defining accountabilities
• The crucial importance of chief influencers at multiple levels
• Exploring style: the behaviors, priorities, decisions and symbolic aspects of an organization’s culture
• Today’s most commonly used strategic planning processes/approaches/models
• Designing your session: creating the storyboard/process flow
• What tools/models/activities can be included in the strategic planning session
• Techniques for enabling creativity and innovative thinking
• Determining what information/data will be critical to discussions
• Producing the expected results of the planning process
• Managing the logistics before, during and after the session
• Facilitating the actual session: drawing people out, generating ideas and running the sessions efficiently
• Establishing next steps and moving towards the execution phase
• Conducting regular review sessions to check progress towards milestones

Who Should Attend

Experienced executives, director’s of OD, senior HR leaders, division leaders, strategic planners and others who must manage the strategic planning process for a department or organization, as well as those who would like to become an internal or independent strategic planning facilitator.