Strategic planning meetings are supposed to create clarity, but too often, they turn into hours of conversation, PowerPoint presentations, notes, and brainstorming, only for everyone to leave wondering: What are we actually doing next?
Recently, I facilitated a three-hour strategic planning workshop for a leadership team in Oklahoma City using the LEGO® Serious Play® method. Instead of simply talking about their organization, the team built it. And that changed the conversation.
Strategic Planning That Actually Works: How to Create Team Alignment and Clear Action Plans
Before a leadership team can create a vision for the future, everyone needs to understand the current reality.
During the workshop, each leader built a model representing how they viewed the organization today. Even though everyone worked for the same company, their models looked very different.
Some focused on communication. Others highlighted relationships, challenges, growth opportunities, or obstacles. By making those ideas visible, the team could immediately see how differently people were experiencing the same organization. That created a much deeper strategic conversation than simply asking, “How are things going?”
Rather than saying, “I disagree,” someone might ask: “Why did you place that bridge there?” Or “Why is your minifigure standing outside the rest of the team?”
Those questions create conversations that traditional meetings often miss.
Start With Where Your Team Is Today
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Make Complex Ideas Visible
Build One Shared Vision
Where did they want the organization to be six months from now? One year from now? And what needs to change?
The team built their ideas individually and then combined them into one shared landscape.
That process created something incredibly important: Alignment.
Instead of leaving the room with several competing visions, everyone contributed to one collective direction. And when people help build the strategy, they are much more likely to understand it, remember it, and support it.
Three Strategic Planning Lessons for Leaders
- Include every voice. The best idea in the room does not always come from the highest-ranking person.
- Make ideas visible. Complex problems often become easier to understand when people can see and interact with them.
- Remember that strategy is about people. Goals only work when employees understand them, believe in them, and know what role they play in achieving them.
Strategic Planning Should Create Clarity
At the end of this workshop, the leadership team wasn't simply leaving with notes. They were leaving with a shared understanding of where they were going and how they would get there together. That's what strategic planning should do.
Through Build Better Teams Consulting, I facilitate strategic planning sessions, leadership retreats, corporate team-building workshops, and LEGO® Serious Play® experiences designed to help organizations improve communication, strengthen collaboration, and create real alignment.
If you're planning a leadership retreat, company offsite, or strategic planning session and want your team to walk away with more than another set of meeting notes, let's connect.