Just in case you’re lost…apply to speak here!
You have a great deal of experience coming up with strategic plans and implementing them. As such, you have a wealth of experience to pull from. But the question remains, what should you pick…exactly? And how should you decide? Here’s our advice.
If you read the application page, you may recall that we are fighting a battle against distractions. They threaten to ruin our attendees’ experiences, especially if they are senior managers or board members.
So it’s up to us to zero in on topics that make the greatest difference. We want our participants to leave
a) inspired to produce breakthroughs even in the middle of a recession
b) better able to follow practical steps to create game-changing strategic plans
With these two objectives in mind, let’s look at some suggestions grouped by different topics.
| Topic | Suggestion |
|---|---|
| Enrolling/Inspiring | How do you get your stakeholders to buy into a breakthrough strategy before you event start? (Board, Executives, Middle Managers, Staff, Customers) |
| Why is buy-in important before strategic planning cycle begins? | |
| Should a board be included in strategic planning activities? Are they above it all? | |
| My board is burned out. So is my executive team. Help! | |
| The case of the resistant, stubborn, annoying board member in the strategic plan. | |
| Moving staff out of anxiety and paralysis with visionary leadership | |
| Planning | What is the optimal planning cycle? |
| How do you include the recommendations of outside consultants? | |
| Who needs to be invited to participate in the strategic planning retreat? Why? Why not? | |
| In the office? Virtual? At a hotel? Hybrid? How do you choose the idea setting? | |
| When do too many cooks spoil the broth - the optimal number of people to have in your retreat! | |
| The role of interviews and focus groups before strategic planning retreats | |
| We're "too busy" to do long-term planning...Kodak vs. Fuji Film | |
| Should we postpone our strategic planning retreat until....[fill-in-the-blank]? | |
| Preparing | The role of advance, pre-retreat surveys |
| Do pre-planned presentations have a role in outstanding retreats? | |
| What new concepts do your attendees need to grasp before your retreat? How will they learn them? | |
| Tips for optimizing a tiny strategic planning budget | |
| The facilitator got sick at the last minute - now what? Why? | |
| Orienting | Setting the stage: extraordinary retreats are made in the first hour. And lost. |
| Balancing the role of the top attendee: ensuring that CEO's don't bully others in strategic planning retreats | |
| Is it critical to establish a "level set" before creating a new vision of the future? | |
| Collaborating | How decisions are made in the best strategic planning retreats |
| What expert facilitators do to manage contentious issues in strategic planning retreats | |
| Deciding | What are the key decisions to be made in every strategic planning retreat? |
| My team pretends to agree with whatever the chairman says. But they don't really. Now what? | |
| Consolidating | What are the best assignments to make during a strategic planning retreat? After? |
| Sharing | The best tools for communicating the essence of a strategic plan with different audiences |
| My staff hates over-the-top rah-rah salesy sessions. But I still have to get them excited about the strategic plan. How? | |
| Concluding | Ensuring that next year's plan is better than this year's |
| Getting my managers out of firefighting mode to implement the new strategy | |
| Out-of-the-Box Thinking | Why learning to understand game-changing strategy in other industries can help me with mine |
| How much should I care about beating back that new, scary competitor? | |
| Re-thinking the fundamentals of our business. (Or, reacting to a new disruptive technology.) Where do we start? |