Strategic Planning Workshop
Leadership teams, cross-functional groups, quarterly planning sessions
Align a leadership or cross-functional team on strategic priorities, surface competing views, and produce a ranked list of what matters most.
Workshop Goal
Align a leadership or cross-functional team on strategic priorities, surface competing views, and produce a ranked list of what matters most.
- Surface current team sentiment on strategic direction
- Reveal where priorities diverge across the group
- Generate strategic ideas and options
- Align on the top priorities before leaving the room
MyWorkshopTools handles the technology, timing, and participant experience. You focus on the conversation.
Workshop Timeline
A step-by-step structure for the full 75-minute session.
- Icebreaker Experience 8 minShift the room from operational mode to strategic thinking mode.Keep it short. Use a prompt that gets people thinking about the future, not the present.
- Team Polls 12 minSurface current views on strategic direction and team confidence.Pause on splits. Ask: "What does this tell us about where we are as a team?"
- Would You Rather 10 minReveal strategic tradeoffs and where the team's instincts diverge.Strategic WYR questions expose real tradeoffs. Don't rush past disagreements — they are the data.
- Idea Storm 15 minGenerate strategic options and initiatives before prioritizing.Idea Storm must come before Priority Poker. You need the ideas on the table before you can rank them.
- Priority Poker 20 minAlign on the top strategic priorities. Surface where the team agrees and where it doesn't.After reveal: "Here is where we aligned. Here is where we didn't. Both are useful." The output is a ranked list the team owns.
Facilitator Guide
Key Notes
- This session produces a ranked priority list. Make that explicit at the start.
- Polls surface current state. WYR surfaces tradeoffs. Idea Storm generates options. Priority Poker produces alignment.
- Idea Storm before Priority Poker is non-negotiable — you need ideas before you can rank them.
- After Priority Poker: read the top 3 results aloud. Ask: "Does this feel right?"
- If the group is large, consider running Priority Poker in two rounds.
Discussion Tips
- Where did we agree? Where did we disagree? What does that tell us?
- What strategic option are we not talking about that we should be?
- What would have to be true for our top priority to succeed?
Closing Prompts
- "What is the one strategic commitment you are leaving this room with?"
- "What is the one thing that could derail our top priority?"
Delivered Through Workshop Plans
When launched, this Playbook becomes a Workshop Plan that guides facilitators through each activity, tracks workshop progress, and supports structured delivery from beginning to end.
Ready to run this workshop?
MyWorkshopTools guides you through every step. No facilitation experience required.