Creating and Running a Successful Strategy Planning Meeting

Need help ensuring your next strategy meeting is a success? Use this guide from Spider Strategies.

Simple Guide to Facilitating a Productive Strategy Meeting

Strategic planning might sound complicated – but in reality, many businesses are already doing some form of strategic planning. A strategic plan helps you clarify your business goals and decide on the steps you’ll take to meet those targets. And regular strategy meetings are vital to staying on track. They offer a time for your team to assess your current performance and create the roadmap toward where you want to be.

What is the purpose of a strategy meeting?

Meetings are the cornerstone of the strategic planning process. Once you’ve created your strategic plan, it should be a living document. This means that you revisit the plan regularly – perhaps monthly or quarterly – to ensure you’re on track.

Strategy review meetings can also be a time to adjust your plan. Maybe you’ve introduced a new product, your company has grown, or there’s been a significant shift in the market. It’s okay to make changes to your plan – that’s a sign that you’re nimble and can adjust when needed. A study from Harvard Business School found that 93% of entrepreneurs with successful strategies pivoted away from their original plans.

Who should attend a strategy meeting?

Think carefully about who you need in the room. For example, if your strategy meeting is focused on marketing, you’ll want your creative team present. But it can also be helpful to have representatives from your finance department there to answer budget questions.

Your meeting may bring in employees who don’t typically work together. If that’s the case, consider starting with an icebreaker activity so everyone can get acquainted and learn each other’s names. This will help make everyone more comfortable speaking up and sharing ideas throughout the meeting.

What does a strategic planning meeting agenda look like?

Not sure how to plan a strategy session? The way you structure your meeting agenda can make a big difference. A typical strategic planning meeting agenda includes the following items:

• Meeting objectives
• Review meeting norms
• Address outstanding action items from previous meetings
• Brainstorming process
• Discuss key strategy issues
• Establish next steps
• Assign action items to individual teams or staff members

Before the meeting, make sure to share any relevant documents far enough in advance that attendees can come prepared and informed.

Tips for running a smooth strategy review meeting

As you’re mapping out your agenda, try these tips to help your meeting run smoothly:

• Set ground rules: Share your agenda in advance, so participants know what to expect. Consider setting a time limit for each agenda item to keep everyone on track.
• Schedule breaks: If your meeting will be more than an hour, designate break times so participants can stretch, refill their coffee, or answer a quick email. Without a break to recharge, your team is more likely to get distracted and start to check out.
• Take good notes: Great ideas can get lost without proper documentation. In addition to having a meeting facilitator, having a designated notetaker is helpful to make sure action items are recorded.

Building the strategic plan

Need help understanding if your strategy is truly working? Spider Strategies offers customizable, user-friendly software that allows you to visualize and assess your initiatives so that you can come to your strategy meeting prepared and informed. See how Spider Impact helps you define, measure, manage, and report on strategic plans. Click for a free test drive or demo.