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12 Strategic Planning Exercises to Help You Get Amazing Results Next Year

by Greg Head | Dec 28, 2016

strategic planning exercises for teams

If you are like most early-stage entrepreneurs, you set aggressive goals. You probably got a lot done this year, but you still came up short on achieving everything on your plan. Now it’s time to assess how you did this year and determine what needs to happen next year.

When you fell short, did you under-execute or did you set your goals too high? It was probably a little of both.

Great execution requires serious planning, especially as your team grows. Making clear strategic decisions and aligning everyone to the same goals are powerful “force multipliers” for your business. Strategy is simply the answer to the bigger questions, and what your execution depends on.

If you’re not taking time every quarter to ask deep questions and create goals for your company, you’re in a state of MSU (“Making Sh#% Up”). MSU creates misalignment, confusion, frustration, and the bad habit of missed commitments. This problem multiplies as your business grows.

Here are 12 powerful strategy exercises to help you think differently, set strategic priorities, align your plans, and get better results.

Strategic Planning Basics

These are the simple, time-tested strategic planning questions that are widely used in goal-setting, prioritization, and execution:

  • Strategic Planning – What’s the current situation? What are we trying to accomplish? What do we need to do to get there from here in the next quarter, year, or 3 years? (see Strategic Planning for Dummies)
  • SWOT Analysis – What are our internal Strengths and Weaknesses?  What are our external Opportunities and Threats? ( SWOT  explained)
  • Continuous Improvement – What is working? What’s not working and needs to be improved? What lessons have we learned? ( Continuous Improvement  explained)
  • People & Organization – Do we have the right people in the right roles? (Jim Collins calls this “A-players in key seats.”) Are all the major functions and priorities of the business “owned” by responsible leaders? How does our organization, staff, and culture need to change to accomplish our goals?

Check out Verne Harnish’s One-Page Strategic Plan and checklist for some simple tools to guide your discussion and final result.

Getting the Big Things Right

These questions will keep you out of the weeds and focus you on the real reasons you are in business:

  • Serving Stakeholders  How well did we serve our stakeholders–employees, customers, partners, owners/investors, and our community? Which of these did we serve best and worst? How can we improve? (see  Shareholders First? ,  Harvard Business Review)
  • Purpose and Values – Did we stay true to our stated Purpose (our larger cause)? Did we live up to (or fall short of) our stated Values? Are we hiring and firing to our Purpose and Values?
  • The Dan Sullivan Question – If we were having this discussion 3 years from today, and we were looking back over those 3 years, what has to have happened for us to feel happy with our progress? ( The Dan Sullivan Question, Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach)
  • Hedgehog Concept – Three questions: 1) What are we deeply passionate about? 2) What can we be the best at?  3) What drives our economic or resource engine? Where do these three intersect (our hedgehog focus)? ( Hedgehog Concept , in “Good to Great,” by Jim Collins)

New Thinking Creates Different Results

These questions will help you expand your thinking and see things differently. You can make room for more productive actions when you let go of bad habits, unproductive beliefs, and outdated processes:

  • New Possibilities – What would we do if we could not fail? What would we do if we had no fear and no excuses? What would be possible if we had no limits on our resources, staff, or time?
  • Stop Doing List – What thoughts, beliefs, and habits are no longer useful and should be left in the past? What types of customers and employees should we stop pursuing/hiring? Which initiatives should be stopped so we can use the resources more productively?
  • Fire Your Old Self – If you fired yourself and hired the best candidate in the world to replace you, what would they do differently to get better results? How can you start doing that immediately? Who do you need to be to create the results you want?
  • The One Thing – What’s the ONE Thing we can do right now, and by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? (see Gary Keller’s “ The One Thing”)

Even disciplined entrepreneurs who take planning seriously don’t accomplish all of their big goals. They face unexpected internal challenges, external forces they can’t control, and massive “learning opportunities.” No problem, just keep moving and start again.

The growth game is won by the leaders and teams who keep their eyes on the big goals and continually adjust to make progress. Keep moving forward.

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Future-Proof Your Mindset: 20 Strategic Thinking Exercises

20 Essential Strategic Thinking Exercises for Maximum Impact

Last Updated on September 14, 2023 by Milton Campbell

Strategic thinking is a crucial skill for business leaders, managers, and employees in today’s fast-paced, competitive world. It involves generating long-term goals, anticipating trends, and making informed decisions to gain a competitive advantage. In this article, we will explore various strategic thinking exercises that can help you and your team think more strategically, strengthen your strategic thinking skills, and become a strategic thinker.

The Importance of Strategic Thinking Exercises

Strategic thinking is essential for leadership, creativity, and achieving an organization’s goals and objectives. It allows business leaders to analyze their company’s position, envision new ideas, and develop a strategic plan to execute those ideas. By encouraging strategic thinking, managers can foster an environment where employees are continually seeking new ways to improve the organization and achieve positive outcomes.

strategic thinking exercises.Chess board with a black and white knight facing each other.

Exercises to Enhance Strategic Thinking Skills

In this article section, we will explore 20 exercises specifically designed to enhance your strategic thinking skills. Strategic thinking techniques are essential for leaders to navigate complex challenges, make informed decisions, and drive organizational success.

These exercises will help you sharpen your strategic thinking abilities, expand your perspectives, and unleash your creativity. By engaging in these exercises, you will cultivate a strategic mindset and develop the skills necessary to tackle the ever-evolving business landscape. Get ready to strengthen your strategic thinking muscles as we dive into these 20 exercises!

1. Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is an exercise that encourages participants to envision various future scenarios for their organization. By brainstorming potential situations, team members can anticipate potential challenges, develop new ideas, and create actionable plans to tackle those challenges. This exercise helps to improve strategic thinking skills by allowing participants to analyze trends, evaluate the possible outcomes, and customize their approach based on the insights gained.

2. Brainzooming

Brainzooming is a team-building exercise that promotes strategic thinking by challenging participants to generate new ideas and solve problems creatively. In this exercise, team members are encouraged to think outside the box and explore new perspectives. By combining creativity with strategic thinking, participants can develop innovative solutions that deliver a competitive advantage.

3. SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that helps individuals and organizations identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This exercise allows participants to evaluate their current situation, anticipate future trends, and develop strategies to address potential challenges. By understanding their organization’s position, participants can make informed decisions and execute plans that align with their goals.

4. Objective Setting

Setting clear objectives is a critical step in strategic thinking. This exercise involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your organization. By focusing on your goals and objectives, you can ensure that your strategic thinking efforts are aligned with your organization’s priorities and desired outcomes.

5. Competitive Analysis

Understanding your competitors is essential to strategic thinking. In this exercise, participants are encouraged to analyze their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By evaluating the competitive landscape, team members can develop strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and gain a competitive advantage.

6. Trend Analysis

Trend analysis is an exercise that focuses on identifying emerging trends and understanding their potential impact on your organization. By staying informed about industry trends, participants can anticipate changes, adapt their strategies, and capitalize on new opportunities.

7. Communication Skills Development

Effective communication is vital for strategic thinking. In this exercise, participants are encouraged to practice their communication skills by presenting their ideas, engaging in discussions, and collaborating with others. By improving their communication skills, team members can better articulate their strategic vision and gain buy-in from others.

8. Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a visual tool that helps individuals and teams organize their thoughts, ideas, and information. By creating a visual representation of your ideas, you can better understand the relationships between different concepts and identify new connections. This tool can be particularly useful for brainstorming, problem-solving, and strategic planning sessions.

9. PESTLE Analysis

PESTLE analysis is a strategic tool that examines the external factors affecting an organization. It stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors. By assessing these factors, you can identify potential opportunities and threats in the external environment and develop strategies to address them. This analysis helps to broaden your perspective and consider various external influences on your organization.

10. Gap Analysis

Gap analysis is a tool that helps you identify the difference between your organization’s current state and its desired future state. By understanding the gaps in performance, resources, or capabilities, you can develop targeted strategies to bridge those gaps and achieve your goals. This tool can be useful for strategic planning, resource allocation, and performance improvement initiatives.

11. Game Theory

Game theory is a strategic tool that examines decision-making and interactions between different players in a competitive environment. By using game theory, you can understand the potential outcomes of various strategic decisions and develop optimal strategies based on the behavior of other players. This tool can be particularly helpful for understanding competitive dynamics and developing strategies to outperform your competitors.

strategic planning exercises for teams

12. Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard is a strategic management tool that helps organizations track their performance across multiple dimensions, including financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth perspectives. By monitoring performance across these dimensions, you can ensure that your strategic initiatives are balanced and aligned with your organization’s overall objectives. This tool can be useful for performance measurement, strategic planning, and decision-making.

13. Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is a strategic analysis tool that helps organizations understand the competitive forces within their industry. The five forces include the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, the threat of substitute products or services, and the intensity of competitive rivalry. By analyzing these forces, you can develop strategies to enhance your competitive position and achieve long-term success.

14. Reverse Brainstorming

Reverse brainstorming is a creative problem-solving exercise that involves identifying potential problems instead of solutions. By focusing on potential issues, participants can gain a deeper understanding of the challenges they face and develop strategies to prevent or mitigate them. This exercise encourages strategic thinking by requiring participants to anticipate potential obstacles and develop proactive solutions.

15. The Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats exercise, developed by Edward de Bono, is a technique that encourages participants to approach problems and decisions from different perspectives. The six hats represent different modes of thinking: white (facts and information), red (emotions and feelings), black (critical judgment), yellow (positive aspects), green (creativity and new ideas), and blue (process and organization). By switching between these different modes of thinking, participants can develop a more comprehensive understanding of the situation and develop well-rounded strategies.

16. Role Playing

Role-playing exercises require participants to assume different roles within a hypothetical scenario. By stepping into the shoes of others, participants can gain a better understanding of different perspectives, anticipate potential reactions, and develop strategies that consider the needs and motivations of various stakeholders. This exercise enhances strategic thinking skills by encouraging empathy and a broader understanding of the situation.

17. The Five Whys

The Five Whys exercise is a technique used to identify the root cause of a problem by asking “why” five times. By continually asking why a problem exists, participants can uncover the underlying issues and develop targeted strategies to address them. This exercise encourages strategic thinking by requiring participants to analyze problems deeply and develop long-term solutions.

18. Pre-Mortem Analysis

A pre-mortem analysis is an exercise that involves imagining that a project or initiative has failed and then identifying the reasons for the failure. By anticipating potential pitfalls and challenges, participants can develop strategies to prevent or mitigate those issues before they occur. This exercise promotes strategic thinking by encouraging participants to think critically about potential risks and develop proactive solutions.

19. Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Ocean Strategy exercise encourages participants to identify untapped market spaces and create new demand by developing innovative products or services. By focusing on differentiation and low cost, participants can create a competitive advantage and achieve long-term success. This exercise enhances strategic thinking skills by encouraging innovation and the exploration of new opportunities.

20. The Four Quadrant Matrix

The Four Quadrant Matrix is a strategic decision-making tool that helps participants prioritize tasks or initiatives based on their importance and urgency. By categorizing tasks into four quadrants (urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important), participants can allocate their resources and time more effectively. This exercise encourages strategic thinking by requiring participants to evaluate priorities and make informed decisions.

Encouraging Strategic Thinking in Your Organization

To encourage strategic thinking within your organization, consider implementing workshops, team-building exercises, and brain training activities that focus on strategic thinking skills. Providing employees with the tools and resources to think strategically can lead to increased innovation, improved decision-making, and a more successful organization.

In conclusion, strategic thinking exercises are essential for developing the skills necessary to become a strategic thinker. By practicing these exercises regularly, individuals and teams can improve their ability to anticipate trends, evaluate potential challenges, and develop innovative solutions to achieve their goals. Take the time to invest in your strategic thinking skills and watch your organization thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

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Future-Proof Your Mindset: 20 Strategic Thinking Exercises

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Strategic Thinking Exercises for Teams: Enhance Collaboration and Decision-Making

Strategic Thinking Exercises for Teams

In today’s fast-paced business environment, teams need to be adept at strategic thinking in order to stay ahead of the competition and navigate complex challenges. Strategic thinking exercises are crucial for fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and adaptability within teams. These exercises enhance communication, encourage creative problem-solving, and equip team members with tools and techniques to effectively assess and address current and future situations.

strategic planning exercises for teams

By incorporating strategic thinking exercises into team-building activities and professional development programs, companies can empower their employees to become better decision-makers and contribute to the organization’s overall growth and success. From brainstorming sessions to interactive workshops, there is a wide array of exercises available for teams of all sizes and from diverse industries.

Key Takeaways

  • Strategic thinking exercises foster innovation and adaptability in teams.
  • Enhancing strategic thinking skills improves decision-making and problem-solving abilities.
  • Leveraging online platforms and addressing competitive challenges are key aspects of effective strategic thinking training.

Understanding Strategic Thinking

strategic planning exercises for teams

Strategic thinking is a crucial skill for individuals and teams in any organization. It involves developing a long-term perspective on the organization’s goals, challenges, and opportunities. By adopting a strategic mindset, team members can make informed decisions and develop plans that align with the organization’s overall vision.

Teams that effectively use strategic thinking skills are better equipped to navigate complex situations, anticipate future challenges, and adapt to changes in the business environment. At the heart of strategic thinking is the ability to identify patterns and trends, think deeply about potential repercussions, and explore creative solutions to problems.

There are several elements that contribute to developing a strategic mindset within a team. Firstly, encouraging open communication and collaboration among team members is essential. Having an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions can lead to more diverse and innovative thinking.

Secondly, it is important to cultivate a culture of continuous learning. By staying informed about industry trends, technological advancements, and competitors’ strategies, teams can better anticipate future challenges and proactively adapt to new situations.

Thirdly, strategic thinking involves understanding the bigger picture and how each team member’s individual actions contribute to the overall success of the organization. By promoting a shared sense of purpose and aligning individual objectives with the organization’s goals, teams can work more effectively towards a common vision.

Lastly, integrating strategic thinking exercises into team meetings and workshops can be an effective way to enhance the team’s strategic mindset. These exercises can help them practice their strategic thinking skills and develop actionable plans for facing various challenges. Exercises such as scenario planning and quantifying statistics can be particularly useful in promoting strategic thinking among team members.

In conclusion, developing a strategic mindset within a team is a vital aspect of organizational success. By cultivating an environment that promotes open communication, continuous learning, a shared sense of purpose, and regular strategic thinking exercises, teams can equip themselves with the necessary skills to navigate complex situations and ensure the organization’s long-term success.

Importance of Strategic Thinking for Teams

strategic planning exercises for teams

Strategic thinking is a crucial skill that enhances a team’s ability to tackle complex challenges and drive organizational growth. When a team practices strategic thinking exercises, it encourages collaboration, communication, and innovative problem-solving for the whole organization. It goes beyond the capabilities of individual team members, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the business landscape and identifying opportunities for growth and improvement.

Team cohesion and effective leadership are essential components of strategic thinking. When a team works together, it can generate new ideas, explore various perspectives, and devise creative solutions to complex problems. This collaborative approach ensures that each team member contributes their unique abilities and insights, resulting in a more coherent and well-rounded strategy.

Effective leadership plays a crucial role in promoting strategic thinking among team members. Leaders who possess a clear vision and who encourage open dialogue can inspire their team to think critically about long-term goals and objectives. It creates an environment where individuals feel comfortable sharing their ideas and challenging the status quo. This, in turn, fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the organization.

By embracing strategic thinking exercises, teams can effectively assess internal and external factors, identify potential obstacles, and devise plans to overcome them. Additionally, it enables teams to anticipate future trends and adapt their strategies accordingly, ensuring sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.

In conclusion, the implementation of strategic thinking exercises within a team offers numerous benefits, including improved communication, collaboration, and decision-making. It empowers teams to tackle challenges proactively and drive their organization forward on the path to success while fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

Exercises to Enhance Strategic Thinking Skills

strategic planning exercises for teams

Scenario Planning Exercise

Scenario planning is a vital part of strategic thinking exercises that allow team members to envision multiple futures and identify possible changes to the organization’s environment. This exercise pushes participants to think critically and creatively about a range of alternative outcomes and develop contingency plans for each scenario. Scenario planning not only prepares team members for change but also encourages them to be more flexible and adaptable in their strategic decision-making.

Brainstorming Sessions

Brainstorming sessions are essential for fostering a culture of innovation and creativity within an organization. These sessions give team members the opportunity to share their ideas, thoughts, and insights on various topics and challenges. To maximize productivity, it’s important to create a supportive and open environment in which participants feel comfortable to think freely, take risks and question conventional ideas. The goal of brainstorming is to generate as many different ideas as possible, leading to comprehensive problem-solving and enhanced strategic thinking.

Vision Statement Development

Creating a clear and inspiring vision statement is an important element of strategic thinking exercises. The vision statement provides a long-term direction for the organization, serving as a foundation for future planning, decision-making, and measuring progress. Developing a vision statement requires the team’s collaboration, intellectual commitment, and dedication to the organization’s mission and values. By involving team members in the development of this vision, organizations can better align their collective goals and aspirations, ultimately leading to a more cohesive and effective strategic plan.

Leveraging Online Platforms for Training

As remote work and virtual collaboration become increasingly prevalent, many organizations are turning to online platforms to facilitate strategic thinking exercises for their teams. These platforms offer a convenient and accessible way for team members to develop and refine their strategic thinking skills while working together in a virtual environment.

Harvard ManageMentor

One of the leading online leadership training platforms is Harvard ManageMentor . This comprehensive program, developed by Harvard Business School, offers a wide range of courses designed to help professionals at all levels improve their strategic thinking abilities. Fortune 500 companies often use this platform to train their teams and enhance their strategic capabilities.

Participants in the program can access interactive modules, multimedia resources, and real-life scenarios that simulate real-world challenges faced by business leaders. Upon completion of each course, participants earn badges that can be showcased on their LinkedIn profiles and resumes to highlight their strategic thinking expertise.

LinkedIn Learning

Another popular platform for online leadership training is LinkedIn Learning . This platform hosts a vast library of courses taught by industry experts, many of which focus on strategic thinking, team-building exercises, and problem-solving techniques.

LinkedIn Learning courses often include video lessons, practical exercises, quizzes, and valuable insights from experienced professionals. Participants can develop their strategic thinking abilities by engaging with these resources and working on their skill sets individually or as a part of a team. Like Harvard ManageMentor, LinkedIn Learning also awards badges upon course completion, which can be added to users’ profiles, demonstrating their commitment to professional development.

By leveraging these online platforms, teams can develop their strategic thinking capabilities in a flexible, convenient, and impactful manner. Organizations that prioritize strategic thinking training will be better equipped to navigate the complex business landscape and excel in their respective industries.

Addressing Competitive Challenges

In today’s fast-paced business environment, teams must continually adapt their strategic thinking skills to tackle competitive challenges. Addressing issues such as disruptive competitors and new market opportunities requires a well-thought-out plan, a focus on clear communication, and effective initiative implementation.

The first step in addressing competitive challenges is to identify potential disruptive competitors in the market. Disruptive competitors, such as startups or new technologies, can challenge established players by offering innovative, cost-effective solutions. Teams must analyze the market landscape and develop strategies about how to maintain their competitive edge.

One approach for dealing with disruptive competitors is to focus on strengthening the team’s communication skills. Ensuring that all team members understand the company’s vision, goals, and strategy can foster a sense of unity and purpose. Moreover, effective communication can enable the team to better respond to changes in the market or address unforeseen challenges.

A critical aspect of addressing competitive challenges is to shift the team’s mindset to a proactive stance. Instead of simply reacting to market changes, teams should explore new market opportunities and initiate targeted strategies aimed at generating growth and staying ahead of the competition. This can involve conducting market research, identifying customer pain points, and exploring potential partnerships or acquisitions.

Fostering a culture of strategic thinking within the team can greatly improve the team’s ability to navigate competitive challenges. Encouraging open discussion of ideas and implementing regular strategic thinking exercises can promote innovation and collaboration among team members. This collective mindset can help the team anticipate potential challenges and develop more effective initiatives.

In summary, addressing competitive challenges requires teams to be proactive, communicate effectively, and foster a culture of strategic thinking. By staying attuned to market dynamics and continuously refining their strategy, teams can confidently navigate uncertainties and maintain a strong competitive position.

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4 Strategic Planning Exercises That You Should Do Annually Start with a SWOT framework for every department. That's short for 'strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.'

By David Ciccarelli • Jan 22, 2016

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Strategic planning, carried out by senior members of a company's leadership team, is typically used to reaffirm corporate objectives and establish new ones, set goals, align resources and articulate in detail the direction, tactics and activities that the entire organization will engage in.

Related: A SWOT Analysis Provides a Full Picture When Looking at a Product and a Brand

The strategic plans that result are common to established organizations with a few years under their belts; they differ from the business plans startups use as they work to get off the ground.

Indeed, strategic plans draw on their companies' historical data, institutional knowledge and their employees' collective experience. In the end, these factors result in a robust and clear vision for how the upcoming year will play out.

If you yourself have completed a strategic plan of your own, one of two things likely happened. Either the plan was completed, with everyone seemingly buying into it before it was stored somewhere in the depths of your company where it collected dust.

Or else the plan became a living document and was referred to at monthly and quarterly meetings, then at year's end, when it was revisited during another annual strategic review.

It's the latter kind of plan that is obviously more effective. To achieve it, here are four exercises you can engage your leadership team in, and if appropriate, loop in more members from the rest of your organization.

1. SWOT analysis, on a department-by-department basis

Time: 30 minutes x number of departments

Who: executive team

It's possible that you got your own first exposure to business management tools with the SWOT framework (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), a two-by-two grid where strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are put under the microscope.

In order to not miss vital details, you should conduct a SWOT analysis for each department. For instance, a SWOT analysis, seen through the lens of the finance department will differ greatly than that of the IT group. As you can imagine, the opportunities available to your sales department vary from those being explored by your customer service people.

By engaging the entire executive team, you'll create a venue for a healthy dialogue about every individual department.

Related: Add This Dimension to a Traditional Business Analysis for a Fuller Marketing Plan

2. Start, stop, continue

Time: 60 minutes x number of departments

Who: Small groups in each department

In most organizations, there's an intuitive sense of what's working and what isn't. To capture this sentiment in a safe environment, try a Start, Stop and Continue session. This session is best kept to an hour, with 20 minutes dedicated to each section.

Begin with the "Start," a brainstorm of all those activities you should start doing, and add the tools and technologies that you should at least start investigating. You'll likely hear requests for upgraded technology, cutting-edge software tools and new positions. All suggestions are valid.

Since time is finite, you'll need to make room for these new initiatives, which leads to "Stop," a list of those activities, bad habits and other issues that everyone agrees should stop immediately. This can even include declaring that a project once and for all is dead and that everyone will stop wasting time discussing it. End the session on a brighter note by identifying those activities that people are actively engaged in and are most meaningful.

During the "Continue" portion of the working session, management should express appreciation for all the great things everyone is doing, but put out the challenge for all staffers to raise their game.

At our company, we've identified excellence as a core value, and as such have embraced the notion of continuous improvement. It's this idea that encourages us to strive for greater heights.

3. Employee engagement survey

Time: 60 minutes per person

Who: entire company

Each year, we request feedback across the entire company in an anonymous employee engagement survey. This CORE Strategy assessment (CORE = climate, organization, relationships, employees) was developed to facilitate a strategic-planning process.

This particular survey includes more than 100 questions, asking participants to rate how likely they agree or disagree with a statement. Questions are grouped by themes, such as training, equipment, management, financial health, career opportunities and more.

Knowing the perceptions of the employees and leadership team will provide incredible insight to your company's operations. It's also imperative that you discuss the findings, summarize the key takeaways and commit to improving those issues clearly identified by all those who completed the survey.

Never be afraid to discuss a matter revealed in the survey, especially if it comes up multiple times. Your employees know you're struggling in that area because it was their words that identified it in the first place.

So, acknowledge the issue and set about making positive change.

4. Updating of your plan

Finally, it's time to launch your strategic plan, whether this occurs by way of a Word document, Google Doc or Apple Pages file. Go to the source document and start typing. Expect to dedicate 40 to 100 hours to do it correctly. What's crucial is that you put your ideas down in writing.

Own your organization's strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Commit to starting new initiatives, stopping others and renewing efforts in well-performing areas. All the while, consider vital input from employees.

By repeating these processes annually, you'll transform your organization from one where the status quo is acceptable to one that involves everyone and embraces the change that has been presented, discussed and committed to.

Related: Use These 3 Analysis Tools to Prepare a Killer Business Plan

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Icebreaker activities

Got 5 minutes? Then you've got time to start making the personal connections that help us do our best work together. We hand-picked a few that build relationships as well as help move your work forward. 

USE THIS PLAY TO...

Get to know the people you work with and let them get to know you. 

Prime your brains for strategic planning, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

If you're struggling with team cohesiveness , or shared understanding on your  Health Monitor , running this play might help.

User Team

Running the play

Pull these tricks out of your hat when you're waiting for people to trickle into a meeting, or at the beginning of an offsite centered on brainstorming and problem-solving. Have fun!

Whiteboard or butcher paper

  • Index cards

"Dicebreakers" print-out

SUPER QUICK ICEBREAKER QUESTIONS

Got a minute or two while people trickle into the meeting? Toss out a question and have a bit of fun. 

QUESTIONS WITH PURPOSE

What will be the title of your autobiography?

  • Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts
  • Purpose: Prepare for activities like crafting a vision statement.

What is your superhero name?

  • Theme: Naming stuff is hard!
  • Purpose: Practice packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase.

Who was your first mentor, and what qualities made them a good (or lousy) one?

  • Theme: Teamwork and support is important
  • Purpose: Reinforce the idea that relying on each other is a part of growth – good for projects or teams with lots of dependencies.

When did you call customer service to complain? 

  • Theme: Empathizing with customers
  • Purpose: Remembering what it feels like to be on the customer side of a bad product or service puts us in a compassionate frame of mind before discussing trade-offs or designing a new user experience.

What is one thing you learned from a project that went wrong? 

  • Theme: Failures are learning opportunities
  • Purpose: Focus on risk identification and mitigation.

"JUST FOR FUN" QUESTIONS

Print and assemble one of our  icebreaker dice   for a little extra fun, or just choose one of the questions below.

  • What animal would you choose to be, and why? 
  • What is the last dream you remember? 
  • How do you let teammates know you're in deep work mode? 
  • Where would you vacation if money were no object?
  • Books, magazines, or podcasts?
  • What car did you learn to drive on?
  • What is one thing you're grateful for today? 
  • When you read or watch TV, do you go for fiction or non-fiction?
  • Coffee, tea, or soda?
  • Can you remember a bumper sticker that made you smile? 

FILL IN THE BLANKS

I have never ________________.

My friends love me for my ________________.

If my pet could talk, it would say ________________.

One ____________ is better than ten ________________.

ICEBREAKER ACTIVITIES FOR MEETINGS, OFFSITES, ETC.

Exorcise the demons (10 min).

Best for groups of 3 or more. Use this activity to juice up your neuropathways before brainstorming or problem-solving, and have a few belly laughs. 

  • Introduce the topic you'll be brainstorming around, or the problem you'll be trying to solve. 
  • Using a whiteboard or butcher paper, ask the group to grab a marker and write down the worst ideas they can think of
  • After a few minutes, step back and take 'em all in (we dare you not to bust up laughing!). 
  • (optional) Ask each person to share their favorite worst idea and why it stood out to them. 

This exercise helps us resist the temptation to self-censor when the real problem solving begins. Because hey: you've already heard the worst ideas the group can come up with. Now that you've flushed them out of your system, you can proceed with your regularly-scheduled brainstorming.

Mystery Person Group Sort (15-30 min)

Best for groups of 20 or more. Use this activity to kickstart creative thinking and see different thought processes in action. 

  • Ask each person to write a surprising fact about themselves on an index card, and drop all the cards into a bag, box, or hat.
  • Each person chooses a card at random. 
  • Now the fun begins. Stand up, mingle, and find cards that align to a theme or are of a type. Keep an open mind when thinking about what constitutes the common threads. It could be "daredevil tendencies", "origin stories", "music", or anything else. There is no limit to how big each grouping can be, but you must find groupings that accommodate all the cards. 
  • Have each group read their cards and share the theme they identified.
  • (optional) Now, having heard the groupings chosen so far, invite the group to stand up and re-sort themselves. Some groupings will likely stay the same, while others will be dramatically different. 

Notice how the point of the exercise was  not  to figure out which fact goes with which person? That's on purpose. In fact, remember to let participants know that at the beginning of the exercise in order to stave off any anxieties around it.

Telephone Charades (15 min)

Best for groups of 10 or more. Use this non-verbal activity to, oddly enough, warm up for a day of listening. 

  • Divide into teams of 5-8 people. 
  • Ask one team to come to the front of the room and stand in a line, all facing in the same direction (it's important that they can't see the person standing behind them). 
  • Show the person at the back of the line a word to act out silently, but don't have them do so just yet. Show it to the "audience" as well so they know what's up, but make sure nobody else in the line sees it.
  • When the person at the back of the line is ready, they will tap the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. That person turns around so now the two are standing face to face (but again: the rest of the line continues facing forward). 
  • The person acting pantomimes the word as best they can. Do it 2 or 3 times so the person watching can really absorb and memorize the movements. But do not tell them the word being acted out!
  • Now the person watching becomes the actor – they tap the person in front of them and repeat the pantomime as best they can. (You see where this is going, right?)
  • Repeat steps 4-6 until everyone in the line has seen the pantomime.
  • Laugh your arse off as the pantomime morphs dramatically from how the person at the back of the line originally acted out the word. 
  • If the person at the front of the line can correctly guess the word, that team scores a point. 

Make sure each team gets a chance to act, and go until you cry "uncle". Looking for words to have the teams act out? Try these: mermaid, lawn sprinkler, firefighter, Gollum, light bulb, snow shovel, jet ski, surfer, walkie-talkie, frying pan.

Three Things (5-10 min)

Best for groups of 5 or more. Use this fast-paced activity to trigger quick, unfiltered thinking before a brainstorming session. 

  • Circle up and choose a person to kick things off – we'll call them Person A. 
  • Person A turns to the person next to them (Person B) and names a category – e.g., "types of sandwiches". 
  • Person B rattles off 3 things that fit into that category as fast as they can. No judgement and no self-censoring!
  • When they're done, the entire group give a clap and yells "Three things!"
  • Go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to name the category and name the three things. 

The point isn't to make sure all things named fit the category perfectly, or to come up with the wittiest response. Just let your brains relax so your neurons can fire quickly. Celebrate even the oddest contributions and set an anything-goes tone before diving into more cerebral, strategic activities. 

Be sure to run a full Health Monitor session or checkpoint with your team to see if you're improving.

For more, check out this list of icebreaker games from our pals at Culture Amp. 

If you snapped pictures or grabbed video (especially of Telephone Charades), share them afterward. Try to resist getting a case of the giggles all over again – and good luck with that.

Related Plays

    Rules of Engagement

Want even more Playbook?

Drop your email below to be notified when we add new Health Monitors and plays.

Thanks! Now get back to work.

Got feedback?

Drop a question or comment on the Atlassian Community site.

If you have five minutes, the Icebreaker Activities Play can help you make personal connections and spark the kind of creative thinking that moves work forward.

Clock icon

Run Time 5-30 mins

Connected people icon

People 3-100

Stopwatch icon

What you'll need

  • Video conferencing with screen sharing
  • Digital collaboration tool
  • Dicebreakers cutout
  • Meeting space
  • Whiteboard or butcher paper

Instructions for running this Play

Pull any of the following icebreaker activities out of your hat in any order while waiting for people to trickle into a meeting, during onboardings and trainings, at the beginning of offsites, or any time you want to put people at ease and spark creativity. Have fun!

Super quick icebreaker questions

Have an extra minute or two? These thought-provoking questions make fantastic, fun icebreakers.

Make people think, get conversations started, and warm up before tough brainstorming sessions.

1. What would be the title of your autobiography?

  • Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts.
  • Purpose: Preparing for activities like crafting a vision statement.

2. If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself?

  • Purpose: Practicing packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase. This is a killer icebreaker for marketing teams!

3. Who was your first mentor, and what qualities made them a good (or lousy) one?

  • Theme: Teamwork and support are important.
  • Purpose: Reinforcing the idea that relying on each other is part of growth. Use this icebreaker for projects or teams with lots of dependencies, and during leadership meetings.

4. Have you ever called customer service to complain? What happened?

  • Theme: Empathizing with customers.
  • Purpose: Putting everyone into an empathetic state of mind before discussing trade-offs or designing a new user experience.

5. What's one thing you learned from a project that went wrong? 

  • Purpose: Focusing on risk identification and mitigation.

JUST-FOR-FUN QUESTIONS

Spark conversation, especially in less formal meetings. You can also print and assemble one of our dicebreakers for a little extra fun.

  • What's the last dream you remember? 
  • What are your favorite books, magazines, or podcasts?
  • What car did you use to learn how to drive?
  • What's one thing you're grateful for today?
  • Do you prefer coffee, tea, or soda?
  • Can you remember a bumper sticker that made you smile?

Get to know new coworkers or teammates.

I have never ________________.

My friends love me for my ________________.

If my pet could talk, it would say ________________.

One ____________ is better than ten ________________.

Curious how we created these vital signs?

First, we ran organization-wide surveys to gather data. Then, we applied the principles of outcome-driven innovation from Anthony Ulwick’s book, What Customers Want , to give each vital sign an opportunity score.

Icebreaker activities for meetings, offsites, and more

Loosen up and get engaged with these fun icebreakers for meetings. 

Exorcize the demons 10 MIN

Juice up your neural pathways before brainstorming or problem-solving, and have a few belly laughs. Best for groups of three or more.

  • Introduce the topic you'll be brainstorming about, or the problem you'll be trying to solve. 
  • Using a whiteboard or butcher paper — or, for remote teams, a digital collaboration tool — ask the group to write down their worst ideas.
  • After a few minutes, step back and take 'em all in (we dare you not to fall on the floor laughing!).
  • (Optional) Ask each person to share their favorite worst idea and why it stood out to them. 

This exercise helps teams resist the (often strong) temptation to self-censor when real problem-solving begins. After you’ve heard the worst ideas and flushed them out of your system, you can proceed with your regularly scheduled brainstorming.

Mystery person group sort 15-30 MIN

Kickstart creative thinking and see different thought processes in action. Best for large groups of 20 or more.

  • Each person writes a surprising fact about themselves on an index card and drops their cards into a bag, box, or hat.
  • Each person chooses a card at random from the bag.
  • Now the fun begins. Participants stand up and mingle, with the goal of finding cards that align with a theme or are of a similar type. Keep an open mind when thinking about what constitutes the common thread between cards. The thread could be daredevil tendencies, origin stories, music, or anything else. There's no limit to how big each grouping can be, but you must find groupings that accommodate all the cards — nobody gets left out.
  • Each group reads their cards and shares the theme they identified.
  • (Optional) Invite everyone to stand up and re-sort themselves. Some groupings will likely stay the same, while others might be dramatically different.

Notice how the point of the exercise was not to figure out which fact goes with which person? That's on purpose. In fact, remember to let participants know this at the beginning of the exercise in order to stave off any anxieties.

Tip: MAP OUT YOUR DATA

If it’s helpful to visualize each of your vital signs relative to the others, you can plot your results on a scatter plot.

When to remove a vital sign

If average satisfaction is higher than average importance, the vital sign is probably not very important to your team, or your team is satisfied with it already. In the future, you can replace the vital sign with one you want to watch more closely.

Telephone charades 15 MIN

Warm up for a day of listening with this non-verbal activity. Best for groups of 10 or more.

  • Divide into teams of five to eight people. 
  • Ask one team to come to the front of the room and stand in a line, one behind the other, all facing the same direction (it's important no one can see the person standing behind them). 
  • Show the person at the back of the line a word to act out silently, but don't have them do so just yet. Show the word to the audience as well so they know what's up, but make sure nobody else in the line sees it.
  • When the person at the back of the line is ready, they tap the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. That person turns around and faces the person who knows the word.
  • The actor pantomimes the word as best they can two or three times so the person watching can really absorb and memorize the movements. Do not let anyone say the word being acted out!
  • The person watching then becomes the actor – they tap the person in front of them and repeat the pantomime as best they can. (You see where this is going, right?)
  • Repeat steps four to six until everyone in the line has seen the pantomime.
  • Laugh as the pantomime morphs dramatically from the original. 
  • The person at the front of the line tries to guess the original word. If they get it right, the team scores a point. It’s up to you how strict you want to be!

Make sure each team gets a chance to act. You can continue as long as you like. Here are some example words your teams can act out: mermaid, lawn sprinkler, firefighter, Gollum, light bulb, snow shovel, jet ski, surfer, walkie-talkie, or frying pan.

Three things 5-10 MIN

Trigger quick, unfiltered thinking before a brainstorming session with this fast-paced activity. Best for groups of five or more.

  • Circle up and choose a person to kick things off – we'll call them Person A.
  • Person A turns to the person next to them, person B, and names a category, like "types of sandwiches.”
  • Person B rattles off three things that fit into that category as fast as they can. No judgment and no self-censoring!
  • When they're done, the entire group claps and yells, "Three things!"
  • Go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to name a category and three things. 

The point isn't to make sure all things named fit the category perfectly, or to come up with the wittiest response. The point is to laugh and have fun. Let your brain relax so your neurons can fire quickly. Celebrate even the oddest contributions and you’ll set an anything-goes tone before diving into more cerebral, strategic activities.

Tip: DON’T SKIP THIS STEP!

Asking questions and not discussing the outcome is often worse than not asking at all.

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Team Building Exercises and Activities

Making team building an everyday priority.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Shakira's team is experienced and hard-working – but, lately, its performance has been "hit and miss."

The team seems to have lost some of its energy and motivation, and morale is beginning to drop. So, Shakira decides to get her people back on track by exploring some team building strategies and activities.

Team building is about providing the skills, training and resources that your people need, so that they can work in harmony. But, to be truly effective, it needs to be a continual process, embedded into your team and organization's culture.

There's a place for one-off team building exercises, but they need to have a clear purpose, such as improving a particular skill, and must be well designed to avoid conflict.

In this article and video, you can explore how to use team building activities and exercises as part of an ongoing strategy for developing a strong and effective team.

Click here to view a transcript of this video.

Getting Started: Identifying Your Team’s Needs

The first and most important step when planning team building activities is to identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses.

Start by asking the following questions to identify the root of any problems:

  • Are there conflicts between certain people that are creating divisions within the team?
  • Do team members need to get to know one another better?
  • Do some members focus on their own success, and harm the group as a result?
  • Is poor communication affecting the group’s progress?
  • Do people need to learn to work together, instead of individually?
  • Do some members affect the group’s ability to move forward through resistance to change?
  • Does the group need a morale boost?

You can choose targeted activities to help your team to address any problems that the questions unearth.

You and your team members can also work through our Team Effectiveness Assessment as a group exercise. It will help you to identify how well you all work together, and to find out what areas need improving.

Making Team Building Part of Your Culture

Set-piece team building exercises are one way to strengthen the bonds within your team, but they are not a shortcut to success. Instead, you need to make team building part of your group’s mindset.

Think about the team building potential of routine workplace activities, first. Then, use the following four strategies to develop your team’s strength, cohesiveness and effectiveness day to day:

1. Get to Know Your Team

Your team is made up of people with different needs, ambitions and personalities. Getting to know them, and helping them to get to know each other, can build a happy, trusting team.

Hosting a pre-holiday drinks evening or even an inexpensive team barbeque, for example, are easy ways to start to get your team members mixing and mingling.

Attending social events is a great way to build relationships. People will more likely open up and reveal more of their personalities in a relaxed setting. Also, research has shown that sharing aspects of your personal life increases your likability, as it shows others that you can be an empathic, compassionate and authentic manager.

Socializing with your colleagues or boss is different from socializing with friends and family! Our article on socializing at work can help you and your team members to enjoy yourselves appropriately.

2. Work Toward a Common Goal

You can unite your people by inspiring them to get behind a shared vision or goal. Having a clearly identified destination can prevent individuals from pulling in different directions, which is frustrating and ineffective.

Creating a Team Charter can provide your people with a written definition of the team’s purpose and goals. You can find strategies for bringing a team together to achieve a particular goal in our Bite-Sized Training session, Team Building .

3. Develop Strong Team Skills

Your team needs to develop the right skills and competencies to achieve its goals. A skills matrix is a solid starting point for doing this. Use the matrix to audit your team members’ abilities and training needs, and to match their skills to specific roles.

Developing stronger skill sets, and matching your people to the roles best suited to them, can result in a more able, more motivated team.

Take care to address your team members' training needs in the most appropriate way. Research shows that people learn best through daily hands-on experience. And, according to the 70:20:10 Framework, the optimum ratio for training people is 70 percent practical daily experience, 20 percent "exposure," and 10 percent formal learning.

4. Connect With a Virtual Team

Chances are, as more and more people work remotely, you could find yourself managing a virtual team . It can be hard to build rapport among team members who never, or rarely, meet face-to-face. Time zones and cultural differences can present additional challenges when considering team building activities or strategies for remote teams.

Your remote team members might feel isolated from their colleagues, so they will likely welcome opportunities for socializing “virtually,” improving their skills, and having fun, too! See our article, Virtual Team Building Exercises , for some practical suggestions.

It is possible to stay in regular and effective communication with virtual team members, given the wide range of online tools that are available. However, the key to building an effective team lies more in how its members communicate than in the technology they use.

Using Team Building Exercises

One-off team building exercises can be a useful, effective way to address a particular weakness or problem. But there is also the danger that, at best, they are just a nice day out of the office or, at worst, they can do more harm than good.

Poorly planned events can be embarrassing, or physically and emotionally uncomfortable, for participants.

In contrast, exercises that are well thought out and expertly run can unite people, enhance their strengths, and address their weaknesses. They help teams to work more cohesively and happily, and can set those teams up for success.

Team building exercises have a tarnished reputation, so you’ll likely have people who consider them a waste of time. Use the 4Ps of Delegates to detect such resistance and to encourage participation. This tool helps to open discussion, to explore people’s feelings about the event, and to turn “passengers,” “protesters” and “prisoners” into valuable participants.

There are many fun and effective examples to try out once you've identified specific areas where one-off exercises would be appropriate. Follow these five approaches:

  • If your team members would benefit from boosting their problem solving or decision making, you can try these three exercises for turning problems into opportunities.
  • It’s becoming more common for teams to develop strategic thinking skills, as organizations move away from a formal, top-down approach. You and your team can explore these strategy and planning exercises to help you to develop these skills.
  • Help your people to communicate more effectively with our article on Team Building Exercises - Communication .
  • Creativity is crucial to an organization’s success. It drives innovation and can help to solve even the most difficult problems. You can support creative thinking on your team with these exercises .
  • Encourage your people to develop their powers of persuasion, negotiation and communication with these leadership exercises .

Team building is about uniting and encouraging people rather than dividing and demoralizing them. But competitive exercises inevitably produce losers as well as winners, and may lead your team members to work against one another. So, avoid these types of activity – they can easily backfire.

Team building can only occur when relevant and timely activities that address specific needs are part of your organization’s culture. One-off exercises can help with this, but they are not a shortcut to success.

The purpose of team building activities is to motivate your people to work together, to develop their strengths, and to address any weaknesses. So, any team building exercise should encourage collaboration rather than competition.

Be sure to incorporate team building into your workplace routines and practices. For example, get to know your people better, work toward common goals, develop their skills, and make the extra effort to connect with your virtual team members.

In this way, you'll build a firm foundation of purpose, trust and rapport that you can add challenging events to, appropriately and effectively.

Collins, N.L., and Miller, LC. (1994). 'Self-disclosure and Liking,’ Psychological Bulletin, Volume 116, Issue 3, November 1994. (Available here .)

Lombardo, M.M. and Eichinger, R.W. (2010). " Career Architect Development Planner ," 5th edition, Lominger.

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Thara Ravishanker

I love teamwork exercises. Recently as a part of a assessment day I got one pair of candidates to collect rocks that were large only. They had to use their thinking skills in order to complete the entire task on their own. Other candidates had to create a colourful leaflet about a topic they were given. That was fun too.

strategic planning exercises for teams

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strategic planning exercises for teams

How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session [2024 Strategic Planning Workshop]

By Ted Skinner

strategy planning

Annual & Quarterly Planning

how to facilitation a strategic planning session

At Rhythm Systems, our consultants are trained strategic facilitators who are crucial in strategic planning. They are planning experts who help you get the most ROI from your meeting with their expert facilitation skills. We have facilitated hundreds of successful Strategic Planning , Annual Planning , and Quarterly Planning sessions for our clients. In this blog post, we will share expert insights from these sessions so that you can scale up your company. Strategy planning (and expert facilitation) is vital as the longer-term strategic priorities drive the shorter-term goals, projects, and actions with complete organizational alignment .

Note to strategic CEOs: Along with our ability to educate, coach, and facilitate specific content and methodology during on-site sessions, one of the main reasons CEOs choose to bring us in to run their sessions is so that the CEO can fully participate and implement their 5 year plan template . It is impossible for a CEO to effectively facilitate a session with all the stakeholders and fully participate simultaneously. The CEO's contribution and participation is significant to reach the desired outcome. Session facilitation is an extra burden that is better placed on another team member or an expert facilitator. You should learn to be a good facilitator with tips and tricks or consult with us to see if hiring an expert makes sense.

Free Guide: How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session

Rhythm Systems Annual Planning Facilitation Guide

Strategic Planning Facilitation Step 1: THINK Through the Purpose and Outcome of the Meeting

Stephen Covey advises us to "begin with the end in mind." What is the purpose of this meeting? What do we hope to accomplish? Who should attend? What are our strategic objectives for this workshop? What work should the meeting participants get done before the meeting (research and homework)? What are the specific outcomes or outputs we are looking for from this strategic planning session? What is the role of a facilitator in a strategic planning session? Do we need a plan B for a potential 2024 recession ?

Creating an Objective Statement that you can share with the rest of the team in advance is a great way to ensure everyone who attends the meeting has shared goals and expectations for your time together. It will also clarify you as you move into step 2 and begin planning for the session. Make sure that this aligns with your mission statement. This differs from  team meetings ; setting expectations upfront is critical for your strategic objectives. 

An Objective Statement consists of three parts:

Part 1: TO : (What is the action? What will you do? Start with a verb.)

Part 2. IN A WAY THAT : (How will you do it? List criteria, scope, involvement, success measures, specific tactics, side benefits, or any other relevant information. Use bullet points.)

Part 3. SO THAT : (Why are you doing this? Why is it essential? What is the main benefit?)

Sample Objective Statement for one company's Quarterly Planning Session

QUARTERLY PLANNING OBJECTIVE STATEMENT

TO : Conduct a practical strategic planning session

IN A WAY THAT:

  • Brings the Senior Leadership Team together for two full days to develop an effective strategy
  • Highlights the previous quarter's accomplishments
  • Updates and advances our Annual Plan and long-term goal attainment
  • It allows us to discuss-debate-agree critical topics as a team
  • It prepares us to overcome any potential obstacles to hitting our year-end goals
  • Identifies 3-5 Company Priorities, complete with owners and clear success criteria
  • Identifies clear Individual Priorities for each member of the leadership team
  • Prepares us to begin thinking about next year's Annual Plan
  • It allows us to identify strengths and weaknesses
  • Answers the key questions facing our company and industry
  • It helps us clearly define and communicate our business strategy to the entire organization
  • Fun ideas for strategic planning are always considered and change up the energy in the room

SO THAT : We finish this year strong and set ourselves up for a solid start to next year.

Professional Strategic Planning Facilitation Video

Strategic planning facilitation step 2: plan all the details in advance.

Anytime you bring your team together for a meeting, whether for a few hours or days, you invest time, energy, and money. The way to ensure you get the most out of your investment is to be adequately prepared. The preparation checklist below will help you.

Learn More Expert Facilitation .Learn more about the Rhythm System, the complete solution for strategy, execution, coaching, methodology, and software.  

Strategic Planning Process Meeting Preparation Checklist

  • Set the date – You will want to determine and set the date as soon as possible so that everyone on your team can attend. The longer you wait, the harder it is to find a time that works. If this is an ongoing, standing meeting, ensure everyone has it on their calendar every time it occurs and actively works to protect the scheduled time with the team.
  • Select the Facilitator – It is essential to pick the right person to facilitate your session. The facilitator is responsible for creating the agenda, preparing content material (slides/visuals), arriving early to ensure setup and materials, testing technology, and facilitating the session. If you must choose someone on your team who will be in attendance, remember to occasionally stop during the meeting and ask their opinion if not previously shared. If you choose someone who would not usually be in attendance, ensure they understand that their job is to facilitate, not offer opinions on discussions they would not typically be involved in. Role clarity is essential.
  • Select a location – A meeting or planning session in your conference room can be ineffective. The opportunity to lose focus and be interrupted by operational issues increases exponentially. This is fine for short, weekly, routine meetings, but we recommend taking your team off-site for 1-2 day planning sessions. 
  • Choose a Meeting Coordinator – This person is in charge of handling all of the logistics for the meeting, making sure participants have made travel arrangements, the conference room (on-site or off-site) is booked and set up for the session, and that all participants are aware of any homework/preparation that is needed for the session. Use someone on your team who is meticulous with details and have them build a strategic planning checklist for future meetings.
  • Prepare the meeting material – You and the facilitator should refer to your Objective Statement when creating the agenda. Be careful not to overload your agenda. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in the time you have available. Create a basic time plan to accompany your agenda. This will help you know whether or not you are on track during the meeting. Less is more when it comes to slides. The old rule was no more than 6x6 (six words long by six bullets). In today's Twitter and drive-through world, you're better served to stick to 4x4 or, better yet, 3x3. Consider revealing information one bullet point at a time, especially if you must have more than 6x6 on a slide, and always ensure it is written for your target audience.   Use our AI Goal Coach if you have any questions!
  • Email the meeting agenda and pre-work to the attendees - Communicate with all attendees at least two weeks before the session, sharing the objective statement, agenda, and any pre-work you want them to do. Realize that some people - even with proper instruction - may be in the habit of attending meetings unprepared. If you consider the pre-work essential, let the team know that it's mandatory and require them to return it in advance, or instruct them to bring copies to the meeting and build time to share the output into your agenda. This will allow people to think about the strategic goals for themselves and the company ahead of the meeting.
  • Last minute details - Work with the meeting coordinator to ensure all the meeting details have been addressed: supplies ordered, lunch planned, technology arrangements made, attendance confirmed, action plans, etc.

Remember to be realistic about what you can accomplish in the available time and set the agenda appropriately. The strategic planning facilitator must also keep the team focused on having the proper discussions for your organization. Understanding and working with the group dynamics is essential, especially in a large group. This related article can read more details about a virtual strategic planning session .

Strategic Planning Facilitation Step 3: Do the Hard Work of Running the Strategy Session

Three definitions of the role of the facilitator:

  • "An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work."
  • "One who contributes structure and process to interactions so groups are able to function effectively and make high-quality decisions. A helper and enabler whose goal is to support others as they achieve exceptional performance."
  • "The facilitator's job is to support everyone to do their best thinking and practice. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements."

The word facilitation means to make it easy. Too bad actually facilitating a group of people isn't. It takes a tremendous amount of energy, focus, quick thinking, and patience to facilitate a meeting. Following the first two steps in this blog post (Step 1: THINK and Step 2: PLAN), you are set up for a successful session. But there is still much work to do.

Here are 15 Tips to keep the strategy session moving positively.

15 Expert Tips for Facilitating a Great Zoom Strategy Meeting

Set ground rules at the beginning of the meeting . Let the team discuss their expectations for full participation, candor, sidebars, interruptions, tangents, and cell phone and computer use. This conversation upfront creates an environment of accountability and high commitment to the meeting. Ground rules will help reduce the stress of group interaction and make it easier to resolve problems when they arise. Capture your ground rules on a flip chart while discussing and post for reference throughout the meeting. To start with some energy, I suggest using one of our Zoom icebreakers to get things started.

Trust the process . Remember that you have put a great deal of time into steps 1 & and 2, so you are going into the day with a good game plan. Sometimes, things seem disjointed, or the team doesn't understand where you're going. Tell them there is a method to the madness, and ask them to trust the process with you. When utilizing a slide deck and agenda provided by Rhythm Systems, know that the function and content have been tested and proven to work many times. It may not all come together until the very end, but if you are going in with a clear objective and well-thought-out agenda, the results you're looking for will follow, and problem-solving will occur.

annual planning

Give yourself permission to deviate from the time plan if a topic requires more time than you thought it would. As long as the additional time is used for good, healthy debates on important issues and not the beating of dead horses, it will be a good use of time. If you do deviate from the time plan, involve the team in deciding how you will make it up. You may choose to stay late or start early one day, or you may decide to cut or shorten the time allowed for another topic. Involving the team in this discussion and decision increases engagement, energy, and commitment.

Celebrate your progress as you move through the session . Reflect on lessons learned and breakthroughs. Acknowledge someone when they're brave enough to bring up a tricky subject. Check-in with each other to ensure you're all engaged. After breaks, consider restating what's been accomplished and where you are on the agenda.

Use icebreakers with purpose. Ice breakers are quick, interactive exercises designed to get the team's brain working and mouth moving. They are usually used at the beginning of a session, after breaks, and after lunch. They can also be great for raising the energy level late in the afternoon. A quick Google search will provide hundreds of ideas for icebreakers. One of our favorites is a quick round of victories or good news. This serves several purposes. It gives team members a chance to share information, allows them to get to know each other better, and starts the meeting positively. We recommend that you start every session with some version of good news.

Encourage full and equal participation. A team comprises many individuals, each with their own personality and preferred work style. Some are naturally more dominant and expressive, while others may be more thoughtful and reserved. One type is not better than another, and the fact that they're on your team means you value their input. The facilitator's job is to recognize these different styles and run the meeting in a way that gives each person a chance to contribute. This is a good discussion at the beginning of the session as you set the ground rules.

Set the expectation of full and equal participation clear and give the team a chance to discuss how they will do this. The facilitator may have to step in throughout the meeting, explicitly calling on individuals who have not spoken up. The facilitator may also design the meeting to include specific opportunities to hear from everyone. Examples of this would be small group breakout sessions or employing different brainstorming methods (see #8.)

Use visual aids effectively. Any combination of flip charts, whiteboards, sticky notes, posters, PowerPoint/Keynote, and handouts will do. We've all seen the person who used every animation tool within PowerPoint - wiggly jiggly icons, annoying animations, slides swiping in from 20 directions in 5 different ways. Don't overdo it; allow your visuals to distract from the meeting. People have different learning styles; Some are visual learners, some auditory, some kinesthetic, and some experiential, so mix it up and use all aids in moderation. Keep in mind that your body language is one of the most essential visual aids that you have; make sure that you make people feel like they are being heard.

Use different methods for brainstorming. Round robin, freewheeling, group pass, and silent reflection are all proven methods you may try. Brainstorming aims to produce a comprehensive list of potential ideas, solutions, or plans. When done well, brainstorming should increase participation, reduce inhibition, stimulate ideas, increase creativity, and be a group process.

Strategic Planning Brainstorming Methods:

  • Focus on quantity first and capture as many ideas as possible.
  • Encourage and welcome all ideas - ask the team to dig deep and think beyond the obvious - every idea submitted should be captured.
  • Hold off on judgment, criticism, or reality checks - this should be a "safe time." Ideas will be discussed and debated later.
  • Use short phrases and bullet points, not paragraphs and lengthy explanations.
  • "Piggyback" on others' ideas. Outlandish ideas can be stepping stones to good, workable ideas.
  • Although giving a brief overview of brainstorming rules can be helpful, there's no need to go into an elaborate explanation. "Let's brainstorm annual priorities that will move us toward our 3-5 year strategic plan . Remember, let's not judge the ideas but just capture and understand them first." Then, begin your chosen method of brainstorming. As you move through the process, anticipate that someone will break the rules - that's when the facilitator steps in and makes the correction.

Round Robin

Ask for a volunteer to start the brainstorming process with one idea. The facilitator captures the idea on a flip chart for all to see. Ask the volunteer to choose whether to go to the right or the left, allowing the person sitting next to them to offer one idea. The facilitator continues to chart the answers, going around the room until everyone can contribute at least one picture. You can then try to take a second pass around the room if the ideas are flowing freely, or you may open it up to anyone who has another idea not previously mentioned.

Freewheeling

Suppose you're working with a group where equal participation is not an issue. In that case, you may be able to open the brainstorming session up by asking for ideas and allowing people to offer suggestions in any order at all. Use the participants' words to chart all ideas with short bullet points. This method can go fast, so you may want to ask for a volunteer to help chart answers using a second flip chart.

Each person in the group starts with a piece of paper, writes down one idea, and then passes the piece of paper to the next person. The following person then builds on the original idea, adding a few thoughts. Continue around the room until the owner returns their original piece of paper. You can then ask each person to take a minute to review their original idea and share it with the team.

Silent Reflection

Some people need a little time to think and formulate their ideas. Instruct the team that you give them a certain amount of time (5-15 minutes, depending on the topic) to think and write down their ideas. You can ask them to write their thoughts on sticky notes, one idea per note, or list them on paper. If you use sticky notes, you can ask them to read one statement at a time and place them on the wall, grouping all similar ideas together. If they are written on notebook paper, you can use the round-robin method to share and chart the ideas.

Use a Parking Lot. Stay on track by creating a place to capture ideas that are inappropriate to the discussion at hand but that you don't want to lose. Make it visible to all using a whiteboard, tear sheet, etc. This helps you keep the meeting focused without chasing too many "rabbit trails." It is important to honor all ideas, questions, and concerns during a session, and by placing the item in your parking lot, you send the subtle message that all contributions are essential. Refer to the parking lot items while facilitating when appropriate and review any unresolved items at the end of your session, moving them to an action item list. In a strategy meeting, you must keep the team on task; using a parking lot can help you accomplish that.

Deal with difficult people ahead of time. Before your meeting, think about participants who tend to be outspoken, dominate, or argue in meetings. Think also about participants who may have felt bullied or intimidated or have a history of not participating openly. Have a conversation with these people before the session, explaining your concern and asking for their help in creating a healthy and productive environment. When talking to the dominant person, helpful language might include, "Jim, I'm trying to increase participation in this meeting. I appreciate your outspokenness and value your input. If it's ok with you, I'd like you to go last so I may first hear the rest of the team's thinking before you share yours." Be sure to reevaluate and give that participant a chance to share.

This is also an excellent topic to discuss while setting ground rules at the beginning of the session. Discuss the expectations for politeness and tone during the meeting, and ask the team for permission to point it out if things get off track. If a conflict arises during a meeting, the facilitator must be prepared to step in and take control of the meeting. Anytime the discussion becomes accusatory or personal, the facilitator can ask the participant to reword statements so that they are focused on solutions, facts, and business issues, not people and blame. An excellent technique for redirecting a heated discussion is to ask the team to discuss their learnings rather than their frustrations. Be sure to do this whenever the language becomes personal; before you know it, your team will police this behavior themselves. Conflict resolution is the central role of the facilitator.

Keep the energy high. Enthusiasm is contagious - and so is negativity. Some people need to doodle while they think, some need toys like a Koosh ball or rubber Gumby, others need talk time with other participants, and others need to stand up or walk around the room from time to time. Think through your meeting day and plan ways to keep the energy high for the entire time to keep the group paying attention.

Have participants work in pairs, write something down, work together on puzzles, make mini-presentations on topics assigned before and after breaks, schedule group breakout sessions, etc. Remember that the room's energy is often a notch or two below the facilitator's, so it is vital to keep your energy high. Try to get plenty of sleep the night before, eat well, have plenty of water on hand, and take breaks as needed, as group facilitation is challenging!

Get to a consensus. Many discussion topics require moving the group from several individuals, independent ideas to one agreed-upon group decision. Consensus can be defined professionally as an acceptable resolution everyone on the team can support. It does not mean that everyone on the team has to agree that this is their number one favorite resolution, just that they will support the decision in the future. Supporting a decision means that you will speak positively about the decision to others and do everything in your power to ensure the decision results in a positive outcome. You will not say," They decided."

Explaining the definition of consensus and support to the team at the beginning of the discussion can help resolve the issue. An essential step in reaching a consensus is ensuring that all ideas are evaluated, and everyone's perspective is heard. This is important in getting buy-in for the conclusion and generating the best ideas and solutions. Structuring a process for team decision-making is a critical facilitation skill.

Expert Tips for Strategic Planning Decision-Making:

  • Use the brainstorming tips above to identify all viable solutions (see #8)
  • Combine and link similar ideas
  • Use structured methods, like The Six Thinking Hats, to help take the emotion out of the discussion.
  • Set a time limit for discussion on each potential solution
  • Make sure everyone is participating in the debate and, make sure everyone is actively listening and applying their listening skills
  • Work to narrow the options down to as few as possible
  • Don't be afraid to call for a vote to see how close the group is to completing the agreement
  • If there are just one or two holdouts, seek to understand what and how firm their objections are
  • Engage the group in troubleshooting to minimize the potential negative impact identified by any complaints or concerns raised
  • Restate the most popular resolution, adding one or two points addressing the concerns raised, and ask the holdouts if they can support that decision
  • Sometimes, people will get caught up in the moment and continue the debate just to argue. Ask the holdout if they will lose sleep if the group moves forward with the proposed resolution. Refer to the definition of support and ask if they will support the decision.
  • With consensus, there is often compromise. Only some get everything they want out of the final decision. However, because you created an environment where everyone has had an opportunity for input, the conclusions reached will often be very successful and highly supported.
  • If you are running a virtual strategic planning session,  visit the link to learn some additional tips to help you get the most out of your planning session.

Document and publish the Who-What-When. Who-What-When action items are leading indicators of successful meeting outcomes. How often do teams meet, discuss, and debate critical topics, then set the next meeting date only to discover that no progress has been made at the next meeting? As the facilitator, it is essential that you make sure that every critical discussion ends in a documented action captured in an action list of Who is accountable (one person only), What they will do, and When it will be completed. Create a habit of ending meetings with a review of the Who-What-When and beginning discussions with confirmation on completing the actions assigned.

Finish strong. People won't always remember what you do or say, but they will never forget how you made them feel. And what they will remember most is how they felt at the end of the meeting. Whether you completed every objective you laid out or worked through the agenda, it's essential to recognize the team's accomplishments and celebrate their focus, contribution, time invested, and hard work. Finish the meeting by recapping the decisions, reviewing the actions committed, and confirming the next steps. We also recommend allowing everyone to share how they feel as they leave. You can go around the room and ask each person to share a one-word/one-phrase closing statement or share one takeaway or breakthrough they gained during the meeting.

Ask for feedback . Great facilitators are not born overnight. They develop and improve over years of experience. And the most experienced facilitators know that asking for feedback is the best way to improve. You can ask the team before they leave to write down one bright spot from the meeting and one area to work on or do differently next time. Please feel free to email everyone after the session, asking for feedback. Or, you can ask for a quick one-on-one conversation with a few trusted advisors.

You would like to encourage feedback on the agenda, pre-session communication, design of the day, homework, and how you performed and handled difficult situations during the session. If you want to receive feedback, please take it seriously. Don't take it personally or complain to others about it. All feedback, even negative feedback, is a gift. Thank the person who shared with you, and I'd like to make every effort to incorporate all helpful suggestions into your next session. Stay encouraged and stick with it. You will improve every time you facilitate, so please volunteer and look for opportunities to practice. Over time, the tips in this blog post will become second nature. Good luck!

This blog post shares tips and tricks for facilitation from the Facilitator guide written by Chris Cosper and Barry Pruit and adapted to a blog post by Ted Skinner. If you'd like to download the strategic planning manual, please click here . We hope you enjoy the facilitation techniques outlined in this article to keep group discussions positive and productive. We hope this answers your question about how to lead a strategic planning session; if you want to get the best ROI on your investment of time and energy, please feel free to  drop us a line , and we'll see if it makes sense for you.

Learn More About Rhythm

Read our other strategic planning and facilitation articles below:

Annual Planning: 9 Tips to Focus & Align Your Team with a Great Plan

Annual Planning Playbook: 5 Steps to Create a Winning Annual Plan

How CEOs Can Avoid High-Cost Mistakes in Annual Planning

Best Practices for Annual Planning

16 Strategic Planning Tips to Keep Your Strategic Plan Alive

The CEO Strategy-Execution Gap...And How To Fix It

Choose Your 3-Year Strategic Growth Initiatives Wisely With This 4-Step Process

5 Steps to Getting Started on 3-Year Strategic Plans with Winning Moves

Have you been able to validate your 3 Year Strategic Plan?

Robust 3 Year Strategic Plans to Grow Revenue and Stay Competitive

Don't Confuse Strategic Thinking And Strategy Execution Plans

9 Steps to a New Revenue Growth Strategy [Infographic]

Photo credit: iStock by Getty Images

Ted Skinner

Photo Credit: iStock by Getty Images

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Team Building World

10 Strategic Planning Team Building Activities for Your Employees

10 Strategic Planning Team Building Activities for Your Employees

Are you looking for some strategic planning team building activities ?

In today’s business world, it’s no longer just the leaders who create strategies that their subordinates follow. Businesses now recognize the importance of employees developing effective strategies.

In this article, let’s see 10 team building activities for strategic planning that you can conduct with your employees.

What is Strategic Planning?

In simple terms, strategic planning is the process of setting objectives and developing a plan to achieve them. Having a good strategic plan helps your employees understand their responsibilities. So, they know how their contributions aid in the company’s achievements. Ultimately, this facilitates the alignment of their efforts with the organization’s vision and objectives.

10 Strategic Planning Team Building Activities for Your Employees

Here are some amazing activities to develop the strategic planning skills of your employees.

#1. Brain Mapping

Brain Mapping is a team building activity that encourages collaboration between team members while creating effective solutions.

Time: 30 minutes – 1 hour

Materials: Computer, Whiteboard/Paper, and Markers

Participants: 2-10 people

Instructions

  • Each participant should come up with ideas on how to solve a problem or reach a goal in the company. For example, how can a company increase customer satisfaction?
  • The team should then map out all these ideas and create strategies to make them happen.
  • Participants can draw the solutions on paper/ whiteboard, or use computers for more detailed plans.
  • Once the mapping is completed, they can discuss their plans with others, and come up with the best solution.

During the debrief, you should identify any areas of improvement for the team and recognize their successes. Encourage creativity to help foster collaboration between team members.

#2. Fish Bowl

The objective of this exercise is to encourage open dialogue between team members while creating innovative strategies.

Materials: Fish Bowl/ Container, Paper, and Markers

Participants: 4-8 people

  • Each participant should put their ideas into the fish bowl or container.
  • The facilitator should ask each participant to take turns and explain their ideas.
  • Next, the facilitator can draw the solutions on paper/whiteboard, or use computers for more detailed plans.
  • After each idea is discussed, the team should come up with a collective solution that benefits everyone.

During the debrief, identify any areas of improvement and recognize effective collaboration between team members. Encourage feedback to create a safe environment for open dialogue.

#3. Collaborative Goal Setting

This activity encourages employees to set goals for the organization and develop plans to achieve them.

Time: 45 minutes

Materials: Post-it notes, Markers, and Whiteboard

Participants: 4-6 people

  • Divide the participants into smaller teams.
  • Give each team a goal or initiative to focus on. For example: “Develop strategies for increasing customer engagement”.
  • Each team should brainstorm potential strategies for achieving that goal. Then, they can analyze the merits and demerits of each strategy, and decide on the best ones.
  • Finally, let them present their strategies to the other groups.

In the debrief, discuss how the team worked together to develop goals and strategies, as well as any new ideas or perspectives that arose during the activity. Celebrate successes and brainstorm solutions for potential challenges encountered.

#4. Elimination Match

In this exercise, the participants should use their strategic planning skills to complete some tasks before the opposing team.

Materials: Set of cards with individual tasks related to strategic planning

Participants: 2 teams of 4-5 people each.

  • Divide the participants into two teams of equal size.
  • Each team will receive a set of cards that represents a specific task related to strategic planning. They can be creating a budget, developing a marketing plan, identifying potential risks, etc. As the facilitator, you should provide further instructions to the teams such as the specific requirements for each task or any time limits.
  • Now, the teams must try to finish the tasks as quickly as possible. After completing a task, they must place the respective card on the table. The first team that completes all the tasks will win the game.

Discuss how teams used strategic planning skills to identify opportunities, create plans, and manage risks to complete the tasks quickly. Furthermore, participants should evaluate what strategies could have been employed differently in order to improve their performance.

#5. Futures Wheel

The goal of this activity is to help team members explore potential strategies for different scenarios.

Time: 20-30 minutes

Materials: Large poster board or whiteboard, markers

Participants: 6-10 people

  • Ask the group to identify a goal they would like to achieve in the future.
  • Each group member lists out 3-5 different steps necessary to reach that goal.
  • Now, each group can draw a circle in the center of the poster board or whiteboard and label it with their goal. Also, they can draw a series of circles around the first one and label them with each step necessary to reach that goal.
  • Then, they can discuss potential strategies that could be implemented at each step to make progress toward the end goal.

As a facilitator, it’s important to ensure everyone understands the goal and the steps necessary to reach it. During the debrief, you should check in with each group member to make sure they understand how their individual strategies contribute to the larger plan.

#6. Lost at Sea Survival Game

This activity encourages employees to strategize and work together to survive in an imaginary “lost at sea” scenario.

Time: 45-60 minutes

Materials: Imaginary items such as a fishing net, a flare gun, a water container, etc.

  • Divide the participants into teams with an equal number of members in each.
  • Ask the teams to envision themselves lost at sea and present them with a set of imaginary items. Some examples of items include a fishing net, a flare gun, a water container, etc.
  • Give each team a few minutes to plan how they would use their resources in order to survive until help arrives.
  • After the allotted time, have each team present their strategies to the other teams.

During the debrief, it’s important to discuss how the teams collaborated and which strategies worked best. Encourage team members to share their thoughts on what they learned from this activity.

#7. Mock Trade Game

In this exercise, employees should participate in a trade to understand the effects of supply and demand on pricing.

Time: 30-45 minutes

Materials: Fake “money” (Monopoly money), and Items to trade like pencils, paper clips,etc.

  • Divide the participants into groups of two, and provide each group with some fake money. Ask them to decide on an item that they will trade and set a price for it.
  • Have the groups take turns trading items at their agreed-upon prices, allowing them to make profits or losses based on their decisions.
  • After trading has finished, have them compare profits and losses.

During the debrief, it’s important to discuss how each group was able to maximize their profits or minimize their losses. It is also beneficial to ask the participants what strategies they found most effective in order to gain insights into future trading decisions.

#8. Strategic Terms

The objective of this activity is to help participants understand and apply common terms in strategic planning.

Time: 15 minutes

Materials: Index cards with terms related to strategic planning, timer

Participants: At least 4 members per group

  • Divide the participants into groups. Then, split each group into two sub-groups.
  • Give each sub-group a set of index cards with terms related to strategic planning such as “Goals”, “Risks”, and “Rewards”.
  • Each sub-group will then take turns drawing one card at a time and explaining how it relates to strategic planning. For example, when a sub-group draws the “Risks” card, they must explain how taking risks can help an organization succeed but also carries a certain amount of uncertainty.
  • At the end of the game, the sub-group with the most creative explanations for each term is declared the winner!

During the debrief, participants should reflect on how their groups worked together to come up with creative explanations for each card and gain new insights into strategic planning. Additionally, discuss successes and ways to apply what was learned in real-world scenarios.

#9. SWOT Analysis

The objective of this activity is to help employees identify internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats.

Materials: Whiteboard or paper, markers

  • Ask the group to identify an area in which they need to implement change or improvement.
  • Have each group member list out their own strengths and weaknesses related to the topic. Also, they should identify any external opportunities or threats that could impact their success.
  • Ask the group to brainstorm potential strategies based on their strengths and weaknesses, as well as any external opportunities or threats.
  • Then, they can discuss the risks and benefits associated with each strategy, and make an informed decision.

During the debrief, it’s important to ensure that everyone understands how their individual insights contributed to the strategic planning process. You should also encourage group members to share any additional ideas or questions they may have.

#10. The Strategy Grid

This activity is to help teams focus on actionable items while creating an effective plan for achieving results.

Time: 30 minutes-1 hour

Materials: Paper and Markers

  • The facilitator should draw the grid on paper or whiteboard, with columns and rows representing the goals, objectives, strategies, tactics, and timelines needed to achieve success.
  • Team members should then brainstorm and come up with different ideas for each section of the grid.
  • Encourage discussions and ask questions to ensure everyone understands the objective of the activity.
  • After all the sections are filled out on the grid, the teammates should discuss the best strategies and tactics to achieve each goal.
  • Once finished, debrief as a team, highlighting successes and areas for improvement from the activity.

As a facilitator, remind the team that communication and collaboration are key to achieving success. Also, encourage the team members to be open and honest in their feedback on what worked well during the activity as it will help them in future planning sessions.

Want Some Unique Team Building Activities?

If you want some unique activities (both in person and virtual) for your employees, you can get my new e-book:

The Busy Leader’s Guide of Unique Team Building Activities: 30 Fully Customizable Exercises That You Can Conduct with Any Group of Employees, Anywhere

Final Words

Strategic planning team building activities help employees to do proper risk assessments and make better decisions. They also help foster collaboration and communication, which are essential for any successful business. So, try out some of these activities today and watch your team blossom!

Like this article on “10 Strategic Planning Team Building Activities for Your Employees”? Feel free to share your thoughts.

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How to Run a Collaborative Roadmapping Exercise with Your Team

You’re a product manager, and you need to run a collaborative roadmapping exercise with various teams across your company. Not sure where to start? We’ll walk you through the process, step by step.

What is a Collaborative Roadmapping Exercise?

A collaborative roadmapping exercise is an ideation meeting. People from different departments brainstorm, share insights, and work together to determine what direction to take the company’s product next.

As the leader of this exercise, you bring together all appropriate stakeholders for an open discussion about your product’s strategic priorities.

The result of this meeting might be a set of ideas that support your existing roadmap strategy. Some ideas might come out of this exercise that persuades the group to make fundamental changes to the roadmap and take the product in a new direction.

Organizing a Collaborative Roadmapping Meeting: A 10-Step Process

Because we’re living in the COVID era, let’s assume you’ll need to virtually run this meeting. The good news is, with a team collaboration platform such as Microsoft Teams, you can easily create an entirely digital environment built around your collaborative roadmap exercise. This environment can help you with every stage of the exercise: before, during, and after. Here’s how.

Before the Meeting

Step 1: invite the right people..

In the next section, we’ll discuss which departments and teams you’ll want to be represented in your meeting. For now, the key is to set up a dedicated collaboration platform for this group. We’ll assume you’re using Microsoft Teams. You can create a “Collaborative Roadmapping Team” or “Roadmap Ideation Team.” When you’ve completed your attendee list, send them an invite to a Microsoft Teams video meeting.

Step 2: Ask invitees to prepare strategic insights and ideas.

Include in your invitation a request that all participants come to the meeting with any strategic insights, particularly what they’ve gleaned about your market, product, or personas. Also, ask them to bring any ideas they have for the product.

Roadmapping Basics | Common Roadmap Communication Challenges

During the Meeting

Step 3: review the existing product roadmap..

During this ideation meeting, you will use your current roadmap as the centerpiece to kick off the discussion. As the product manager , it will be your job to open the meeting by walking the team through your existing roadmap and strategic goals.

Step 4: Summarize the relevant market conditions.

After you’ve reviewed the roadmap, you’ll want to talk your attendees through the state of your market. Has a crucial competitor been acquired? Is your target industry undergoing an economic surge or falling on difficult times? What has changed in your market, and how could those changes affect your product?

Step 5: Open the meeting up to brainstorming and ideation.

You’ve reviewed the current situation: your roadmap, your goals and plan for the product, and your market’s conditions. It’s time to open up the meeting for discussion. Here you are looking for attendees to share their unique perspectives based on their market interactions. Ideally, those insights will spark conversation, debate, and new ideas.

Step 6: Weigh competing ideas and vote on priorities.

You’ve reviewed the current situation: your roadmap, your goals and plan for the product, and your market’s conditions. It’s time to open up the meeting for discussion. Look for attendees to share their insights based on their market interactions. Ideally, those insights will spark conversation, debate, and new ideas.

Pro tip: You can measure the strategic value and costs of competing ideas using several prioritization frameworks .  Weighted scoring and opportunity scoring are just two of the many proven approaches. We have an entire book filled with them:

Download the product manager's guide to prioritization ➜

Step 7: Assign action items for pursuing any new ideas.

Let’s say you’ve settled on a few potential new strategic priorities for your product. Maybe your team has voted to try opening a new market or going after a new user persona. Your next steps will involve research, resource planning, and other logistical work. Now it’s time to assign those tasks to the right people. Here’s what this might look like:

Let’s say your company is a software maker for the healthcare industry. Your current flagship product is a billing and time-management app that addresses the unique needs of medical practices. Today, your crucial client base is the small doctor’s private practice.

During your ideation meeting, the team brainstorms a new idea: Make a few strategic changes to the app, and you can market it to small dental practices. After voting on several other suggestions, the group decides this is the most viable idea. At the end of this meeting, you and your team assign action items to the relevant people:

Action item: Determine the  Total Addressable Market (TAM) of small dental practices.

Action item: Conduct a competitive analysis. (Which companies are already solving this problem? Can we do it better?)

Action item: Develop user and buyer personas for your product at these dental practices.

Action item: Do an assessment of resources, capacity, timeline, budget, etc.

After the Meeting

Step 8: send out a recording of the video meeting..

You discussed a lot of big-picture insights and ideas in your collaborative roadmapping exercise. It will be valuable for all attendees to have a digital recording of the meeting. Fortunately, if you were using Microsoft Teams, you were able to record the entire video conference. Now you can send it out to everyone through the “Roadmap Ideation Team” channel you created on the Teams platform.

Step 9: Conduct and share all relevant research with the team.

Set up a dedicated digital environment for this ideation group. Because you can now all share whatever research and additional insights the team generates based on the action items they took from the meeting. Here’s where you’ll want to upload your research on the Total Addressable Market for the new adjacent market, for example. You’ll also want to share the user or buyer persona you’ve drafted based on the post-meeting research you’ve done.

Step 10: Update your roadmap accordingly and share it with the team.

Finally, we’ll assume your team’s research led to a new strategic direction for your product. You will want to update your existing product roadmap to reflect this change and then send the entire team’s updated roadmap. If you’re using Microsoft Teams and the ProductPlan roadmap app, you can easily share these roadmap updates through your Teams platform—using the ProductPlan-Teams integration .

Note: In this hypothetical, we’re assuming you’ve earned the okay from your executive staff to move forward with whatever changes in the direction your team agrees on after your ideation session. But that executive-approval step requires a lot of strategy and planning as well. If you’d like help, read this blog written by ProductPlan co-founder Jim Semick:

Learn what executives want to see when you are presenting your roadmap ➜

Who Should Attend Your Collaborative Roadmapping Exercise Meeting?

This meeting should include representatives of departments across your company who have one thing in common. They should all have direct interaction with your market, your customers, and your prospective customers. That will include teams such as:

You’ll want both sales leaders and reps in your ideation session. These are the people hearing the requests, concerns, and needs from your user and buyer personas every day. They also hear objections, which means they know where your existing product falls short and might need retooling.

Pre-sales (or sales engineers)

These are the experts who help your sales team with the technical aspects of the sale. They regularly sit with prospects and customers, discussing the technical needs, goals, and frustrations of these companies. Their input will be valuable in your collaborative roadmapping exercise.

Customer success

This is another team of front-line professionals in your company who have direct contact with your customers regularly. They have a sense of the common challenges or shortcomings with your products. They might also have other insights they don’t even realize are valuable. For example, maybe your CS team fields many questions from a user persona your sales team didn’t know was actually using your product.

Professional services

This is the group of implementation experts, training specialists, and other post-sales professionals who work with new customers to roll out your product for them. They’ll have a unique set of insights and maybe some useful ideas about strategically improving your product.

Conduct a Stakeholder Analysis ➜

What Are You Trying to Get Out of Your Meeting?

Above all, collaborative roadmapping exercises should be outcome-driven. You don’t hold these meetings just for fun. Before you schedule one of these sessions, you need a clear idea of what you want the meeting to accomplish.

If we had to boil down the goal of a collaborative roadmapping exercise into a single objective, it’s this. You’re trying to answer the question: What’s the next thing we should be doing strategically with this product?

Want More Helpful Roadmapping Advice?

Take the Free Roadmapping Email Course ➜

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Team Strategy Workshop Activities

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Team Purpose Canvas

The Team Purpose Canvas is a simple and effective way to design your team purpose.

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Use this method if you would like to show the participants the importance of collaboration, team strategy and team effectiveness.

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The Complete Toolkit for Strategic Planning with Remote Teams

  • The Complete Toolkit for...

Description of the Template and Guide

A strategic plan is a formal map that explains how your company will execute a chosen strategy. The plan should spell out where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it’s going to get there.

Strategic planning with a remote team can present both challenges and opportunities. Although this is typically done face to face, when coordinated and planned properly, remote participants get the added benefit of being able to think through what’s most important to them on their own then contribute these ideas to the process.

To support this process, we worked with Anna O'Byrne from Upstream Meetings to create the ​​complete toolkit for strategic planning with remote teams​ . Here you'll find a basic strategic plan template, meeting agenda templates designed to walk you through creating the plan with your remote team, downloadable agendas in MS Word (docx) format, and detailed instructions from our blog.

Happy planning!

Strategic Planning with Remote Teams: Strategy Map

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Anna O'Byrne

Anna O’Byrne is the founder and Chief Conversion Copywriter at Conversion Copy Co. Which means... she helps clients grow by: understanding ideal customers and what makes them tick; assessing the competition and what it will take to make offers more attractive; creating website and sales funnel copy that attracts and converts more leads.

  • Team Collaboration

How to Write a Strategic Plan With Your Team

Oren Todoros

Writing a strategic plan with your team is a powerful approach to aligning team goals and objectives, increasing buy-in and motivation, and driving success for your organization. By involving team members in the planning process, you can ensure that everyone is invested in the plan’s success and clearly understands their role in achieving it.

In this article, we’ll explore the steps involved in writing a strategic plan with your team and some tips and tools to facilitate collaborative planning.

What Is a Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan is a roadmap that outlines an organization’s long-term goals and the actions necessary to achieve them. It helps align resources, prioritize activities, and guide decision-making to ensure everyone is working towards the same goals.

However, creating a strategic plan can be a complex and time-consuming process, requiring input and buy-in from various stakeholders. One effective approach is to write a strategic plan with your team, using collaboration and shared ownership to create a plan in which everyone is invested in.

Why Write a Strategic Plan with Your Team?

Why strategic plan?

Before diving into the step-by-step process, it’s important to understand why writing a strategic plan with your team is such a powerful approach. Here are some reasons why:

Increases Buy-In

When team members are involved in creating a strategic plan, they are more likely to feel invested in its success. This can lead to greater dedication and motivation to achieve the plan’s goals.

Encourages Collaboration

Writing a strategic plan with your team encourages collaboration and communication, allowing for diverse perspectives and ideas to be brought to the table.

Aligns Goals and Objectives

When everyone on the team is involved in creating the strategic plan, it ensures everyone’s goals and objectives are aligned, reducing confusion and increasing focus.

Steps to Writing a Strategic Plan with Your Team

Now, let’s dive into the step-by-step process for writing a strategic plan with your team.

Step 1: Define Your Mission and Vision

The first step in writing a strategic plan with your team is to define your organization’s mission and vision. This should be a collaborative process involving all team members and stakeholders. Your mission should describe the purpose of your organization, while your vision should paint a picture of where you want to be in the future.

Step 2: Conduct a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis involves identifying your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis can help you identify areas where you need to improve, as well as potential opportunities for growth and success.

Step 3: Set Long-Term Goals and Objectives

Once you have a clear understanding of your organization’s mission, vision, and SWOT analysis, it’s time to set long-term goals and objectives. These should be SMART goals, meaning they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Step 4: Develop Strategies and Action Plans

With your long-term goals and objectives in place, it’s time to develop strategies and action plans to achieve them. This should be a collaborative process involving input from all team members and stakeholders.

Step 5: Monitor and Evaluate Progress

Finally, it’s important to regularly monitor and evaluate progress toward your strategic plan’s goals and objectives. This can help you identify areas where you may need to adjust your strategies or action plans, ensuring that you stay on track toward achieving your long-term goals.

Collaborating Effectively to Write a Strategic Plan With Your Team

Writing a strategic plan with your team is not just about following a step-by-step process; it’s also about collaborating effectively to ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals. Here are some tips for collaborating effectively:

Foster Open Communication

Encourage open communication and active listening among team members to ensure everyone’s perspectives and ideas are heard and considered.

Emphasize Shared Ownership

Emphasize shared ownership of the strategic plan, so everyone feels invested in its success and is motivated to work towards its goals.

Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

Clarify team members’ roles and responsibilities so that everyone understands what is expected of them and how they can contribute.

Set Clear Expectations

Set clear expectations, including timelines and deadlines, to ensure everyone is aligned.

Celebrate Successes

Finally, be sure to celebrate successes along the way and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of your team members to keep everyone motivated and focused on achieving the strategic plan’s long-term goals.

Tools and Techniques for Collaborative Strategic Planning

Tools for strategic planning

Collaborative strategic planning can be a complex process requiring effective communication, teamwork, and collaboration. Here are some tools and techniques that can help:

Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a visual tool that can help you and your team brainstorm and collaboratively organize ideas.

To mind map, start by writing a central idea or theme in the center of your page. Then, draw branches from that central idea and write related topics or ideas on the branch tips. To help you brainstorm more effectively and efficiently, use colors, shapes, images, and symbols to represent different topics. You can also expand each topic with additional details as you go.

Once your mind map is complete, review it and note any patterns or connections that stand out to you. Then, use these insights to develop new ideas and potential solutions to the problem. Finally, as a team, discuss how to best implement the ideas generated during the brainstorming session and decide which ones should be pursued.

SWOT Analysis

As mentioned earlier, conducting a SWOT analysis can help you identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and can be a valuable tool for collaborative strategic planning.

To perform a SWOT analysis, first list all of the factors that could affect the outcome of the project or venture. Then, categorize them into Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Once all factors have been identified, evaluate each based on its potential impact and develop strategies for mitigating risks and taking advantage of opportunities.

Strategy Mapping

Strategy mapping is a visual tool that helps to connect long-term goals and objectives with specific strategies and action plans, making it easier to see how everything fits together.

When developing a strategy map, it is essential to consider all aspects of your project, including its potential impact, and develop strategies for mitigating risks and taking advantage of opportunities.

Group Decision-Making Techniques

Group decision-making techniques, such as consensus-building or majority rule, can help your team make decisions together in a collaborative way.

By using these tools and techniques, you can facilitate collaborative strategic planning with your team and create a strategic plan that everyone is invested in and motivated to achieve.

Final Thoughts

Writing a strategic plan with your team can be a powerful approach to aligning goals and objectives, increasing motivation, and driving success for your organization. By following these steps and collaborating effectively with your team, you can create a strategic plan that everyone is invested in and motivated to achieve.

Remember, strategic planning is not a one-time event but an ongoing monitoring and evaluation process. Regularly review and adjust your plan as necessary to ensure that you stay on track towards achieving your long-term goals.

Oren Todoros

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An Exercise to Get Your Team Thinking Differently About the Future

  • Leonard M. Fuld

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Tools borrowed from scenario planning can broaden your view.

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  • LF Leonard M. Fuld is founder and CEO of Fuld + Company , a global consultancy providing competitive insights through its research and advisory services. His most recent book is The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence .

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22 Top Team Building Activities for Work

You found our list of the best team building activities for work.

Team building activities for work are exercises that improve team performance and cooperation. For example, a fitness class relay, a bird-watching challenge, or a gourmet sandwich showdown. The purpose of these activities is to boost collaboration and trust among team members. These practices are also known as “creative team building activities” and “effective team building games.”

These team building activities for work are similar to corporate team building activities , team building exercises , team building events , and virtual team building activities .

This list includes:

  • team building activities for work
  • creative team building activities
  • effective team building games
  • fun team building activities

So, here is the list!

List of team building activities for work

From dessert potlucks to astronomy nights, this guide features several exciting activities for your next team building event.

1. The Great Guac Off (Popular)

Guacamole making competition

If you are looking for a unique and tasty experience, then check out The Great Guac Off! Your team will go head-to-head during this avocado-themed event.

Here is what you can expect:

  • 90 minutes with experienced hosts
  • avocado-based mini-games, trivia, and challenges
  • delicious guacamole ingredients and dippers
  • an optional secret ingredient to put players to the test
  • a fast-paced guacamole-making contest and judging round

This experience is a great way to help teams create connections and communicate. Best of all, we can host this experience at any venue of your choice!

Learn more about The Great Guac Off .

2. Field Day (Highly Rated)

strategic planning exercises for teams

Field Day is a thrilling activity where colleagues compete in interactive outdoor games. This experience encourages collaboration, healthy competition, and a strong sense of camaraderie.

Here is what you can expect from Field Day:

  • 90 minutes with a world-class host
  • all the necessary equipment
  • a wide selection of exciting outdoor activities
  • nostalgic games and engaging competitions

From classic games to innovative challenges, Field Day offers an unforgettable adventure. Each game promotes teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and strategic thinking. Further, we can host this experience at any venue you would like.

Learn more about Field Day .

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3. Espionage! (Team Favorite)

espionage banner

Your team can go on a thrilling adventure together with Espionage! During this social deduction game, you will solve mysteries, uncover hidden spies, and complete daring missions. This experience challenges your team’s instincts and smarts!

Here is what to expect:

  • a 90-minute session with a skilled host guiding you through each activity
  • fun puzzles, challenges, and strategic moves
  • teams of spies and agents working undercover
  • group discussions to figure out secret identities and reveal the truth

We will bring all the game materials to any location of your choice. This exciting experience boosts communication and critical-thinking skills.

Find out more about Espionage!

4. Dessert Potluck

Organizing a successful Dessert Potluck at work is a fun team building exercise! Employees can share their baking talents by bringing in their favorite desserts to enjoy with colleagues. Hosts can set the date, time, and location through office channels. Sign-up sheets or online tools can encourage folks to participate and ensure they bring unique dessert options.

During the potluck, invite participants to talk about their desserts and share recipes. This potluck promotes creativity and teamwork while letting folks bond over sweet treats. Sharing and savoring different desserts make the workplace feel positive and welcoming.

strategic planning exercises for teams

5. Fitness Class Relay

A Fitness Class Relay is one of the most fun team building activities. This exercise blends physical exercise with teamwork and friendly competition. To plan a relay, split players into teams and assign exercises for each part of the relay. Teams compete in fitness challenges like running, push-ups, squats, and obstacle courses. Members take turns doing these tasks while others cheer them on.

This activity promotes team bonding by working toward a common goal. This relay also encourages physical activity, fostering a healthier lifestyle for employees. Participating in a Fitness Class Relay helps build trust, communication skills, and camaraderie.

Here is a list of team fitness experiences .

6. Gourmet Sandwich Showdown

A Gourmet Sandwich Showdown is a tasty way to bond with your team! When planning this event, gather a variety of bread types, fillings, and condiments. Participants will have ten to fifteen minutes to plan and prepare a fancy sandwich. Teams or judges will taste the sandwiches and give them scores. You can even host a blind taste test to keep the judging process more fair. Whoever has the highest score wins!

To make this exercise more challenging, you can add a theme. For example, global flavors, vegan ingredients, or breakfast sandwiches. Employees will love this opportunity to use their creativity and try new flavors.

Check out more food tasting events .

7. Team Mosaic

Making art as a team is a great way to build connections. To host a Team Mosaic session, gather participants in a spacious and well-lit area. Next, set up tables and chairs. Folks can brainstorm their ideas together, considering themes that represent their team. Colleagues can even collaborate to make coordinating art!

Each participant can use a large blank canvas or a wooden board as the base for their mosaic creation. Workers can glue colorful tiles, glass pieces, or beads to their bases. After the glue dries, teams can grout the pieces and let them dry. Finally, you can hang each piece around the office! This exercise is a fun and creative way to spend time together. You can even add it to your next happy hour for a mosaic-and-sip session.

8. DIY Terrarium Building

Building a DIY terrarium can be one of the top team building activities for work. You can either have an expert lead a session at the office or follow a video tutorial. For this activity, gather materials like glass containers, rocks, charcoal, moss, soil, and plants. Folks can choose which items they like and arrange them in the containers.

Colleagues can also work together to build joint terrariums. Employees will get to tap into their creativity during this exercise. Plus, taking care of the plants can foster a sense of responsibility on the team.

9. Astronomy Night

An Astronomy Night is a simple activity that can help bring teams together. When planning this event, choose a date with clear skies and minimal light pollution. A new moon phase is ideal for the best stargazing conditions. Next, find an open outdoor area or rooftop where you can set up telescopes. Folks can bring blankets, chairs, and hot drinks to make the experience more cozy. Then, teams can look at the stars!

If possible, you can invite a local astronomer or stargazing fan to lead the event. This expert can help point out interesting constellations, planets, and stars. You can even organize educational activities like stargazing quizzes or constellation-finding games. Stargazing is a great chance to learn about space, enjoy beautiful views, and bond with colleagues.

10. Caption Contest

Caption Contests can be a fun and engaging team building activity for work. Before this activity, gather a set of funny or interesting images. Then, share the pictures with your colleagues. Teams can come up with creative captions for each image and share them anonymously.

Once you collect all the captions, display them on a shared platform or in a common area. Employees can vote on their favorite captions. Whoever’s caption gets the most votes wins! This simple activity encourages creativity and collaboration while fostering camaraderie.

11. Film Festival

A Film Festival is one of the most fun indoor team building activities. Colleagues will get to relax and bond during this experience. To organize a festival, start by choosing a theme or genre that your team enjoys. Then, have each team member suggest a movie related to the theme. During a lunch break or after work, employees can watch the movie. Colleagues can spend time talking about themes, characters, and opinions after each film. By watching and discussing movies together, teams will learn more about each other’s preferences.

12. Backyard Camping

Backyard Camping is a great team building activity! For this event, find a spacious area at the office. Employees can set up tents, sleeping bags, and other camping gear. Folks can bring their own gear, or you can provide it. You can make the environment more cozy by setting up a campfire pit, roasting marshmallows, and telling stories.

Teams can also play outdoor games like cornhole, horseshoes, or frisbee. Barbecue or potluck-style dinners make for tasty additions to the party. Finally, organize nature-themed activities like night hikes or stargazing. Spending time outdoors together is one of the top ways to create connections.

Here is a list of team building camps to visit .

13. Silent Line-Up

Silent Line-Up encourages cooperation and communication among coworkers. To host this activity, start by writing some orders folks could arrange themselves in. For instance, birthdays, height, or shoe size. Participants must stand in a line according to the order. However, the catch is that players cannot talk during this exercise. Players must rely on nonverbal cues to arrange themselves correctly. This activity improves communication and coordination skills.

14. Sneak a Peek

Sneak a Peek is a simple team building game you can host at the office. During this activity, you will start by splitting workers into teams. Then, groups nominate one player as the artist. The artist gets to look at an object or photo for ten seconds. After seeing the object, folks must draw it. The first team to correctly identify the object in the drawing wins!

This exercise encourages teamwork, enhances communication, and promotes creativity among colleagues. Plus, Sneak a Peek is easy to host, so you can play at any time!

15. Beekeeping Experience

Beekeeping is one of the most creative team building activities that puts folks to the test. To host a beekeeping workshop, find a garden or outdoor area where participants can interact with bees. Next, invite a knowledgeable beekeeper or expert to lead the workshop. Speakers can talk about bee behavior, hive management, and making honey.

During the interactive portion, participants can wear bee suits and gloves. Experts can show teams how to inspect hives and extract honey. Teams can work together to try these techniques themselves. Afterward, you can try tasty kinds of honey together. By attending a beekeeping workshop, teams will learn new skills and collaborate.

16. Bike-Building for Charity

Bike-Building for Charity is one of the best corporate team building activities. This experience promotes collaboration while supporting a worthy cause. Participants work with nonprofits to build children’s bicycles. Organizations then donate these bikes to kids in need.

This hands-on experience encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and trust-building. Further, teams will get to collaborate on a shared goal. Best of all, this activity supports your community!

Here are more charity team building ideas .

17. Minecraft Team Building

Minecraft is one of the most effective team building games! To play this game as a team, start by creating a shared server. Once folks join, you can give them different tasks or goals to accomplish. For instance, players could build a structure, solve puzzles, or complete a survival challenge. Members can work together, delegate, and communicate to complete their tasks.

This activity is great for team building because you can play as many times as you would like. In addition, folks can access Minecraft from a variety of systems. Teams will get to use their creativity and collaborate on shared goals.

18. Beer and Food Pairing Contest

The Beer and Food Pairing Contest is a fun team activity for work. To organize this event, begin by splitting participants into groups. These teams will collaborate to create unique beer and food pairings. When setting up the pairing stations, choose a selection of beers from different styles. For instance, lagers, ales, stouts, and IPAs. Further, gather a variety of ingredients for crafting dishes or snacks.

During the contest, set a timer for teams to plan their pairings. Judges can score the combinations based on taste and creativity. At the end of the competition, announce the winners and offer prizes. This format encourages teamwork, creativity, and friendly competition among participants. In addition, the whole team will enjoy having tasty drinks and snacks together.

Here is a list of virtual beer tasting ideas .

19. Indoor Herb Garden Workshop

Learning to plant an herb garden is a relaxing way to help your team bond. To run this event, gather materials such as pots, soil, seeds, and gardening tools. Participants will learn about different types of herbs and their growing needs.

Then, folks can plant their own herb gardens. Steps include proper soil preparation, seeding, and watering. For a creative twist, encourage teams to decorate their pots and labels. Finally, offer tips on caring for the herbs and harvesting them for cooking. Participants can learn from each other’s experiences and share gardening tips and tricks.

20. Bath Bomb Crafting Session

Making bath bombs is fun and gives employees a relaxing activity to look forward to. For this experience, set up a workspace with ingredients such as baking soda, citric acid, essential oils, and food coloring. In addition, provide molds, mixing bowls, and instructions for participants to follow.

Teams can take some time to learn how the different bath bomb ingredients will interact. Then, folks can mix and mold the ingredients to create bath bombs of various shapes and sizes. Participants should experiment with different scents and colors to customize their creations. Once workers finish the bath bombs, allow them to dry before packaging them to take home and enjoy.

21. Roller Skating Disco Party

A Roller Skating Disco Party is a throwback activity that is a ton of fun! To organize this event, rent a roller skating rink or find a suitable venue with a smooth surface for skating. Disco lights, a DJ playing funky music, and retro decorations will set the ambiance.

The party can start with a skating tutorial for beginners. Then, participants can skate around to their favorite disco tunes! Attendees can even dress in disco-themed outfits. If you encourage costumes, then host contests for the best-dressed skater or the best disco dance moves. This experience is a memorable way to create workplace connections.

22. Kombucha Brewing Workshop

Hosting a Kombucha Brewing Workshop is a fun way to learn new skills and bonds. When planning this activity, gather tea, sugar, glass jars, and SCOBYs. The SCOBY, or symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, ferments the tea.

Teams can go through each step of making kombucha, including brewing tea, adding sugar, and placing the SCOBY. Workers can leave their jars to ferment at the office. Once the jars sit for seven to 12 days, teams can add extra flavorings like fruit juice. After another two to four days, the tea is ready, and employees can restart the process! This unique activity is a hands-on way to create connections.

Final Thoughts

Team building is an essential part of creating strong bonds in the office. This list offers several types of team building activities your employees can do together. Doing team building exercises regularly will help maintain team connections. Folks will enhance trust, improve communication skills, and increase job satisfaction. These skills can lead to better results for your company as a whole.

Next, check out our posts on team building programs , team building tasks , and unusual team building activities for work .

FAQ: Team building activities for work

Here are frequently asked questions about team building activities for work.

Why are team building activities at work important?

Team building activities play an important role in developing employee relationships. These exercises enhance creativity, improve communication skills, and promote productivity.

How do you choose the right team building activities for your workplace?

Choosing the right team building activity for your workplace depends on several factors. For instance, hosts should consider the nature of work, team size, or employee availability.

How can team building activities help improve workplace culture?

These exercises can help establish stronger bonds, promoting an open and cooperative culture.

What are the options for virtual team building activities?

Several options are great for team building online. For example, playing Minecraft or Sneak a Peek.

Can team building activities improve team performance?

Team building activities can encourage conversations, which can improve work output.

Author avatar

Author: Michael Alexis

CEO at teambuilding.com. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.

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COMMENTS

  1. Team Building Exercises

    Exercise 1: Early Bird vs. Second Mouse This exercise was inspired by the saying (often attributed to American comedian Stephen Wright): "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." In it, two teams explore the implications of the phrase through presentation, debate and discussion. Uses

  2. Three Exercises For Your Annual Team Planning Day

    Exercise One: The One-Page Strategy And Plan This is exactly what it sounds like.

  3. 12 Strategic Planning Exercises to Help You Get Amazing Results Next

    Here are 12 powerful strategy exercises to help you think differently, set strategic priorities, align your plans, and get better results. Strategic Planning Basics These are the simple, time-tested strategic planning questions that are widely used in goal-setting, prioritization, and execution: Strategic Planning - What's the current situation?

  4. 20 Essential Strategic Thinking Exercises for Maximum Impact

    1. Scenario Planning Scenario planning is an exercise that encourages participants to envision various future scenarios for their organization. By brainstorming potential situations, team members can anticipate potential challenges, develop new ideas, and create actionable plans to tackle those challenges.

  5. Strategic Thinking Exercises for Teams: Enhance Collaboration and

    Exercises such as scenario planning and quantifying statistics can be particularly useful in promoting strategic thinking among team members.

  6. 4 Strategic Planning Exercises That You Should Do Annually

    Growing a Business 4 Strategic Planning Exercises That You Should Do Annually Start with a SWOT framework for every department. That's short for 'strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and...

  7. PDF Chapter3-ENVISION-Group Exercises to Liven Up Planning

    A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is a classic planning exercise. It allows a group to articulate their current internal organizational strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats facing the organization. Here is a fun, fast way to generate your SWOT snapshot.

  8. Icebreaker Activities

    1. What would be the title of your autobiography? Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts. Purpose: Preparing for activities like crafting a vision statement. 2. If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself? Theme: Naming stuff is hard! Purpose: Practicing packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase.

  9. How to Do Strategic Planning Like a Futurist

    July 30, 2019. Summary. Chief strategy officers and those responsible for shaping the direction of their organizations are often asked to facilitate "visioning" meetings. This helps teams ...

  10. 7 Strategies to Build a More Resilient Team

    Show That You Care: Leaders have to regularly demonstrate that they are genuinely interested in the progress the team is making, asking probing questions to understand underlying issues. But ...

  11. Team Building Exercises and Activities

    Think about the team building potential of routine workplace activities, first. Then, use the following four strategies to develop your team's strength, cohesiveness and effectiveness day to day: 1. Get to Know Your Team. Your team is made up of people with different needs, ambitions and personalities. Getting to know them, and helping them ...

  12. 3 Exercises to Boost Your Team's Creativity

    In this article, he describes three new training techniques, which, as he puts it, overturn the "most common creativity practices employed by modern businesses.". Almost every business, of ...

  13. 5 Useful Strategy Workshop Exercises

    1. The Solution Board For this exercise, you need a whiteboard and a single topic. Here's what you do. Write down the topic or challenge the business is facing on the whiteboard. Then, you give everybody five minutes or so to call out a solution to the problem.

  14. How to Facilitate a Strategic Planning Session [2024 Strategic Planning

    Too bad actually facilitating a group of people isn't. It takes a tremendous amount of energy, focus, quick thinking, and patience to facilitate a meeting. Following the first two steps in this blog post (Step 1: THINK and Step 2: PLAN), you are set up for a successful session. But there is still much work to do.

  15. 10 Strategic Planning Team Building Activities for Your Employees

    Here are some amazing activities to develop the strategic planning skills of your employees. #1. Brain Mapping. Brain Mapping is a team building activity that encourages collaboration between team members while creating effective solutions. Time: 30 minutes - 1 hour. Materials: Computer, Whiteboard/Paper, and Markers.

  16. How to Run a Collaborative Roadmapping Exercise with Your Team

    Step 1: Invite the right people. In the next section, we'll discuss which departments and teams you'll want to be represented in your meeting. For now, the key is to set up a dedicated collaboration platform for this group. We'll assume you're using Microsoft Teams. You can create a "Collaborative Roadmapping Team" or "Roadmap ...

  17. Team Strategy Workshop Activities

    Team Strategy Workshop Activities team strategy Team Energiser Idea Generation Issue Resolution Issue Analysis Action Skills Remote Filter 3 results Sort by: Popular Add new resource Team Purpose Canvas # team alignment # team strategy # team building # culture design # purpose

  18. Strategic Planning Should Be a Strategic Exercise

    Graham Kenny. Summary. Many managers complain that strategy-making often reduces to an operational action plan that resembles the last one. To prevent that from happening they need to remember ...

  19. How To Develop Team Strategy Planning

    How to develop a strategic plan as a team. 1. Define the purpose of your plan. When starting a strategic planning session with your team, make sure you define the purpose of the process. Make it clear what goals and objectives your team needs to work toward. When creating an outline of your plan, make sure your team fully understands the scope ...

  20. The Complete Toolkit for Strategic Planning with Remote Teams

    A strategic plan is a formal map that explains how your company will execute a chosen strategy. The plan should spell out where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it's going to get there. Strategic planning with a remote team can present both challenges and opportunities. Although this is typically done face to face ...

  21. 10 Questions to Jumpstart Your Strategic Planning Process

    3. Which individual was most responsible for standing in the way of your organization's success this year? What are you going to do about it? 4. Which department, division, team or function was ...

  22. How to Write a Strategic Plan with Your Team

    Now, let's dive into the step-by-step process for writing a strategic plan with your team. Step 1: Define Your Mission and Vision. The first step in writing a strategic plan with your team is to define your organization's mission and vision. This should be a collaborative process involving all team members and stakeholders.

  23. An Exercise to Get Your Team Thinking Differently About the Future

    An Exercise to Get Your Team Thinking Differently About the Future. by. Leonard M. Fuld. January 23, 2015. Post. Post. LF. Leonard M. Fuld is founder and CEO of Fuld + Company, a global ...

  24. 22 Top Team Building Activities for Work

    A Fitness Class Relay is one of the most fun team building activities. This exercise blends physical exercise with teamwork and friendly competition. To plan a relay, split players into teams and assign exercises for each part of the relay. Teams compete in fitness challenges like running, push-ups, squats, and obstacle courses.

  25. How To Create A Roadmap For Effective Team Building

    3. Have Patience And A Plan. A roadmap for effective team building requires planning and patience. My client committed to an 18-month plan to train her department on a team assessment.