Whenever I take a brief to facilitate a workshop I categorise them as either strategic (business or brand planning) or creative (generating ideas). I then shape the sessions accordingly. The strategy sessions tend to be relatively cerebral and formal, whilst the creative sessions are much more lively and playful. However, I’ve come to realise that this is a false distinction. The best workshops are where the two styles merge. When creative sessions become more strategic and vice versa. Here’s how you inject creativity into strategy workshops.

As with all successful workshops, it starts with planning. Click here for a previous post on how to plan successful workshops.

1 Make the pre-work more immersive

For strategy sessions, we tend to focus on pre-reading. Making sure everyone is up to speed with, for example, the latest consumer research, the numbers, and last year’s plan. This is all-important. (As long it’s not too boring.) As well as this, get participants to do something interesting and engaging. For example, interview a customer or consumer and capture the key findings. Try out some products (yours and your competitors) and compare them. Visit somewhere relevant, for example, a bar or a retailer.

Tailor the pre-work to the task. As long as people are given enough notice and it’s not too onerous, injecting a bit more creativity into the pre-work tasks will add value to your discussions.

2 Use creative exercises and break-out sessions

Often in strategy sessions, there’s lots of discussion in plenary, often around a large boardroom table. The risk is that it makes the session feel one-dimensional. Don’t be afraid to change the dynamic by using break-out sessions to generate fresh thinking.

For strategy sessions, the creative exercises that work well are those that focus on the bigger picture or the future. For example, ask people to bring to life the brands in the category through visuals. You can use this to understand your competitors or the market you operate in.

Use some invented ‘future world’ scenarios to help in long-term planning. For example, let’s imagine a future world where people can no longer socialise in large groups, or where the motor vehicle has been banned. (Use whatever scenario is relevant to your task.) Then use this to inform your discussions.

One of the most popular future world exercises is called ‘Heaven and ‘Hell’. You ask one team to imagine ‘heaven’ - a future world scenario where all your hopes and dreams come true and you ask the other to imagine ‘hell’ a future world where everything goes wrong. Then, you ask each team to step back and reflect. The ‘heaven' team reflects and captures actions that will ‘make heaven a reality. The hell team reflects and captures actions that ‘avoid hell happening’. This exercise generates fresh perspectives on future planning.

3 Don’t forget the playful bits

Because strategy sessions are cerebral and usually involve senior people, we often forget the playful elements reserved for creative sessions. In some ways, the playful elements are more important here than in creative workshops because of the reflective nature of the topics. Obviously, choose your energisers carefully. You don't want to embarrass people or waste valuable time. But asking people to do some physical stretches, play a few games, and take part in a quiz are all important and necessary distractions that will add to the energy and productivity of the workshop. For more suggestions on introducing fun into your workshops, click here.

In summary

Beware of falling into the trap of thinking that strategy sessions should just be serious and discursive. Inject creativity in the workshop set-up and during the session itself. Make the pre-work interesting, use relevant creative exercises, and deploy energisers. Don’t reserve them for the creative sessions. It will ensure your strategy workshop is more enjoyable, focused, and productive.