Allow me to make one thing clear: strategy is not developed through brainstorming.
Brainstorming is a creative technique used for generating a large quantity of ideas.
The whole point of brainstorming is that these ideas are not based on judgement, reason or critique and that’s precisely what makes them unfit to be the sole strategy development tool.
Strategy is about making focused, intentional decisions to guide action towards a specific goal. This is why strategy cannot be developed or planned in a two-day strategic retreat.
If your annual strategic retreat is the most dedicated time you commit to developing your strategic plan, then it is safe to say you are at risk of critically missing the mark.
The annual strategic retreat should be the culmination of an extensive internal strategic management process.
One of the most fundamentally flawed assumptions in the traditional manner of strategic retreats is the assumption that all strategic priorities, challenges and solutions lie in the minds of those who are in that particular room, usually the executive management and the board.
An extensive internal strategic management process that incorporates views and solutions from all levels of the organisation should precede a strategic retreat.
For a strategic retreat to be successful, thorough preparation and due process are more important than the venue or agenda for the day.
Preparation helps to reveal the unknown factors that can easily be missed if you do not do the correct analysis of data and trends.
The most dangerous of these are the factors you do not know. It is possible to miss something so critical and not even be aware of it. Those losses are literally incalculable.
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