The Role and Importance of Strategy Workshops

Twenty years ago strategy was synonymous with formalised strategic planning. Nowadays, althoughstrategic planning systems still exist in organisations, they are not seen as the main or only vehiclethrough which strategies actually develop. It is recognised that other managerial processes play animportant role.iOne of those processes is strategy workshops or away days and it seems that these have becomevery commonplace. They typically take the form of managers taking time from their everyday tasksto consider the strategic situation facing the organisation and how they might best move forward.Although there has been much research into traditional strategic planning systems, we know very littleabout strategy workshops. Indeed at the start of the project summarised in this report we found thateven basic information, such as how often these workshops take place, which types of organisationundertake them, who goes on them, the perceived effectiveness of these events, and so on, is simplynot known. So here we have a common phenomenon, supposedly influencing the strategy developmentof organisations, about which we know virtually nothing. In the absence of such information how canorganisations improve the practice of strategy workshops, developing individuals to play an effectiverole in these events? The project reported here was undertaken to help address this major shortfallin our knowledge of this sphere of management practice.[...]