IMPACT!

The Move Towards Strategic Conversations

It's not taught at Harvard!

Most important skill you can learn.

Not a garden-variety meeting!

Meetings With Impact

• Creative, Collaborative

Meetings With Impact

• Creative, Collaborative
• Problem Solving

It's a strategic conversation!

Meetings With Impact

• Creative, Collaborative
• Problem Solving
• Tackles Messy ,Open Ended Challenges

Designing a strategic conversation is a craft!

Not a crapshoot!

It's A VUCA, VUCA WORLD

It's A VUCA, VUCA WORLD

VUCA World

• an environment of nonstop
• volatility
• uncertainty
• complexity
• ambiguity

VUCA World is like an amusement park -full or thrilling rides but not fun.

What VUCA environments is your organization facing?

Understanding technical & adaptable challenges critical to approaching strategic conversations.

What do you think are the differences between technical & adaptive challenges?

Technical challenges

• involve applying well-honed skills to well-defined problems

Technical challenges

• complex and can be resoled within well-understood boundaries

Technical challenges

• require traditional, hierarchial approaches

Adaptive Challenges

• messy, open-ended & ill-defined

Adaptive Challenges

• difficult to identify the right question--let alone the right answer

Many of your organization's strategic challenges wrestle with adaptive challenges

Navigating & solving adaptive challenges requires a different type of meeting

What adaptive challenges is your organization facing?

Too often are traditional meetings lead to conversations that try to cut wood with a paintbrush.

3 Meeting Options

• Standard Meeting
• Brainstorming Session
• Strategic Conversation

Which of these meetings work best for what?

3 Meeting Options

• Standard Meeting
• Brainstorming Session
• Strategic Conversation

5 Steps For Strategic Conversations: Meetings With Impact

1. Traditional Meeting - Declare The Objectives

1. Strategic Conversation -
Define The Purpose

Define The Purpose

• Develop a clear sense of the change the group needs to make together

Define The Purpose

• How this conversation will advance that process

2. Traditional Meeting
Identify Participants

2. Strategic Conversation
Identify Perspectives

Identify Perspectives

• Dig deeper to understand the values & concerns of each participant & stakeholder group

Identify Perspectives

• Discover which perspectives, not just people, must be represented such as customers and employees not in the room

3. Traditional Meeting - Assemble The Content

3. Strategic Conversation - Framing Issues & Content That Illuminates

Framing Content

• Illuminating different aspects of the adaptive challenge

Framing Content

• How various parts relate to the hole
• Helps participants get heads around complexity which accelerates insight and alignment

Framing Content

• How various parts relate to the hole
• Helps participants get heads around complexity which accelerates insight and alignment
• A good frame helps insights tick and accelerates progress on tough issues

4. Traditional Meeting - Set The Agenda

4. Strategic Conversation -
Make It An Experience

Make It An Experience

• Attend to emotional & psychological experience of participants

Make It An Experience

• Logical, intuitive & creative

5. Traditional Meeting - Find A Venue

5. Strategic Conversation -
Set The Scene

Set The Scene

• Make thoughtful choices about all elements of the environment - physical space, artifacts, aesthetics

Set The Scene

• Room setup should send a message about how participants are to relate to one another.

Traditional well-organized meetings hit the bull's eye when goal is clear.

Well-designed strategic conversations find the way when the path isn't clear.