This two-day workshop equips leaders to think beyond day-to-day operations: reading their competitive environment, anticipating multiple futures and translating insight into a compelling vision that wins genuine buy-in. Participants apply proven strategy frameworks to real organizational challenges and learn from cases including Netflix versus Blockbuster and Microsoft under Satya Nadella.
The workshop finishes with a board-pitch capstone simulation and a personal 30/60/90-day action plan. A follow-up coaching session with Q&A supports key messages and adoption.
What we cover
Day 1, Module 1: What Is Strategic Thinking? Strategic versus operational thinking and the trap of defaulting to the mode that earned your last promotion. The six habits of mind of strategic thinkers. Exercise: Strategic or Operational?
Day 1, Module 2: Reading the Environment PESTLE scanning with the 'so what?' discipline. Porter's Five Forces. From SWOT to TOWS, pairing quadrants to turn analysis into moves (cases: Netflix vs Blockbuster, LEGO). Exercise: an environmental scan of your own industry.
Day 1, Module 3: Thinking in Systems & Time The Iceberg Model. Second-order thinking and the Cobra Effect. Scenario planning: the Shell story and the 2x2 method. Exercise: consequence mapping with a pre-mortem, and four futures for your industry.
Day 2, Module 4: Crafting a Compelling Vision Vision versus mission versus values versus strategy. The anatomy of a vision people will follow: vivid, ambitious, purpose-anchored, shared, choice-forcing, checkable. Cases: Kennedy's moonshot, Nadella, SpaceX, IKEA. Exercise: draft your vision, then paired scoring.
Day 2, Module 5: Communicating the Vision Why vision communication fails. Storytelling structure: Context, Stakes, Destination, Ask. Kotter's 8 Steps. Exercise: the 90-second vision pitch in trios with SBI feedback.
Day 2, Module 6: From Vision to Strategy to Action Playing to Win: five connected choices. The discipline of saying no. Cascading vision to Monday morning through priorities, team OKRs and individual goals.
Capstone: The Northgate Foods Challenge An executive-team simulation. Build a five-year vision and strategy for a legacy packaged-foods company facing core decline, in 75 minutes. Deliver a three-minute board pitch, take board Q&A, peer scoring and full-group debrief.
Close: Sustaining the Practice Strategic thinking as a weekly practice: strategy hour, outside-industry scanning, pre-mortems, quarterly radar reviews. A personal 30/60/90-day plan with an accountability partner.
Key takeaways
Strategic thinking is a distinct mode: synthesis about where to go, not analysis of how to optimize
Environmental reading only matters when every force ends in a specific, decision-ready 'so what'
Leverage lives below events, in structures and mental models
A vision changes nothing until it is over-communicated
Strategy is five reinforcing choices, and it becomes real only when something is stopped
Cascade two ways: every person can trace their Monday to the vision; every level can send truth back up
Every private session is adjusted to your tools, your files and the outcomes you are trying to hit. The final agenda is confirmed with your facilitator before delivery.
Mid- to senior-level leaders who are expected to set direction, not just deliver against it.
Leaders stepping up from operational roles into strategic ones
Executive and senior management teams who want a shared strategy language
Two days of instructor-led instruction
Frameworks reference: PESTLE, Five Forces, TOWS, Iceberg Model, scenario planning, Playing to Win
The Northgate Foods capstone simulation
A 30/60/90-day plan and a follow-up coaching session with Q&A
Live online — instructor-led, fully interactive, no travel
In-person — at your offices or a venue of your choice
Includes the Northgate Foods board-pitch capstone simulation
Pricing depends on delivery mode, group size and how much customisation you want. Tell us the shape and we will quote it.