Be Less Zombie

13Quick-Start Innovation Strategy Workshop

A step-by-step, pragmatic workshop to help your team create an innovation strategy.

This is a broad outline of a workshop that I use to help companies get started when a clear strategy isn't always available. Feel free to adapt it to suit your own purposes.

Preparation

• Schedule a meeting for the senior team in a month's time (ideally no more than 12 people, fewer is preferable). In my experience you'll need the best part of a day to do this justice. Don't be tempted to shortcut it – you will definitely regret it on the day.
• As part of the invitation provide each person with three blank postcards. On each postcard participants must write one critical milestone that the company needs to have achieved in three years' time. This is a milestone for the whole company, not just their function. Keep it deliberately vague at this stage (you'll see why in a moment). Also ask them to consider emerging trends and their potential impact on these milestones, too.
• Book a meeting room (ideally offsite) with a large wall that everyone can comfortably stand in front of, and that you are allowed to write on or cover with flipchart paper. (Nothing worse than the first step of your innovation strategy failing because the venue doesn't allow Blu Tac!)

The Meeting

• Copy the chart provided onto the meeting room wall.

• On a separate piece of flipchart paper, ...