BrainZooming

OCTOBER 11, 2016

It received enough attention that we decided to share an additional strategic thinking exercise that puts a twist on the typical SWOT analysis. To add depth and breadth to the strategic thinking exercise, however, we add four probes to each area of the SWOT analysis. Need to get your strategy developed quickly?

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Strategic Thinking Exercises Analysis Underperforming Technical Team 40

BrainZooming

APRIL 5, 2016

It seems ridiculous to help a company become better at strategic thinking and marketing without being allowed to tell them how to do it. Strategic Thinking Exercises – 3 Responses to New Ideas. The answer could suggest their strategic thinking wasn’t effective in this situation.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Exercises Underperforming Technical Team Brainstorming 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 2, 2016

That is when you discover whether you have a solid, implementable plan or something that (maybe) looks good on paper, but doesn’t work well when you try to execute the strategy. 9 Strategic Thinking Questions for Helping Teams Execute Strategy. Do you personally believe in the strategy?

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Strategic Thinking Strategy Strategy Strategic Management 40

BrainZooming

JUNE 26, 2018

Engage your audience in collaborative strategic planning earlier than later. If you engage your audience early in the collaborative strategic planning process, you can make a legitimate claim to creating a collaborative vision. That means the range of collaboration opportunities narrows.

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Collaboration Engagement Strategic Thinking Leadership 59

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Even if you are going into the meeting with the same old people , the same old topics, and the same old expectations to just get a strategy done and put into a notebook on a shelf so you can go back to doing what you’ve always been doing, there is hope! Use a New SWOT Strategic Thinking Exercise Nobody Expects. Outrageous.

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Strategic Thinking Exercises Underperforming Technical Team Analysis 40

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

During in-person and online strategic planning workshops , we regularly use a strategic thinking exercise that helps leadership groups quickly identify a shared future vision statement. The descriptions are purposely neither good nor bad; they simply represent ways an organization could pursue the strategy.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Exercises Underperforming Technical Team Groups 40

BrainZooming

APRIL 20, 2016

I asked them to engage in some strategic thinking about innovation opportunities for the company. They used that as a justification for opting out of strategic thinking. I disabused them of the idea, however, that their narrow job descriptions were synonymous with narrow strategic thinking roles.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Innovation Engagement Creative Thinking 40

BrainZooming

JANUARY 11, 2016

Here’s an idea for a new strategic thinking exercise that can be a big help. 4 Ways to Examine Brand Performance as a Strategic Thinking Exercise. This is definitely a strategic thinking exercise idea from the Brainzooming R&D lab. Actively engage more employees in strategy AND implementation success.

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Strategic Thinking Exercises Creativity Engagement 40

BrainZooming

DECEMBER 9, 2015

The overall group sizes for each innovation strategy workshop varied from fourteen to more than twenty-five people, depending on the topic. From a facilitation standpoint, it was the most arduous couple of days of going through strategic thinking exercises I recall. 11 Things Running through a Facilitator’s Head.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Exercises Groups Strategy 40

BrainZooming

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

We have been working with a client that had done a lot of strategic thinking about a new initiative. Those are six starting places to use when you are doing strategic thinking about big lists. The thing is, they had done the hard strategic thinking and already had all the raw material they needed.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Groups Engagement Tools 40

BrainZooming

JUNE 29, 2017

While leading strategy development in a new company poses challenges (including needing to learn a tremendous amount as you go), it has a comparable number of advantages (Including not laboring under preconceived ideas about how the organization does things). Getting to What Is Strategic. What Is Strategic and What Isn’t?

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Resources Strategic Thinking Comparison Strategy 86

BrainZooming

DECEMBER 1, 2015

How do you gain the best advantage from the expertise, experience, and ideas inside your organization as you pursue strategic planning? It was a pleasure to talk with Kelly about the impact of collaborative strategy on strategic planning, a topic she and I have discussed off the air many times over the past few years.

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Collaboration Strategy Strategy Strategic Thinking 40

BrainZooming

MAY 6, 2016

At the 2016 Brand Strategy Conference, Antonia Dean, Director – Marketing, Brand Development, & Strategy at The Estée Lauder Companies covered the strategic thinking ideas behind creating an entrepreneurial environment in a large company. Actively engage stakeholders in strategy AND implementation success.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Underperforming Technical Team Company Entrepreneurship 40

BrainZooming

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

The week included: Large scale community collaboration workshops – Nearly eighty students from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale gathered Monday night and a comparable number of Carbondale, IL residents assembled on Tuesday for community collaboration workshops to imagine the community’s future with Gigabit Internet capabilities.

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Collaboration Strategic Thinking Groups Engagement 40

BrainZooming

AUGUST 11, 2016

What leadership skills are necessary to successfully champion a collaborative strategy ? A client fully immersed in developing and implementing a collaborative strategy asked that question. 4 Vital Characteristics of Collaborative Strategy Leaders.

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Collaboration Strategy Strategy Strategic Thinking 40

BrainZooming

OCTOBER 1, 2015

In nearly every Brainzooming community collaboration workshop, we conclude with a Plus-Minus-Interesting-Recommendation-Question exercise (a PMIRQ for short). 41 Surprising Things about Community Collaboration Done Well. New People Coming Together Collaboratively and Effectively. Small unknown group collaboration”.

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Collaboration Exercises Strategic Thinking Brainstorming 40

BrainZooming

AUGUST 1, 2016

If you’ve been a Brainzooming reader for any length of time, you know we’re huge proponents of collaborative strategic planning. Collaborative planning implies a process that goes beyond the board room to include individuals throughout the organization in meaningful ways to provide insights and input to shape organizational strategy.

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Collaboration eBook Strategy Strategy 40

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

We use multiple ways to gather input to ensure that by the time we bring a bigger group together for an in-person visioning workshop we’ve fully exploited more efficient, lower-risk, lower-investment formats to engage participants and solicit input for strategic planning. 3 Ways Online Collaboration Works to Deliver Big Benefits.

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Collaboration Creative Thinking Exercises Groups 40

BrainZooming

JUNE 28, 2016

Since strategy planning is an infrequent activity, it is difficult for executives to master it. We learned that if we asked executives a series of questions leading to the information needed to complete a strategy plan, they became productive strategy planners. Identify alternative internal strategies to secure support.

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Exercises Strategy Strategy Collaboration 65

BrainZooming

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

If you are responsible for leading the strategic planning process at your organization, dive in and tweak your process to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. 113 Ideas for Strategic Planning Process Improvement. 12 Questions to Jump Start Your Strategic Planning Process. 5 Ideas for Simplified Strategic Planning.

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Strategic Thinking Exercises Guidelines Strategy 40

BrainZooming

JULY 6, 2017

I delivered a keynote on the importance of collaborative internal branding during the SMC3 2017 Connections conference. The talk prompted several conversations about the distinctions between branding strategy and advertising. Subscribe to the free Brainzooming email updates.

Strategy 15

Strategy Strategy Comparison Conference 15

BrainZooming

APRIL 22, 2016

I debuted a presentation on “Results – Creating Strategic Impact,” our mini-book on employee engagement ideas to boost an organization’s strategic thinking. Download this free, action-focused mini-book to: Learn smart ways to separate strategic opportunities from the daily noise of business. And who knows.

Engagement 40

Engagement Strategic Thinking Underperforming Technical Team Exercises 40

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

There are a couple of different ways to apply structure to strategic planning exercises : You can enforce using templates and forms participants have to complete so their answers are uniformed and structured. This means there is no opportunity for productive collaboration to devise the plan.

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Exercises Strategic Thinking Collaboration Strategy 40

BrainZooming

APRIL 21, 2017

The folks at Armada Corporate Intelligence offered an internal branding strategy take on the United Airlines woes, offering strategic thinking questions you can ask and answer to improve your brand’s resiliency and avoid brand crises. 3 Ways Your Internal Branding Strategy Can Be Smarter than United Airlines.

Strategy 72

Strategy Strategy Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review 72

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

And the asterisk on fun acknowledges we’re stretching the definition of fun to cover things nerdy strategic planners think are fun such as “mental stimulation,” “highly collaborative groups,” and “people that want to be involved in strategic planning the next time it happens.”.

Exercises 40

Exercises Strategic Thinking Collaboration Groups 40

BrainZooming

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Here are four different approaches The Brainzooming Group employs with clients: Instead of using complex strategic exercises that aren’t beneficial outside planning, we use strategic thinking questions that fit how people think and work on a daily basis.

Strategic Thinking 40

Strategic Thinking Exercises Engagement Strategy 40

BrainZooming

JANUARY 22, 2016

And by done well, we mean that the vision statement: Is developed broadly and collaboratively. These fourteen articles recap our thinking and recommendations across these three areas. Collaborating on a Vision Statement. Strategic Planning – All the Strategy Roles You Need. What Are We Trying to Say?

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Exercises Collaboration Strategic Thinking Strategy 40

BrainZooming

JANUARY 15, 2016

Individuals Posing Creative Thinking Challenges. How Creative Thinking Gets Killed by Team Members – 8 Fatal Blows. 5 Ideas When an Uber-Positive Boss Crushes Creative Thinking. Strategic Thinking Skills – 29 Clues You’re Not Dealing with a Strategic Thinker.

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Creative Thinking Creativity Brainstorming Strategic Thinking 40

BrainZooming

JULY 25, 2016

If you want to go deeper on a viable strategy to improve employee engagement, download our Results eBook. It highlights an approach for more collaborative strategy that provides employees with a real opportunity to contribute their ideas and be a part of actively contributing to your organization’s direction. – Mike Brown.

Engagement 40

Engagement Strategy Strategy Strategic Thinking 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 21, 2016

To complement the in-person workshop content, The Brainzooming Group collaborated with Breanna Jacobs at GSMI, the Brand Strategy Conference producer, to publish a new free branding strategy eBook called, “Engaging Employees as an Internal Brand Team: 3 Actionable Strategies.”.

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Engagement eBook Strategy Strategy 40

BrainZooming

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

Because of this, the list was worthless for doing what I suspect everyone hoped it would do: provide a starting point for the strategic thinking needed to back into a definition of and explanation for what the new initiative would turn out to be. 6 Ways to Organize Ideas from Strategic Planning Exercises.

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Exercises Strategic Thinking Groups Engagement 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 9, 2016

This Brainzooming mini-book, “Results – Creating Strategic Impact” unveils ten proven lessons leaders can use to boost collaboration, meaningful strategic conversations, and results. Increase focus for your team with productive strategy questions everyone can use.

Creative Thinking 40

Creative Thinking Creativity Strategy Strategy 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 8, 2016

Strategic Thinking and 10 Fundamentals of Creating Strategic Impact. 9 Strategic Thinking Questions – Helping Teams Execute Strategy. Download this free, action-focused mini-book to: Learn smart ways to separate strategic opportunities from the daily noise of business. Preparing for Growth.

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Change Strategic Thinking Strategy Strategy 40

BrainZooming

JANUARY 20, 2016

Creating Strategic Impact” Senior executives are looking for employees who are strong collaborators and communicators while being creative and flexible. In short they need strategic thinkers who can develop strategy and turn it into results. Actively engage more employees in strategy AND implementation success.

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Project Strategic Thinking Strategy Strategy 40

BrainZooming

MARCH 16, 2016

This Brainzooming mini-book, “Results – Creating Strategic Impact” unveils ten proven lessons leaders can use to boost collaboration, meaningful strategic conversations, and results. Increase focus for your team with productive strategy questions everyone can use.

Exercises 40

Exercises Groups Strategy Strategy 40

BrainZooming

JULY 12, 2016

The right combination of outside perspectives and productive strategic thinking exercises enables your brand to ideate, prioritize, and propel innovative growth. Rapidly deploy effective strategic thinking exercises to spur innovation.

Engagement 40

Engagement Strategy Strategy eBook 40

BrainZooming

JANUARY 25, 2016

The thing is, there’s a different way to structure business meetings to help a group come together and collaborate in an innovative, productive way. Creating Strategic Impact” Senior executives are looking for employees who are strong collaborators and communicators while being creative and flexible.

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Meeting Collaboration Creative Thinking Tips 40