6.

7: Strategy workshops

BB835   The dynamics of strategy

6.7: Strategy workshops

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6.7: Strategy workshops

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6.7: Strategy workshops
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2.1

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6.7: Strategy workshops

Contents
 Introduction
 Research on strategy workshops
 Research method
 Workshop process and activities
 Workshop outcomes
 Summary and conclusions of the research
 Activity 7.1
 Summary
 Conclusion
 Glossary
 References

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6.7: Strategy workshops

Introduction
Previous: 6.6: Strategists.

In the previous sessions we have provided a response to Mintzberg’s question, ‘Who

is the strategist anyway?’ We have gone beyond a simple answer and considered how
strategists may undertake their strategising and how the internal groups of strategists
may interact. In this section we look at a typical means by which individuals get
involved in strategy – strategy workshops. This is important as it is one medium
through which strategies emerge in organisations. Workshops are formal occasions
when those involved in making strategy get together to talk strategy into being,
sustaining strategic discourses. Yet, we know little about what actually happens
during such events. Strategy workshops have only in recent years been a focus for
research. This section gives you the chance to consider strategy meetings research and
reflect on how your own experiences align or differ from those reported.

This section is perhaps the most micro of all the perspectives through which we
investigate how strategy happens in organisations, as we now consider the preparation
that goes into strategy workshops, who leads them, their duration and what tools are
used. We take a look inside strategy workshops at who is involved, what happens and
how they are accomplished. You should remember that, although strategy workshops
are micro in nature, they are linked to the broader, macro structural configurations
discussed earlier in the unit. For example, it seems reasonable to speculate that the
type and use of strategy workshops will be influenced by the kind of organisation
configuration we looked at in the beginning of this unit. As organisations realise that
strategy knowledge and capability is not only restricted to senior managers,
workshops are likely to become more utilised, more important and more relevant for
our study.

Research on strategy workshops

We draw on two sources to discuss the role and importance of workshops in making
strategy happen. The first is a report published by the Advanced Institute of
Management Research (AIM), The Role and Importance of Strategy
Workshops. Findings of a UK Survey, published in July 2005. The second is
an academic paper published in Long Range Planning (LRP). LRP is a journal
that aims at both an academic and a practitioner audience; so, unlike the AMR article
in the section about senior and middle manager interaction in Session 6.6, the content
of LRP is assumed to be more accessible to a practitioner audience as well as being
relevant to an academic readership.

The authors of the AIM report are the academics Gerard P. Hodgkinson, Gerry
Johnson, Richard Whittington and Mirela Schwartz (Hodgkinson et al., 2005). They
are also the authors of the academic paper in LRP (Hodgkinson et al., 2006) In fact,
the research that the report is based on is also used as the source of the academic

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6.7: Strategy workshops
article. This is quite a common practice. Academics sometimes receive funding to
undertake a specific piece of research that will appear in two or more formats: in this
case a report aimed at practitioners and an academic paper aimed at both academics
and practitioners. You will be asked (in Activity 7.1) to read the academic paper,
although, of course, you may wish to read the AIM report as well.

Research method
The authors, in conjunction with AIM, used a survey method to send a questionnaire
to 8,000 AIM members in the UK, drawn from all management levels, sectors and
sizes of organisation:

 A total of 1,337 (1,305 valid) returns were received, a response rate of

16.71 per cent.
 This was divided between 42.8 per cent from the not-for-profit sector,
and 57.2 per cent from the for-profit sector.
 Of the participants completing the survey, 30.7 per cent were
directors, 45.7 per cent were senior managers, with just 22.4 per cent
drawn from other levels.

Key findings
The researchers wanted to know how frequently workshops were held:

 44.8 per cent reported that workshops were held in their organisations
at least once a year.
 15.4 per cent said that workshops occurred once every two years.
 14.7 per cent reported occasional use of workshops (once every three
to four years).
 22.7 per cent stated that strategy workshops never occurred in their
organisations.

Purposes of workshops
The purposes that participants identified for holding strategy workshops were many
and varied. Approximately two-thirds of the sample indicated that workshops are part
of their organisation’s regular strategy development processes. Other reasons given
included team building and changes to organisational structure. The authors noted that
very few workshops seem to be crisis driven, the overwhelming majority being
triggered by developmental needs.

Preparation for workshops

A significant finding is that very limited time was spent actually preparing for the
workshops. The authors suggest that the majority of participants must rely on their

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6.7: Strategy workshops
existing managerial experience and knowledge, and this may help to explain why
comparatively few analytical tools were used.

Workshop process and activities

Workshops mainly last for two days or fewer (90 per cent), and are held off-site (73
per cent). Almost half of the workshops (44 per cent) are one-off events, as opposed
to being part of a series or themed process. Well over half (62.5 per cent) of
respondents indicated that their organisation has a formal strategic planning process.

The majority of the workshops (61.1 per cent) were led by senior directors (including
the chairperson or CEO). Relatively few were led by other internal members of staff
or external consultants.

The stakeholder groups involved in the strategy workshops were identified as follows:

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6.7: Strategy workshops
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6.7: Strategy workshops
A question was asked about the use of analytical tools during workshops. These were
identified as follows:

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6.7: Strategy workshops
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6.7: Strategy workshops
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Workshop outcomes
A majority of respondents agree (60.4 per cent) or strongly agree (10.2 per cent) that
the strategy workshop they last attended achieved its objectives. However, a
significant number disagree (8.5 per cent) or strongly disagree (1.5 per cent). In terms
of impact on the organisation their findings indicate that:

 The greatest impact of strategy workshops is on the content of

organisational strategy.
 However, one-third of respondents reported an impact other than on
strategy content.
 Over 40 per cent perceived either no impact or a negative impact of
workshops on measurable outputs, including productivity and
profitability; in contrast roughly one-third perceived a positive impact
on these outcomes.
 Over 40 per cent perceived either no impact or a negative impact on
levels of innovation.
 Over 50 per cent perceived no impact or a negative impact on
functional aspects of the organisation such as brand management or
the use of technology.

Summary and conclusions of the research

The research findings on the nature and role of strategy workshops found:

 Strategy workshops are an integral part of making strategy happen in

many organisations.
 They are used primarily to question, challenge and innovate new
strategies, not as a response to crises.
 They are of short duration, i.e., two days or fewer and usually held
away from the office.
 Typically, they are led by members of the senior management team
rather than external facilitators. However, external facilitators were
used in about 16.5 per cent of cases.
 While in a number of cases other stakeholder groups are involved, in
the majority of these events senior managers predominate.

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6.7: Strategy workshops
 Participants typically
spend half a day or less in preparation, implying
a high dependency on managerial experience.

On the effectiveness of strategy workshops, they found:

 About 75 per cent of respondents reported that workshops provide an

effective input into the strategic plan of the organisation.
 They help participants improve their understanding of the
organisation’s goals and clarify their personal motivations. Such
events play a significant organisational and personal development
role, as well as addressing issues.
 Less clear, however, is the extent to which and in what ways
workshops impact on the measurable aspects of organisational
performance or outputs.

A couple of limitations of the study need emphasising. First, survey questionnaires of

the type used here rely on self-reported data. No other method was used by the
authors to triangulate or verify the information that was being reported. This could
lead to respondents supplying data that they thought the researchers wanted to
receive. Second, and linked to this, the majority of respondents were directors and
senior managers. These people are conventionally held to be responsible for strategy
in their organisations. In this sense, they have a vested interest in presenting a positive
view of their own organisation’s strategic activity, including strategy workshops,
because they are the people most likely to be held responsible for their effective
accomplishment. While we should not dismiss the data as invalid, we should read it
with these thoughts in mind.

Reading the academic paper drawn from the research, you may get a different
perspective on the findings, because one of its intended audiences – academics – will
be expecting a more critically informed analysis. This is the subject of the next
activity.

Activity 7.1
Timing: Allow 1 hour for this activity.

Purpose: To understand what the strategy research says about strategy workshops.

Task: Read, analyse and assess an academic paper on strategy

workshops
Read the paper by Hodgkinson, et al. (2006), ‘The role of strategy workshops
in strategy development processes: formality, communication, co-
ordination and inclusion’.

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6.7: Strategy workshops
Make notes as you read through the paper, picking out any insights that help you
develop a broader and deeper understanding of strategy workshops. Do not simply
duplicate what you have learned in this section, but focus on the different emphasis of
the academic paper as opposed to the report from which the information in this
section is taken. After you have done this consider how your experience of strategy
workshops aligns with or differs from the authors’ findings. If you have had no
involvement in strategy workshops in the past, consider how you feel they should be
run to ensure they are effective.

View feedback - Task: Read, analyse and assess an academic paper

on strategy workshops

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6.7: Strategy workshops

Summary
In this session we have looked at strategy workshops. The data and information we
have drawn on relate to a study of strategy workshops in the UK, so it may be that in
other countries strategy workshops are accomplished differently, with different
aspects emphasised. The impression left from the report and academic paper is that
workshops, although reasonably common, are ill prepared for and under utilised. In
particular, it appears that an opportunity is being missed in that strategy analysis tools
do not seem to be widely used. A deeper level of strategic understanding is possible
through the use of the kind of tools you have been introduced to in this module. Based
on the evidence presented here, strategy workshops appear to be an under-used
strategy mechanism.

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6.7: Strategy workshops

Conclusion
In this unit we have examined how organisations are able to make strategy happen.
This can involve implementing a pre-existing strategy, creating strategy in an
emergent way, or a combination of the two. We first examined how strategy and
structure are related, and identified the two dominant perspectives: that structure
follows strategy (Chandler’s view), or that strategy follows structure. We also looked
at the different structural forms, or configurations, that organisations adopt and their
associated advantages and disadvantages.

We maintained our macro perspective and next discussed how strategic control
systems may be used to influence how people and groups in organisations behave.
This is done so that strategies can be effectively implemented.

Our discussion of culture focused on the relationship between individual and

organisational culture, and examined how this can mediate the successful
implementation of strategy. Key to this session was the realisation that cross-cultural
working can occur in the same organisation and that individuals need to become more
aware of their own cultural biases and assumptions.

The notion of strategic drift was advanced as one means by which organisations
realise that change is necessary.

We then looked at strategists – who they are and what they do. The strategic activities
of senior and middle managers were analysed, and we identified how the traditional
roles assigned to them in the strategy literature are being updated. Drawing on a major
new conceptual paper, we then examined how senior managers and middle managers
may effectively interact to improve not only strategic decision quality but also
implementation quality.

Lastly, we adopted our most micro perspective to consider how strategy workshops
are used: who leads them, who attends them and what strategy tools are used.

By looking at how strategy is made to happen in this way, we have developed your
awareness of both the macro structures and the micro activities of strategists to form
an integrated and dynamic understanding of strategy and strategists in action.

We hope you have enjoyed studying Unit 6. When you are ready, please move on to
Unit 7: Thinking and acting strategically.

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6.7: Strategy workshops

Glossary
Triangulate
Combining of more than one source; usually applied to data when interviews
and observation are combined, for example.

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6.7: Strategy workshops

References
Hodgkinson, G.P., Whittington, R., Johnson, G. and Schwarz, M. (2006) ‘The role of
strategy workshops in strategy development processes: formality, communication, co-
ordination and inclusion’, Long Range Planning, vol.39, no. 5, pp. 479–96.

Raes, A.M., Heijltjes, M.G., Glunk, U. and Roe, R.A. (2011) ‘The interface of the top
management team and middle managers: a process model’, Academy of
Management Review, vol.36, no. 1, pp. 102–26.

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6.7: Strategy workshops

Task: Read, analyse and assess an academic

paper on strategy workshops
Feedback
Hodgkinson et al. (2006) present a rather depressing ‘state of play’ analysis of how
organisations in the UK use strategy workshops. They focus on three main points.
First, they find that strategy workshops are predominantly events attended by senior
managers, representing a top-down view of strategy. Second, they present a surprising
finding that only 16.5 per cent of workshops use external facilitators, such as external
consultants; they see this as leading to the last point. They characterise strategy
workshops as ‘discussion forums’, noting that the application of analytical tools (like
the ones we introduced in Units 2, 3 and 4) is low, and suggest this may be because
experienced facilitators are not used. As a result, workshop participants rely on
existing knowledge and simple heuristics.

It seems that, according to Hodgkinson et al.’s data (2006) , middle managers and
senior managers seldom interact when undertaking strategy development processes.
Middle manager involvement is restricted to implementation planning. The authors
advocate greater involvement of middle managers. This, of course, links in with the
section in Session 6.6 that looked at a model for senior and middle manager
interaction (Raes, et al., 2011). In a sense, Hodgkinson et al. (2006) call for this
involvement and Raes et al. (2011) provide a model for how it might be achieved; but,
as yet, there are few studies that actually examine how it has been done in the messy
worlds that strategists inhabit.

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