Strategic planning meeting facilitation · OKR Consultants
Strategic planning meeting facilitation that ends with decisions
With our strategic planning meeting facilitation, your leadership team spends two days that end with explicit choices across the core business, emerging growth engines and longer-term bets, a clear split of resources and management attention, and a focused set of company-level OKRs for the next 90 days.
At a glance
Why this agenda
What strategic planning meeting facilitation has to deliver
Growing companies reach a point where new products, routes to market and geographies compete for the same people and budget. A good strategic planning meeting gives the leadership team clarity on five questions and holds it to two standards. Here is how the agenda answers each one.
The framework on one page
Prepare, choose, commit, follow through
Six steps over two days, each answering one question and ending with one decision. Day 2 builds directly on what day 1 decided, so the choices turn into commitments while everyone is still in the room.
Prep session
One hour with eight structured questions, a short pre-survey and your key numbers
Face the facts
One shared picture and the decisions the offsite has to make
Balance core, growth, bets
An agreed split of money, people and attention across core, growth and bets
Choose where to win
Explicit choices for core, growth and bets, including what you will not pursue
Name the critical few
Three to five company priorities, each with one owner
Stress-test and stop
Counter-moves for the biggest risks and a not-now list
Set OKRs and the rhythm
Company-level OKRs for the next 90 days with review dates
90-day rhythm
Regular check-ins and a review of the OKRs after about 90 days
You leave with explicit choices across the core business, growth engines and bets, an agreed split of resources and management attention, three to five critical priorities, a not-now list and company-level OKRs for the next 90 days – each with one owner.
Core, growth, bets
Core, growth engines, bets: three different decisions
Separating the core business, the next growth engines and longer-term bets is the backbone of the strategic conversation. Each asks a different question and ends with a different kind of decision.
Core business
Strengthen and scale the core
What must we scale first, and which capabilities do we need for it?
The business that carries the company today, and the capabilities that decide how fast it can grow.
Decision: core priorities and the capabilities to build.
Growth engines
Back the next growth engines
Which emerging engine deserves real investment now?
New products, routes to market and geographies that could become material over the next few years.
Decision: the one or two engines you back, and how you measure traction.
Future bets
Place deliberate bets
Which options do we keep open, and at what cost?
Longer-term opportunities explored as small, time-boxed bets with clear learning milestones.
Decision: a few named bets, and what is consciously parked.
Inspired by the growth portfolio thinking of Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley and David White in The Alchemy of Growth (1999), combined with OKRs and our own facilitation format. OKR Consultants is not affiliated with the authors or their publishers.
What to expect
The strategic planning meeting agenda, step by step
A proposed flow that we refine together in the prep session, including what success after the offsite means for you.
The first day
Day 1 · Choose
From a shared picture to explicit choices across the core business, growth engines and betsPurpose, decision rights, ground rules
We confirm what the offsite must decide, who gives input and who makes the final call, and how the team will work together for two days.
Result: a clear contract for the two days.
1 · Face the facts
The pre-survey and evidence pack go on the wall: ARR development, customer and pipeline signals, running initiatives and where people and leadership time actually go. Everyone reads and notes first, then the team compares.
Result: one shared picture and the three or four decisions the offsite has to make.
2 · Balance core, growth and bets
Current and proposed initiatives are sorted into core business, growth engines and bets as a starting point. Then each leader splits 100 points of budget, people and attention, today and as it should be.
Result: an agreed target split across core, growth and bets.
3 · Choose where to win
For the core, the growth engines and the bets, two or three real options are scored against agreed criteria such as ARR impact, fit with capabilities, speed to evidence and effort. The team decides and names what it will not pursue.
Result: explicit choices for core, growth and bets.
Check-out and overnight question
A short round on what was decided and one question to sleep on before day 2.
Result: decisions that settle overnight.
The second day
Day 2 · Commit
From choices to priorities, owners and company-level OKRsRecap and overnight reflections
What still holds after a night's sleep, and what needs a second look before the team commits.
Result: confirmed choices from day 1.
4 · Name the critical few
The choices become a long list of what must go right. The team narrows it to three to five company priorities and agrees one accountable owner for each.
Result: three to five critical priorities with owners.
5 · Stress-test and stop
Imagine it is a year from now and the plan has failed: why? The answers become counter-moves. A not-now list and a capacity check free the people and budget the priorities need.
Result: counter-moves and an explicit not-now list.
6 · Set OKRs and the rhythm
Owners draft the company-level OKRs in the room, the team sharpens them together and agrees initiatives, resources and a review rhythm.
Result: company-level OKRs for the next 90 days with review dates.
One page and the message to the company
The strategy on one page, the commitments of each leader and what your teams will hear in the following week.
Result: a plan the whole company can rally behind.
How we work together
Built for real choices
Five agreements keep an experienced, international team fast, focused and fair, and make sure the offsite ends with decisions rather than a longer list.
Every step ends with a decision
Energy goes into the next question, not back into the last one.
Evidence before opinion
Numbers and customer signals come first, then the best argument wins.
Write first, then talk
Everyone thinks on their own before the discussion starts.
Limited points, real trade-offs
Options compete for the same budget, people and attention.
Clear decision rights
Agreed upfront: who gives input and who decides.
Preparation
Well prepared, so day 1 starts with the real questions
What we do
- Run a one-hour prep session with you and the people who will decide
- Design and analyse a short pre-survey for the Leadership Team
- Turn your numbers into a compact evidence pack for day 1
- Tailor the agenda, methods and materials to your company
- Facilitate both days on site and capture every decision in the room
What we need from you
- One hour for the prep session, a few weeks before the offsite
- The material you already have: revenue and segment figures, pipeline, product roadmap, running initiatives
- About 20 minutes per leader for the pre-survey
- A room with plenty of wall space or whiteboards for two days
- Clarity on who makes the final call when views differ
The prep session
Eight questions that map your status quo
- What is the strategic question the offsite has to answer?
- What does success look like the day after, and in 90 days?
- Where do you stand today: revenue, segments, customers, pipeline?
- What works well today and must be protected while you scale?
- Which initiatives are running, and which compete for the same people and budget?
- Where does the Leadership Team see things differently today?
- Which constraints are fixed, and what is off the table?
- Who decides, and how do you decide when views differ?
Outcomes
What your leadership team takes home
Recommended follow-up, on request: an online OKR check-in after about 90 days to review progress and sharpen the next quarter.
Your facilitator
Joern Steinz (MBA)
Joern has facilitated more than 1.000 workshops since 2014 and has supported companies with OKRs since 2019, in around 60 engagements. Before that he worked at Accenture and in corporate development at XING and the freenet Group, and he holds an MBA from EADA Business School in Barcelona.
He is at his best when a leadership team has to turn many good options into a few clear priorities and measurable OKRs, and he is comfortable challenging senior teams in English or German.
Selected clients
How we start
From the first call to the 90-day review
Step 1
Introduction call
Goals, the team and what the offsite must decide.
Step 2
Prep session
Eight questions, decision rights, success criteria.
Step 3
Pre-survey
About 20 minutes per leader, evidence pack ready.
Step 4
Offsite
Two days on site, in English or German.
Step 5
90-day review
Optional check-in on the OKRs and the next quarter.
FAQ
Questions about strategic planning meetings
Why hire a facilitator for a strategic planning meeting?
Whoever runs the meeting cannot fully take part in it. With external facilitation the CEO and every leader work on the content, while the facilitator keeps time, focus and fairness and makes sure the meeting ends with decisions.
How long should a strategic planning meeting be?
Two days work best for most leadership teams. Day one makes the choices, a night in between lets them settle, and day two turns them into priorities, owners and OKRs while everyone is still in the room.
Who should take part?
The leadership team, usually five to ten people, including the person who makes the final call. Choices made by the people who carry them out stick.
Why separate core, growth engines and bets?
It separates three very different questions: what to scale in the core, which growth engine to back next and which bets to keep open. That makes trade-offs in resources and attention visible instead of hidden.
Do we need OKR experience?
No. Your critical priorities become your first company-level OKRs, and we explain what you need along the way. If you want to prepare, see our guide to OKR workshop preparation.
Can you adapt the agenda?
Yes. The six steps stay, the methods and timing are tailored in the prep session to your question, your numbers and your team. For the facilitated format behind it, meet our strategy to action workshop facilitators.
Where does the meeting take place?
At your site or an offsite venue of your choice anywhere in Europe, in English or German. More about the event itself on our page about the leadership offsite.
Let’s talk
Let’s plan your strategic planning meeting
Tell us about your leadership team and what should be different afterwards. In 30 minutes we find out whether this agenda fits.
Book a 30-minute callJoern Steinz · hello@okr-consultants.com · 0049 175 566 4329