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Why human connection is essential for leaders and teams.
“As machines get better at being machines, humans have to get better at being more human.”
This article explores why trust, compassion, and connection are now the true differentiators for leaders and teams in an age of AI and dispersed work.
In a world of AI and dispersed working, the leaders who thrive will be those who build trust, compassion and human connection.
Someone recently said to me, only half-jokingly: “Aren’t you worried all your work will be replaced by AI?”
It’s a fair question! There’s a lot of talk about using AI as your personal coach or turning to a Chatbot for leadership development. It’s a question many of us are asking ourselves.
There’s never been a more urgent need for leaders and teams to build human connection.
With many of us working at home some or all the time, I frequently work with teams that only get together in person once or twice a year. The rest of the time, we only communicate through screens.
We’re living through a time of extraordinary technological change. Artificial intelligence, automation, digital platforms, hybrid working promise speed, efficiency, and new opportunities. And yet, for many of the leaders and teams I work with, the lived experience is often the opposite: disconnection.
McKinsey’s recent research on the future of people management makes the point clearly: in a world of digital disruption and shifting expectations, traditional operating models no longer suffice. Leaders will need to focus less on process and more on people, building trust, compassion, and psychological safety, and creating personalised experiences that make work meaningful.
Technology isn’t the problem in itself. In fact, it frees up time and opens up possibilities. But unless we pay attention to what it means to “be more human,” they risk building organisations that are technically efficient but emotionally lacking.
Creating human connection sits at the heart of everything we do at Growth Space.
We need to remember we are all individual human beings, with lives, interests, passions and challenges outside work. And when we lose that perspective, it becomes harder to build trust, navigate conflict.
Humans have to get better at being more human.
“As machines get better at being machines, humans have to get better at being more human.”
Technology can bring efficiency and insight, but it can’t replace the human skills that make organisations thrive: empathy, emotional intelligence, and the ability to create real connections.
That sense of belonging is built in small, human moments.
Why leaders can’t outsource “the human stuff”
Leaders sometimes talk about well-being, culture, or engagement as if these belong to HR; the people team can be a partner, providing skills, tools, and insights, but they can’t do it all.
Every interaction we have (in meetings, informal chats, how you respond to pressure and the behaviour you reward or tolerate) shapes the culture your people experience. Leaders set the tone for workplaces where people feel valued, trusted, and inspired to grow.
The tone you set in a meeting.
The way you respond under pressure.
The behaviour you reward or tolerate.
What “being more human” looks like
So what does this actually mean in practice? It’s easy to say “be more human” - but in leadership, it comes down to creating the conditions where people feel safe, valued, and able to do their best work. That means:
Empathy and compassion: listening to understand, recognising how people are feeling, and responding with care.
Trust and psychological safety: showing up consistently so people know they can take risks, speak up, and be honest without fear of blame.
Emotional intelligence: being aware of your own impact and noticing what’s going on under the surface in the team.
Clarity and inspiration: helping people see the bigger picture, cutting through the noise, and connecting their effort back to purpose.
Courage and consistency: having the conversations that matter, even when they’re tough, and modelling the behaviours you expect from others.
What gets in the way
One of the biggest barriers I hear from leaders is time. “We’re too busy for this stuff.” But if you don’t make time for connection, though, you spend more time firefighting. Misunderstandings, conflicts, and disengagement all take longer to sort out than an honest, intentional conversation would have.
Why connection is the leadership differentiator:
The differentiator will be whether leaders can create organisations where people feel connected to their purpose, to each other, and to the work they do.
A team that talks honestly builds more trust in a day than in months of polite meetings.
A leader who listens deeply earns loyalty that no pay rise can buy.
An organisation that lives its values consistently wins both hearts and results.
Connection isn’t fluffy. It’s strategic. It’s the foundation of execution, innovation, and growth.
So I’m not worried about being replaced by an AI coach. Coaching, Facilitating, Culture Transformation and Team effectiveness, leadership aren’t done by AI . They’re about sitting down together (or even walking together), building trust, asking the right questions, holding space for reflection, and challenging people to grow.
Do you need support to build a more connected workplace?
At Growth Space, we work with leadership teams to create alignment around strategy, helping them clarify their story, build trust, and energise their people through team diagnostics, facilitation, and team coaching.
If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch
Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.
How to Align and Motivate Leaders and Teams to Deliver Strategy
“Alignment is not about agreement. It’s about commitment.”
This article explores how leadership teams can create a shared narrative, build trust, and motivate people so that strategy lives beyond the boardroom and drives daily action
How to create alignment, build trust, and inspire people to move strategy forward
Strategy succeeds not when leaders draft the perfect plan, but when they commit to delivering it together. Alignment turns priorities into progress. It transforms leadership teams from a group of individuals into one voice, one story, and one movement that inspires belief across the whole organisation.
It’s common for teams to leave a strategy session believing they’re on the same page, only for cracks to appear later. Each leader interprets priorities slightly differently, explains them in their own way to their teams, and emphasises what matters to their function. Those differences ripple down, creating confusion, duplication, and frustration.
As a result, people don’t know what to focus on, resources get wasted, and the strategy loses energy before it’s even begun.
True alignment transforms strategy from a document into a movement -something people understand, believe in, and act on every day.
Why alignment matters
When leaders aren’t aligned:
Teams hear mixed messages.
Decisions get slowed down or contradicted.
Trust erodes because people don’t know what to believe.
“Alignment is not about agreement. It’s about commitment.”
When they are aligned:
The organisation moves faster.
Everyone is clearer on priorities.
People feel more motivated because they see consistency and confidence at the top.
As Professor Peter Hawkins reminds us, leadership teams don’t exist for themselves; they exist to create value for stakeholders. Alignment ensures the whole team is pulling in that direction, together.
Step 1: Create clarity at the top
Alignment starts with the leadership team. Before anything is shared more widely, leaders must be confident they all share the same understanding of the strategy and priorities.
Example: In one session I facilitated, we explored a new strategic priority. When I asked each leader to describe it in their own words, one focused on growth, another on efficiency, another on innovation. We paused and unpacked those differences. Through structured discussion, we defined:
What the priority actually meant.
Why it mattered to the business.
The concrete steps required to achieve it.
By the end, the leadership team had one shared definition. More importantly, they had tested and challenged their assumptions, so they were confident they could stand behind it with one voice.
Practical step: Try this in your own leadership team: ask each person to explain a key priority in one sentence. If the answers differ, you’ve found your first alignment challenge.
Step 2: Craft a strategic narrative that inspires people
Strategy is not just a list of bullet points, targets and numbers. For people to believe in it, it needs to become a compelling story that makes clear connections to purpose, why it matters, what difference it will make and has emotional resonance.
This turns strategy into something every leader can deliver consistently, every employee can hear and understand instantly, and every stakeholder can connect with and believe in. A strategic narrative links strategy to purpose and gives people a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
Example: One client originally framed their strategy around “increasing EBITDA by 15%.” Rationally important, but emotionally flat. We worked together to reframe it:
“We exist to help our clients grow sustainably. Our strategy is about becoming the partner of choice: faster, more responsive, more collaborative. When we achieve that, our financial results will follow.”
The numbers stayed in the background. The narrative became about purpose and value. It gave employees something to believe in, not just a target to hit.
Practical step: Ask: If this were someone’s first day here, how would we explain our strategy in a way that connects to why we exist?
Step 3: Cascade to teams consistently
Once leaders have a shared narrative, the next challenge is consistency. If each leader tweaks the story, employees hear different versions or become focused only on the goals which seem most relevant to their function, this creates siloed working. To avoid this:
Keep the narrative simple — no jargon, no long documents.
Agree on the non-negotiables (the core message that never changes).
Repeat it in every forum: town halls, team meetings, one-to-ones, and onboarding.
Adapt the examples for different audiences, but never change the heart of the message.
Example: One leadership team agreed on three strategic pillars. We worked to make the language so simple and clear that anyone in the business could repeat it. Within months, people across teams were using the same phrases — the message had stuck.
Practical step: Test your narrative by asking employees at different levels: Can you name our top three priorities? If the answers vary, you have more alignment work to do.
Step 4: Energise and motivate people
Alignment isn’t just about clarity. It’s about energy. People need to feel inspired and motivated to act. Leaders can create this energy by:
Celebrating wins and milestones (even the small ones) that show the strategy in action.
Recognising behaviours that bring values and priorities to life.
Sharing success stories, e.g. customer feedback
Involving teams in shaping how priorities are delivered, not just telling them what to do.
Example: A senior leadership team introduced quarterly “strategy showcases,” where teams presented examples of how they had delivered on priorities. It created pride, healthy competition, and belief. Strategy felt alive, not abstract.
Practical step: Create moments where teams share their progress. It not only builds momentum but also shows that strategy belongs to everyone, not just the boardroom.
Step 5: Build trust through leadership behaviours
Alignment only holds if people trust their leaders. Employees notice when leaders’ actions don’t match their words. Trust is built when leaders:
Role-model the behaviours they expect from others.
Follow through on commitments.
Communicate openly, even when things are difficult.
Admit when priorities need adjusting.
Practical step: Audit your leadership behaviours. Are you sending signals that strengthen alignment, or undermine it?
Step 6: Keep it alive
Alignment isn’t a one-off task. It needs to be renewed regularly. Strategies evolve, leaders change, and contexts shift. Without attention, drift creeps in. Ways to keep alignment alive:
Quarterly alignment checks: revisit the narrative and test whether leaders are still telling the same story.
Leadership reflections: make alignment a standing agenda item, not just results, but how the story is being lived.
Refresh the narrative: keep examples and stories up to date so the strategy feels relevant.
Practical step: Build alignment reviews into your leadership rhythm. Don’t assume that once aligned, it means always aligned.
Final Thought
When leaders create clarity at the top, craft a narrative linked to purpose, cascade it consistently, energise people through stories and celebrations, and role-model with trust, strategy becomes more than a plan. It becomes energy and momentum.
Alignment is a living discipline. It’s not about everyone agreeing politely — it’s about leaders committing to one voice, one story, and one set of priorities, and inspiring people to move forward together.
✨ If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch
Do you need help to build alignment and motivation around your strategy?
II work with leadership teams to create alignment around strategy, helping them clarify their story, build trust, and energise their people through facilitation, systemic team coaching, and leadership development.
If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch
Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.
How to turn strategy into action
This article shows how leadership teams can close the strategy–execution gap by setting meaningful OKRs and KPIs, breaking them into milestones, assigning ownership, and making time for the work that shifts the dial.
A step-by-step process for translating strategy into milestones, ownership, and momentum.
Most strategies don’t fail because the ideas are wrong, but because they never make it off the page.
Leaders spend hours shaping ambitious goals and priorities, but unless those ideas are turned into clear, measurable steps with ownership and momentum, strategy ends up as shelfware.
Bridging the strategy–execution gap is one of the toughest challenges leadership teams face. It’s not just about setting targets; it’s about making them real. That means translating big goals into measurable outcomes, breaking them down into milestones, assigning ownership, creating rhythms of accountability, and, crucially, protecting time to focus on what really shifts the dial.
Here’s a practical journey leadership teams can follow to turn strategy into action.
Step 1: Set OKRs and KPIs That Matter
The first step is to make goals tangible. Without clear measures, strategy remains abstract.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): Ambitious objectives that inspire, paired with measurable results that track progress.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Ongoing health checks that monitor stability and performance.
Transformation KPIs: The most powerful of all. These are targets that no single team can deliver alone — they require leaders to work together in new ways.
Example: One leadership team I worked with had a goal to “increase annual revenue by 20%.” On its own, this was too broad. Everyone agreed it was important, but nobody knew what needed to happen next. We broke it into milestones:
Q1: Define target client segments and refresh the sales pipeline.
Q2: Launch a new marketing campaign and onboard three new strategic accounts.
Q3: Improve conversion rates by redesigning the proposal process and introducing client feedback loops.
Q4: Expand services with two existing clients and finalise partnership agreements.
The revenue growth was achieved not because people focused on the 20% target itself, but because they worked towards clear, achievable steps that made progress visible.
Step 2: Break Big Goals Into Small Steps
Ambitious goals can feel motivating at the top, but confusing and overwhelming. You need to know what this looks like in practice and how progress will be tracked.
That’s where SMART goals come in. For every big objective, define goals that are:
Specific - unambiguous
Measurable - attach a number or evidence of success
Achievable - stretching, but realistic given time and resources.
Relevant - aligned to the bigger strategy, not just busy work.
Time-bound - with deadlines that create urgency and focus.
Once you have SMART goals, break the annual ambition into quarterly or even monthly milestones. For example, instead of saying “grow client revenue by 20% this year,” identify the steps along the way:
Build a refreshed sales pipeline and win two new accounts.
Launch a targeted campaign in one priority sector.
Improve conversion rates by 10% through a new proposal process.
Expand services with three existing clients.
Step 3: Prioritise What Matters Most
Once goals are set, the temptation is to tackle them all at once. But trying to do everything dilutes focus. This is where sequencing is essential. The simple Now, Soon and Later lens helps avoid overload and focus resources where they matter most.
Now: urgent and essential priorities that need immediate attention or are quick wins
Soon: important work that depends on foundations being in place.
Later: longer-term ambitions to return to once capacity allows.
Step 4: Assign Clear Ownership
Even the best milestones won’t move forward without clear ownership. One of the most common reasons strategy execution fails is that everyone assumes someone else will deliver. Without clarity, tasks stall, overlap, or simply fall through the cracks.
The RACI framework is a simple tool to remove this confusion by spelling out roles:
Responsible: the person (or people) actually doing the work.
Accountable: the one person ultimately answerable for success.
Consulted: people whose expertise or perspective is needed along the way.
Informed: those who need to be kept updated, even if they’re not directly involved.
Step 5: Create Rhythm and Discipline
Progress should be transparent, shared, and easy to track so everyone can see the journey from ambition to action. It also requires regular check-ins, visible updates, and space to adapt.
Weekly or monthly check-ins: quick reviews of OKRs and milestones.
Quarterly reflections: deeper look at what’s working, what needs adjusting, and what to stop or start.
Visible tracking: progress dashboards or scorecards that everyone can see. Some teams use scoreboards in team meetings; others use visual progress charts.
Step 6: Make Time for What Shifts the Dial
Eisenhower matrix
The hardest part of execution isn’t knowing what to do — it’s making time to do it. Urgent demands pull leaders back into operations. The firefighting takes over. But strategy requires deliberate attention. Leadership teams must protect time for the work that shapes the future, not just the work that keeps today running.
The Eisenhower Matrix helps here:
Most leaders spend too much time in “urgent and important.” True strategy lives in the “important but not urgent” quadrant — the work that builds capacity, shapes culture, and drives transformation.
Example: In one leadership programme, we mapped leaders’ weekly diaries against the matrix. Most of their time was firefighting. Once they saw this, they began to block out regular sessions for strategy. Six months later, progress was visible in ways they hadn’t thought possible.
Final Thought
Turning strategy into action isn’t about more documents. It’s about discipline, ownership, and focus. Leadership teams can close the strategy–execution gap by:
Setting OKRs, KPIs, and Transformation KPIs that matter.
Breaking them down into SMART milestones.
Prioritising with Now/Soon/Later and/or the Eisenhower Matrix
Assigning ownership with RACI.
Creating accountability.
Protecting time for strategic work that shifts the dial.
Do you need help to turn your strategy into action?
I work with leaders and boards to bridge the gap between strategy and execution, helping them turn ambition into action through facilitation, systemic team coaching, and leadership off-sites.
If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch
Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.
How to create a strategy that is fit for the future
Strategy isn’t a plan to file away - it’s a living framework that must adapt, engage stakeholders, and look to the future. This article explores how leadership teams can create strategies that are resilient, relevant, and fit for the world ahead.
Keeping Strategy Relevant in a Changing World
Too often, strategy starts by looking inwards: What do we do and what are we good at? Tools like SWOT analysis have their place, but on their own, they risk narrowing the lens. But a strong strategy isn’t about your internal capabilities, it’s linked to your purpose and your value proposition (who do you exist for and what value do you offer them).
Frameworks like the Business Model Canvas remind us that value comes from the people you serve, not just the strengths you already have. A strategy fit for the future asks:
Why do we exist?
Who do we serve?
How do we create value now and in the future?
Strategy should be agile
Strategy isn’t a business plan you draft once, file away, and revisit in three years. A strategy that works is a living document: it needs to be:
Understood: people across the organisation know what it means for them.
Acted on daily: it shapes decisions and behaviours, not just slides.
Agile: it adapts as the environment shifts.
Reviewed regularly: it’s tested, refined, and re-energised.
Leadership teams often stumble when strategy is treated as an event, not a practice. A two-day retreat might spark alignment, but if it isn’t embedded into rhythms, rituals, and conversations, it fades. Strategy has to live in the everyday — in what leaders talk about, measure, celebrate, and role-model.
That requires a broader lens. To be truly fit for the future, strategy must look outwards to the people and systems you serve, and forwards to the future you want to create.
A strategy that’s truly fit for the future requires two critical shifts:
Future-back thinking: imagining the future you want to shape, then working backwards.
Outside-in perspective: considering what your stakeholders need and expect, not just what matters internally.
This combined approach is a discipline developed by Professor Peter Hawkins. His work reminds us that leadership teams exist not for themselves, but to create value for their stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, communities, and society at large.
I’ve seen first-hand how powerful this shift can be. The turning point comes when leaders stop asking “What do we need to fix today?” and start asking “What future do we want to create, and what value must we deliver to those who depend on us?”
Why Strategy Needs More Than Business-as-Usual
Research shows that organisations that look beyond five years significantly outperform those focused only on short-term horizons. Yet many leadership teams struggle to make this leap. The urgent squeezes out the important. Operational pressures dominate. And strategy sessions risk becoming little more than fire-fighting.
There’s another trap: focusing solely on internal ambitions. Growth targets, margin goals, and market share objectives are all valid, but have risks. A strategy that ignores stakeholder needs is unlikely to succeed.
Future-back and outside-in thinking provide a wider field of vision. They encourage leaders to step back from the now, expand their perspective, and build strategies that are both ambitious and relevant.
The Future-Back Lens
One powerful way to stretch leadership thinking is through a future-back strategy. Rather than building forwards from today’s problems, future-back starts by imagining the long-term future you want to help create — then works backwards to identify what needs to happen along the way. A useful framework comes from Bill Sharpe’s Three Horizons model:
Horizon One: focused on ‘business as usual,’ managing today, and incremental improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. He describes this as the managerial mindset.
Horizon Two: innovating for tomorrow, looking at the short to medium-term future, and encompasses the sphere of new opportunities and innovation.
Horizon Three: future foresight, considers what is emerging over the future horizon and might become commonplace in the near to medium term future.
Sharpe’s insight, is that you need to work in the sequence 1 - 3 - 2, starting with reviewing today, what is working well and not working, then think from the ‘future-back’ using horizon three strategic foresight tools and thinking, and only then try and innovate tomorrow. Otherwise, you are trying to innovate tomorrow out of the frame of yesterday’s mindset and assumptions
In practice, future-back conversations often include:
Visioning exercises: “If it’s 2030 and we’ve succeeded, what are our stakeholders saying about us? What impact are we having?”
Scenario planning: exploring multiple plausible futures, not just one “plan.”
Wild cards and black swans: considering disruptive events and how the organisation would respond.
In one recent off-site I facilitated, a leadership team initially focused on immediate operational issues. By using a future-back exercise, they realised that the real question wasn’t “How do we hit next year’s targets?” but “What capabilities do we need to be building now to thrive in a radically different marketplace five years from now?” That conversation shifted their priorities in powerful ways.
The Outside-In Lens
A strategy is only as strong as the value it creates. That means looking outward, not just to customers and shareholders, but to the full ecosystem: employees, partners, regulators, communities, and future generations.
Peter Hawkins, in his Systemic Team Coaching model, calls this commissioning: defining a team’s purpose by looking through the eyes of its stakeholders. Leadership teams don’t exist for themselves; they exist to create value for others.
Asking, Listening, Testing
High-performing teams build strategy through enquiry: asking questions, gathering feedback, and testing assumptions. This can include:
Structured interviews or surveys with key stakeholders.
Reviewing customer data, employee engagement scores, or market research.
Inviting diverse voices into the room — not just the usual suspects.
The aim isn’t to tick the “consultation” box. It’s to test whether the organisation is prioritising the right things, and whether its ambitions resonate with those who matter most.
In one client session, leaders were surprised to learn that what customers valued most wasn’t speed, but partnership and trust. That single insight reshaped their strategy from chasing efficiency to building stronger, more collaborative relationships. How could we improve the way we partner with you?
Considering What You Might Have Missed
It’s easy to focus only on visible stakeholders: customers, investors, and employees. But a resilient strategy also considers those less obvious:
Local communities.
Supply chain partners.
Policymakers and regulators.
Future generations who will inherit the outcomes of today’s choices.
Teams often discover blind spots here, groups they hadn’t thought about, but whose expectations could make or break the strategy.
Looking Ahead with a PESTLE Lens
Stakeholder needs don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re shaped by broader forces. A PESTLE analysis helps teams anticipate how change will affect what stakeholders value.
Political: regulatory shifts in ESG reporting.
Economic: rising cost pressures and shifting investor priorities.
Social: new expectations for flexible work or wellbeing.
Technological: the rapid spread of AI and automation.
Legal: compliance and data privacy demands.
Environmental: growing urgency on climate resilience.
When leaders connect these trends with stakeholder needs, they create a strategy that’s not just reactive but future-ready.
Bringing Future-Back and Outside-In Together
Future-back stretches your time horizon. Outside-in broadens your field of vision. Combined, they create strategies that are ambitious and relevant. The practical sequence looks like this:
Start with today: What’s working, what’s breaking down, and where are the gaps?
Look outwards: Map your stakeholders and gather their perspectives. What do stakeholders value now? What will they need in the future?
Look forward: Where do we want to be in five years? What’s changed in your environment? What will success look like?
Bridge the gap: What shifts are needed to move from today to tomorrow while creating value for stakeholders?
Test priorities: Do these priorities deliver value for stakeholders and move us towards our long-term vision?
This sequence works in any sector and energises people far more than abstract targets.. For one client, it meant realising their strategy wasn’t about chasing market share, but about building trust with regulators to secure their licence to grow. For another, it was about shifting investment from short-term profit to long-term talent capability.
Practical Tools That Help
Horizon Scanning and PESTLE - Looking at political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental changes gives a structured way to consider what might shape your context in the years ahead.
Stakeholder Mapping - Create personas for your key stakeholders — customers, investors, employees, and communities. Test your priorities against their needs.
Scenario Planning - Don’t bet on one future. Explore a range of plausible outcomes and consider how your strategy would hold up in each.
Strategic Narrative - Turn your strategy into a human story that every leader can share consistently. As one client put it: “If someone stopped you in the lift tomorrow and asked where we’re going, could you answer in 30 seconds?” That’s the level of clarity you’re aiming for.
Reflection Questions for Leadership Teams
If you stood in the future and looked back, what would you be most proud of?
Whose voices are missing from your current strategy conversations?
Which of today’s priorities will still matter in three years? Which won’t?
How do your goals create value beyond your walls?
What assumptions might you need to unlearn?
Final Thought
A strategy fit for the future isn’t just a growth plan. It’s a commitment to your vision, to your people, and to the wider ecosystem you serve.
When leadership teams look outward to stakeholders and ahead to the future, they stop firefighting and start shaping. They create strategies that are resilient, relevant, and energising.
That’s the essence of systemic team coaching: helping leadership teams expand their field of vision, align around purpose, and co-create a future worth working towards.
Do you need help with building your strategy?
We help leadership teams across the UK create future-fit strategies through facilitation, systemic team coaching, and leadership off-sites. If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch
Or get in touch to start a conversation about what might be possible for your team.
Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.
How to Run a Successful Strategy Day for Your Leadership Team
Discover how to plan and run a successful Strategy Workshop, Away Day or Off-site.
Start with these 10 questions to ask before planning Stategy day and find tips on structure, tools and faciliation.
Are your strategy and business plan still relevant and fit for the future?
When was the last time you stepped back to look at it with a fresh perspective and reflect on your current reality or changing external environment?
Is your leadership team bogged down in the day-to-day pressures of running a business?
In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, strategy can’t be static. It must evolve, flex, and respond to change. And unless you press pause, you risk:
Losing sight of your purpose and goals
Losing sight of your customers or clients
Making decisions based on habit
Missing new opportunities or threats
Staying stuck in outdated ways of thinking
A strategy workshop (or leadership away day) is a dedicated time and space for leadership teams to focus on long-term planning and strategic direction, free from daily operational pressures. It's a chance to step back from the day-to-day and consider the big picture, ensuring alignment and a shared vision for the future.
Tips, questions and facilitation ideas to design and run a successful Strategy Day
Why You Need to Make Space for a Strategy Workshop
Strategic Alignment - Ensure everyone agrees on the organisation's goals, priorities, and how to achieve them.
Improved Communication - Create a safe environment for open dialogue and healthy debate about the future and challenge the status quo.
Enhanced Creativity - Step outside daily operations to generate fresh ideas, identify new opportunities, and innovative solutions.
Reduced Risk - Spot obstacles, blind spots and external changes (economic, social, technological) and develop plans to respond.
Increased Efficiency - When everyone understands the strategic direction, decisions are quicker and more aligned, saving time, effort and resources.
Better Decision-Making - Clarify what matters most and make decisions that drive the business forward.
Motivation and Engagement - Re-energise your leadership team around shared direction, purpose and priorities.
Tips for Facilitating a Productive Strategy Day
Be clear on outcomes - What do you want to get out of the workshop? Be specific: Do we want decisions? Prioritisation? Alignment? A plan? Clarity on ownership?
Keep it focused - Don’t be tempted to cram too much in with a long agenda. Choose three or four themes or strategic questions and leave time for in-depth conversations and creative thinking.
Change the space - A strategy day should feel different from a regular meeting, so moving away from the office helps to remove distractions and creates a fresh perspective. Look for a venue that feels fresh, creative and different (not just another boardroom) to inspire fresh, innovative thinking.
Ditch the table - Boardroom tables can reinforce traditional hierarchy and power structures. To create more openness, equality and more dynamic conversation, sit in a circle or a horseshoe.
Warm up - Begin with something reflective or fun. Ask people to share what they’d like to get out of the day, what they’re proud of, or what they’re finding challenging. If you want something different, there are dozens of resources online on ice-breakers, but choose something that feels right for your people and your culture.
Create space for private thinking, as well as group discussion - Use the 1–2–3 model: Start with solo reflection, move into pairs or trios, then share insights and discuss with the full group. This ensures deeper thinking and broader participation. This supports introverted people who like to think before speaking and may get dominated by the extroverts.
Keep the energy up - Vary activities and use movement, change locations, or shift between sitting and standing.
End with action: Conclude with specific next steps, ownership, and a timeline. Don’t leave without decisions.
Facilitating it yourself? Stay neutral where possible, ask more than you tell, and be clear about roles: who’s leading the discussion, capturing notes, and managing time.
Bring in an external Facilitator - they bring clarity, neutrality, fresh challenge and the skill to manage energy, group dynamics and tough conversations.
How do you structure the day?
The structure of the day should be based around your goals, culture and priorities. Here are some tools you can use:
Strategic frameworks (SWOT, PESTLE, Ansoff Matrix)
Business Model Canvas and capability mapping
Decision-making tools (prioritisation grids like the Eisenhower Matrix, stakeholder maps)
Creative exercises to unlock fresh thinking
Time for individual reflection and thinking as well as group work.
Key themes to include:
Where are we now, what’s working and what’s not?
Where do we want to go from here and why?
What’s changing in the wider world?
What behaviours or structures are holding us back?
How do we stay aligned through growth, change, or challenge?
What capabilities will we need for the future?
SMART goals, KPIs or OKRs - What action will we take, when and who owns what?
10 Questions to Ask Before Planning a Strategy Day
Here are 10 quick questions to ask before planning a Strategy Workshop:
Do we need to step away from the day-to-day and look at the big picture?
Has our strategy, purpose or vision drifted or lost clarity?
Do we need to review our priorities or build shared accountability around them?
Are we aligned as a leadership team on where we're going and how to get there?
Are we facing a period of change, growth, or external uncertainty?
Are we stuck in old ways of thinking or doing things simply because 'that’s how we’ve always done it'?
Have we welcomed new leaders, directors or team members who need to get on the same page?
Are there behaviours, habits or silos that are getting in the way of collaboration or performance?
Do we have key decisions or trade-offs to make that require input and commitment from everyone?
Would an external Facilitator help to create an open forum for us to think differently and move forward faster?
If you're answering yes to several of these, it may be time to make time to focus on your strategy.
Would you like help to plan and facilitate your next Strategy Workshop or Leadership Away Day?
Polly Robinson, Growth Space
At Growth Space, our approach is to create engaging, energising and purposeful Offsites and Away Days. We bring
Strategic tools, frameworks, structures and practical tools.
Challenge and fresh perspective to encourage new ways of thinking
The right balance of purpose and results with energy and fun
Warmth and the ability to build rapport and create psychological safety, so everyone has a voice.
If you want help with your next strategy session, let’s talk.
Call: 07966 475195
Email: polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk
Book at time to meet via Zoom or Teams via Calendly >
Planning an Offsite or Away Day? Start With These 10 Questions
Planning a leadership offsite or team strategy day? These 10 essential questions will help you design a session that delivers clarity, connection and real results — not just good intentions.
If you’re planning a leadership off-site, strategy workshop or team away day, pause before you start booking venues or building slides.
Off-sites, Workshops, and Team Away Days can build trust, clarity, and momentum, or leave your team asking, “What was the point of that?”
Before sending the calendar invitation, ask these ten questions to help you design an off-site that delivers meaningful results and avoid the “nice lunch, no outcomes” trap.
10 Questions to Answer before holding an Off-site, Workshop or Away Day
1. What are we trying to achieve?
Every offsite should have a clear why. Without it, the day risks feeling vague or performative. Being clear on the purpose shapes everything: format, facilitation, outcomes, and energy. Without this clarity, the day risks feeling vague or performative. Ask:
What’s the problem or challenge we’re trying to solve?
Is it to solve a problem (misalignment, disconnection, lack of clarity) Is it to respond to a shift (new CEO, strategy change, growth) or is it to unlock new ideas and momentum?
Why now?
Try this: Write your purpose in a single sentence — and use it to brief your team, venue or facilitator.
2. What outcomes do we want?
Get specific. Whether your off-site, away day or workshop is about setting strategic priorities, exploring culture and values, building trust, communication or collaboration. Outcomes don’t need to be rigid but they should be meaningful, specific, and linked to business needs. Ask:
What decisions do we want made?
What conversations need to happen?
How will we know if the day has been successful?
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3. Who should be in the room and why?
The impact of your session depends on who’s involved. Off-sites are more impactful when the right people are present and when you’re clear on what each person brings. Consider:
Are we including decision-makers and people with insight and lived experience?
Are we bringing the right mix of perspectives, roles and personalities?
Do we need external stakeholders, new hires or future leaders in the room?
Is there anyone whose absence will limit our ability to move forward?
4. What do we want people to think, feel and do afterwards?
A successful offsite should shift something mindset, motivation, behaviour, or direction. Avoid vague goals like “alignment” or “team bonding.” Ask:
What impact do we want this to have?
What new behaviours do we want to see?
What conversations are overdue?
What actions should people commit to?
5. What’s likely to get in the way and how will we handle it?
Tension, cynicism, unspoken issues, unresolved conflict, cynicism or fatigue. Every offsite has potential blockers. Ignoring them doesn’t make them disappear, but designing with them in mind makes the day more honest, useful and inclusive. This is where a skilled external facilitator can help to surface the tough stuff and move forward constructively.
Ask:
What’s not being said?
What might stop people being honest?
How can we create a safe, inclusive space?
6. Is everyone clear on why they’re invited and what’s expected?
Offsites work when people show up ready to participate, not just spectate. When people feel prepared, they engage more fully and bring better energy to the room. So, make sure people know:
Why have they been invited
What the day is (and isn’t) about
What are they expected to prepare or bring to it?
What kind of mindset is expected
7. How will we balance, structure and flexibility?
Too much structure can kill creativity at an off-site or away day, while too little can lead to chaos. A well-designed day includes:
Time to reflect on the big picture
Space to connect as people
Opportunities to make real decisions
Flexibility to adapt in the moment
A structure around presentations and breakout can feel stale and rigid, so build in movement, variety, and breathing space, so include plenty of opportunity for individual reflection, small-group work, open conversations, and collaborative planning.
8. What will make this feel different to a regular meeting?
Your offsite should feel like a different kind of conversation, not just another agenda-heavy session. The best workshops spark insight because they feel different. Ask:
How can we use a different space or setting? That’s the value in getting away from the office, to somewhere new, away from distractions.
Can we include storytelling, vulnerability or creativity?
How will we make it human, not corporate?
9. How will we make sure this leads to action, not just good intentions?
Too many offsites end with a flurry of ideas and no real follow-through. Creating accountability makes sure you see real shifts. Before the day ends, build in:
Time for decisions, priorities and next steps
Clear next steps and timeframes
Clear ownership (who will do what by when)
A plan to revisit and track progress in a month, a quarter and a year.
10. Should we bring in an external Facilitator?
If you want honesty, momentum, and real progress, consider working with a facilitator. A good facilitator holds the space, creates safety, encourages participation, and ensures real outcomes, not just good vibes. Especially if:
There’s low trust
You need to shift dynamics or challenge the status quo
You want leaders to participate fully, not run the room
You want actionable outcomes
A brilliant offsite doesn’t just happen. It’s designed with intention, curiosity, and care. Start with these questions, and you’ll already be ahead of most teams that simply hope for the best.
Are you planning an Away Day, Off-site or Workshop and looking for support?
Whether you’re planning a leadership strategy day, team away-day, or culture workshop, I’ll help you design and facilitate a session that delivers real outcomes,
We’ll bring people together with purpose, create space for the right conversations, and leave with clarity, connection and action.
If you’ve got ideas, plans or challenges that would benefit from getting people in a room together, I’d love to hear about them.
Give me a call on 07966 475195
Book a time straight into my diary: Calendly >
Email me: polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk
Learn more about Growth Space Workshops & Facilitation >
Not sure if you need a facilitator?
Read my blog: Do I Need a Facilitator for My Away Day?
Do I need a Facilitator for my Away Day or Offsite?
Team away days, off-sites, leadership strategy, brand or culture workshops can be brilliant opportunities to reconnect, realign and refocus your people. But how do you make sure that they don’t feel like a waste of time and that you create meaningful impact and tangible results?
This article explores the benefits of using an external Facilitator to design and run your meeting.
Team away days, off-sites, leadership strategy sessions, brand or culture workshops can be brilliant opportunities to reconnect, realign, and refocus your people. Taking time away from everyday pressures and distractions is valuable, whether you're celebrating success, developing a new strategy, reviewing your brand or culture, or bringing teams together through growth, change or other challenges.
Today we tend to have less time for face-to-face time with colleagues, and it's all too easy to hide behind emails, Teams messages or at best a video call. So there's never been a more important time to bring people together in person to build that human-to-human connection.
But if you’re investing time and money in an off-site, you want more than just team bonding and pizza. You want to be sure that you'll achieve your objectives for the day and gain clarity, alignment, and tangible outcomes.
So, how do you make sure your Team Away Day, Offsite or Strategy Workshop is more than just a chat over a nice lunch that leads to more questions than answers?
When Meetings and Offsites Go Wrong
We’ve all sat in meetings that feel like a waste of time. We’ve all had discussions that get lost in detail or where a dominant voice or two takes over. Sometimes, the biggest blocker isn’t what’s on the agenda. It’s unspoken tension, competing priorities, or confusion about the direction.
According to research by Doodle (State of Meetings Report 20204), poorly organised meetings cost companies over £400 billion globally in lost productivity. Meetings without purpose leave people frustrated and disengaged, and that’s before you factor in travel, venue hire, and time away from the day job.
Usually, that's not because the intentions aren’t right, but because the meeting lacked structure, safety, and focus.
Facilitators Make Things Easy
Of course, you could run the session yourself. But bringing in an experienced facilitator makes everything easier - by definition - Facilitation comes from the Latin "Facilis", meaning easy.
Our job is not just to set the agenda and manage the logistics, we are there to create a safe space where all voices can be heard and the gathering feels inclusive. We'll work with you to design an effective way to structure the agenda, and that will deliver clear outcomes and results.
Here’s why working with a professional facilitator to design and run your off-site is worth every penny.
Clarity of Purpose
Faciliators help you get crystal clear on why you’re bringing people together. Not just the logistics, but the objectives and desired outcomes. What do you want people to think, feel or do differently by the end of the session? We then design around that.Objectivity and Neutrality
Facilitators are completely independent and bring a fresh perspective and challenge the status quo. We encourage creative and critical thinking that leads to new ways of thinking, rather than being stuck in the 'that's just how we've always done it' mindset.Facilitators are trained to spot what's lurking under the surface - the elephant in the room - and create a safe and gentle space for honest conversation.
Equal Voices
Facilitators make sure everyone’s voice is heard, not just the louder voices in the room. We create a safe space and Psychological Safety where people feel more comfortable being honest especially when difficult topics come up.We build trust, ownership and better outcomes. We manage the energy in the room and design inclusive activities to engage everyone.
Structure with Flexibility
We create bespoke agendas that flow naturally with the right mix of structure and space and we keep things on track so the group doesn’t get lost in circular conversations or lost down rabbit holes. That means your day is purposeful but not rigid. If the energy shifts, we adapt in the moment.Follow-through & Accountability
A good facilitator doesn’t just spark good conversations, we help translate those into decisions, actions and next steps. So your day doesn’t end with vague intentions but with clear actions and SMART goals that have clear ownership, timeframes and accountability.You Get to Join In
When you’re managing or chairing the session, it's difficult to fully participate and contribute when you're trying to listen to everyone, take notes and watch the clock. As facilitators, we hold the space so you can step back, contribute, and connect with your team, instead of worrying about timings or post-it notes.Navigating Conflict
Facilitators manage conflict constructively – allowing disagreements to be aired and explored without derailing the session.
When to Use a Facilitator
Facilitated Culture Workshop
A well-designed off-site can help you:
Developing or launching a new vision, brand or strategy
Clarify your goals and direction
Define or reconnect with your purpose, culture, values and behaviours
Navigating change or restructuring
Building stronger cross-functional collaboration
Boosting team morale and motivation
Planning for growth or setting ambitious goals
Breaking down silos and strengthen trust and team dynamics
Supporting new leadership or team dynamics
Inspire fresh thinking and motivation
Why It Matters More Now
The way we work has changed – and so has what people need from time together.
“In the age of hybrid work, face-to-face time is no longer default – it’s a strategy. Teams that use it well gain a huge edge in trust, creativity, and performance.”
Ready to make your next team off-site meaningful, motivating and memorable?
Whether you’re planning a leadership strategy day, team away-day, or any other workshop, I’ll help you design and facilitate a session that delivers real outcomes and brings your people together with purpose and produces tangible results.
We're human so we like to chat on Teams or Zoom (or better still in person), so if you have ideas, plans or challenges you think could be resolved by getting people togeher in the same room, let's chat!
Give me a call on 07966 475195.
Book a time to speak on Zoom straight into my diary - Calendly >
Read more about Growth Space Bespoke Workshops & Facilitation >
Planning an Offsite or Away Day? Start With These 10 Questions >
Don't just take my word for it!
Polly is a superb facilitator - warm and approachable but with enough firmness to keep a very dynamic session on track. She clearly has deep listening skills and can help uncover meaning and trends where they may otherwise go unnoticed. I highly reccomend Polly for any facilitation needs, specifically in the workplace values space - she is brilliant."
Reflective Goal Setting for a Successful 2025: A Guide to Personal and Business Growth
The end of the year is a powerful moment to pause, reflect, and realign. It’s time to assess the past 12 months and plan for growth in the year ahead. A good way to do this is reflective goal-setting - a powerful approach to enhancing clarity, motivation, and success. This guide combines the latest research on goal-setting and practical tips for both businesses and individuals.
The end of the year is a powerful moment to pause, reflect, and realign. It’s the perfect opportunity for businesses and individuals to assess the past 12 months and plan for growth in the year ahead. A good way to do this is reflective goal-setting - a powerful approach to enhancing clarity, motivation, and success.
Reflective Goal Setting For Businesses
Reflective goal setting is incredibly valuable for businesses because it provides an opportunity to assess progress, learn from past experiences, and strategically plan for the future. By reflecting on what worked well and what didn’t, business leaders can identify patterns, strengths, and areas for improvement. This process helps companies become more agile and better equipped to adapt to changing market conditions. Reflective goal setting also fosters a growth mindset within teams, encouraging innovation and resilience by viewing challenges as learning opportunities rather than setbacks. When businesses take the time to evaluate their achievements and failures, they can refine their goals to ensure they are realistic, impactful, and aligned with the company’s mission and values.
Reflective goal setting promotes clarity and focus within an organisation. It allows leaders to prioritise key objectives, ensuring resources and efforts are directed toward the most important initiatives. This alignment is crucial for driving growth and fostering a cohesive, motivated team. Involving employees in the reflection process not only improves transparency but also strengthens commitment to the company’s vision. When everyone is clear on the goals and their role in achieving them, it enhances collaboration, accountability, and performance. Reflective goal setting, therefore, becomes an essential tool for both short-term success and long-term sustainability in business.
Reflective Goal Setting for Individuals
Reflective goal setting is equally valuable for individuals, as it gives you the opportunity to pause, assess progress, and realign with personal aspirations. By reflecting on past experiences, people can identify what has driven your successes, what challenges you’ve overcome, and where you might need to adjust your approach. This process increases self-awareness, helping you recognise your strengths, weaknesses, and patterns of behaviour that influence their outcomes. Reflection also allows you to take stock of your growth, celebrate achievements, and learn from any setbacks, which gives you the confidence to move forward.
For personal growth, reflective goal setting ensures that individuals remain focused on what truly matters to them, whether that’s career progression, relationships, or overall well-being. It offers clarity on values and priorities, helping to eliminate distractions and better allocate time and energy toward meaningful pursuits. By setting specific, actionable goals and tracking progress, individuals can stay motivated and resilient in the face of obstacles. Reflective goal setting encourages intentional living, where decisions and actions align with a deeper sense of purpose, ultimately leading to greater fulfilment and long-term success.
This guide combines the latest research on goal-setting, practical tips, and a personal story about my year’s achievements and lessons learned.
Why Reflective Goal Setting Works
It Builds Self-Awareness
Reflecting on what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved this year, sharpens your understanding of what drives you and what holds you back. This self-awareness is a catalyst for breaking unproductive patterns and setting meaningful goals. Research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that reflecting on past experiences boosts self-efficacy, helping individuals set more ambitious and achievable goals.
2. It Creates Clarity and Focus
When we reflect, we gain perspective, helping to prioritise what truly matters. This clarity ensures that your energy is directed toward impactful actions.
3. It Creates Results
Studies show that writing down specific goals increases the likelihood of achieving them by 42% compared to simply thinking about them. Reflective goal-setting encourages a growth mindset, enabling us to view setbacks as opportunities for growth. Harvard Business Review found that people who wrote goals with clarity and tracked progress were 33% more likely to achieve substantial outcomes.
4. It makes us more Motivated
Reflection helps us celebrate our wins and find meaning in our challenges. By tying goals to your personal values and aspirations, you set the stage for sustainable motivation throughout the year.
How to Reflect and Set Goals for 2025
Reflect on the Past Year
Start by answering these prompts:
What were your biggest achievements, both personal and professional?
What challenges did you face, and what did you learn from them?
When were you happiest, and why?
What habits or routines contributed to your success?
Is there something you wish you had done differently?
2. Shift Your Perspective
Use the downtime over the holidays to gain perspective. Step away from daily pressures, take a long walk, or journal in a quiet space. Sometimes, a change in environment can reveal new insights.
3. Dream Big and Plan Strategically
Envision where you want to be in December 2025. Consider:
What do you want to celebrate next year?
What matters most to you—personally and professionally?
What habits, skills, or boundaries do you need to develop?
Write It Down - The act of writing turns ideas into tangible commitments. Use a journal, a vision board, or even a digital app to capture your reflections and goals.
4. Set SMART Goals
When setting goals, it’s important to make them SMART which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Specific: A goal should be well-defined and clear, answering the questions to give you a clear direction.
Measurable: How will you know when you get there? What metrics can you use to track progress and determine when it’s achieved.
Achievable: The goal should be realistic and attainable, considering the resources, skills, and time available. Don’t set goals that are so ambitious that you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Relevant: The goal must align with your broader objectives, values, and long-term vision so that your efforts are directed towards the right priorities.
Time-bound: Every goal should have a clear deadline or timeline for completion. This creates a sense of urgency and helps prevent procrastination.
Once you’ve set your SMART goals, the next step is to break them down into actionable steps. Identify the key milestones along the way—smaller, more achievable objectives that keep you motivated and moving forward. By celebrating these milestones, you build momentum and maintain focus.
5. Collaborative Goal Setting
If you're setting business goals, involve your team. Reflecting and planning as a group creates alignment, boosts morale, and builds motivation and shared accountability.
Collaboration with team members makes them feel valued, and engaged in shaping the future of the business. This not only boosts morale but also encourages a deeper commitment to the company’s objectives, as people are more likely to be invested in goals they’ve helped to create.
Collaborative Goal Setting also builds transparency and trust. People will gain a better understanding of how their roles contribute to the overall success of the organisation. It improves communication and reduces ambiguity, leading to more efficient execution of goals. And finally when team members are part of the goal-setting process, they can offer insights and perspectives that leadership might not have considered, leading to more innovative and well-rounded objectives.
Collaboration also nurtures a sense of shared accountability. When employees have a stake in the goal-setting process, they feel more responsible for achieving the targets set, not just for themselves but for the team as a whole. This collective sense of ownership can increase motivation and drive, creating a more unified and high-performing workforce.
Closing Thoughts
Reflective goal-setting is not just about ticking boxes; it’s about continuous growth As you embrace this process, remember to celebrate progress, adapt to challenges, and always keep your vision in sight.
Here’s to a successful, purposeful, and fulfilling 2025! What goals will you set for the year ahead?
How Growth Space can help you with Goal Setting?
For Businesses:
If you’re looking to align your team and set strategic goals for 2025, we can help. We can Facilitate a Goal Setting Workshop designed to guide your team through a reflective process, ensuring everyone is on the same page and motivated to achieve shared objectives. With our facilitation, your team will gain clarity and commitment, setting a strong foundation for success in the year ahead. Get in touch about Facilitation for your Strategy Day or Team-Away Day >
For Individuals:
Working with a Coach can provide the support and guidance you need to clarify your personal and professional goals and help you overcome obstacles, stay focused, and align your goals with your values. Find out more about working with one of our Coaches and get in touch for an initial chat >
For Everyone: Join Our Free Webinar: "Reflective Goal Setting for 2025"
As we approach the end of 2024, now is the perfect time to pause, reflect, and set meaningful goals for the year ahead. Our 1-hour interactive webinar is designed for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals who want to align their personal aspirations with business objectives, fostering growth, clarity, and resilience in 2025. In this Goal Setting workshop, you will:
Reflect on the lessons learned and celebrate your successes from 2024
Explore a proven framework for setting impactful personal and business goals
Define actionable steps to turn your vision for 2025 into reality
Gain tools to stay motivated and resilient throughout the year
This session will equip you with practical strategies and actionable insights, empowering you to enter the new year with purpose and confidence.
Monday 9th December, 1pm-2pm Online.
Full details here: Reflective Goal Setting Workshop >