Two Tales of Participative Strategy

Stewarts Law: Past, Present, Future

For the second year running Stewarts Law, the international litigation practice, invited John Smythe to design and facilitate their business strategy meeting attended by the top 50 or so lawyers.

The meeting had to meet two objectives; provide robust solutions to deliver the near term business strategy and think out to 2025 to frame the options for future growth. In advance a headline strategy was drafted by Stuart Dench comprising six strategic aims designed to build on the 2015 strategy. Using Engage for Change’s proven Participative Strategy Safari exercise partners in small groups visited six Safari stations and contributed specific, actionable and measurable actions that would add substance to content and proposals for execution.

Station owners synthesised the proposals and by the end of the meeting the building blocks were in place and, significantly, fully owned by partners.

Participative Strategy through Strategy Safari (TM)

Participative strategy requires an executive team to agree what is not negotiable (and why) and articulate the breadth of an invitation to a broader group to contribute.

Stuart Dench of Stewarts Law comments:  “John’s design for the meeting and deft facilitation meant that all of us could act as equal participants.  In short order we produced the basis for a robust near term strategy and exciting longer term options for developing the firm out to 2025.”

Strategy Safari is always bespoke. Some invite people to contribute to strategy content (the what) or even to challenge it. All invite people to contribute to the really hard bit (the how) – strategy delivery, but only with specific, actionable and measurable ideas. The golden rule of delivery is hard ideas/no woolly concepts.