by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“Strategic Clarity is the combination of a compelling vision and astute, timely decision making”

Out of the blue Christine received a call from a security services client, SuperGuard, wanting help to figure out a fresh approach toward its marketplace. Based upon her past input, its leader team had become excited about the prospect of pursuing a Blue Ocean market; where there would be little or no competition. This is contrary to Red Ocean markets where they actively deal with much competitive blood. SuperGuard was more unusual than most firms, since it had Co-Visionists (unlike execution oriented CEOs or “bosses”). Jack acted as catalyst-integrator, while Charlotte acted as companywide communicator – it’s tough to find all these vital capabilities in one person.

Since SuperGuard had adopted the enlightened leadership (EL2) recommendation of no more than seven on its leadership team, Charlotte also wore the Promotionist hat; where she leads the firm’s sales, PR and after-sales activities, too. She was going to attend the forthcoming strategy session along with her other six leadership team colleagues, which included her Co-Visionist Jack and five Strategists – Expansionist-Roger, Innovationist-Emily, Provisionist– Mark, Operationist-Jennifer and Humanist-Carolyn.

In any event, Christine had encouraged them to attend an offsite venue for an initial half-day envisioning exercise, 8.30am to 1.00pm, which would act as a preliminary brainstorming, breakthrough session. She’d already briefed Jack as session facilitator and now he was sitting in front of six leader colleagues in a U-shaped formation who were all raring to go. Some preliminary chatter about everyone’s week so far helped to warm things up somewhat.

With Christine sitting in the back of the room as a helpful observer, Jack stated the purpose of their meeting: “To explore fresh strategic growth from a Blue Ocean perspective, where markets are likely to be less competitive than our current cut-throat situation.”  He invited initial reactions that he noted on a nearby whiteboard. Not only was this activity a positive way to get the ball rolling, but it was also gauged to fully draw participants into the conversation. He listed a total of seven suggestions.

Jack then invited his six Strategist colleagues to split into two groups of three and requested that they discuss the seven items among each grouping. He pointed out that they were at liberty to consider additional ideas, too, if they had particular merit. After 45 minutes they were expected to regroup and share their top two from the listing. Before you knew it, they re-met and ended up with a reduced list of four between them.

He now orchestrated a lively, free-ranging discussion of all four prioritized items. At a certain point, Jack asked participants to confidentially note down their most promising, ultimate choice and hand it to him on a folded slip of paper. Although there were differences, the top vote went for…To create Super Guards that would be festooned with radios, cell-phones and monitoring devices. These elite guards would be assigned to large building complexes with an array of cameras that could be monitored either in a local security room or through SuperGuard’s Operations Center. Note how this lived up to the company’s name in every way.

Splitting into threesomes once more, each grouping spent the next 30 minutes pinpointing and discussing the pros and cons of such a venture. These were again listed on their whiteboard for everyone to see: nine pros and seven cons. After further discussion, another confidential vote quickly revealed the team’s considered top three in both columns. Jack now asked them to form into three pairs, where each pair took-up one pro and one con, so that all items on these finalist listings were covered.

For their remaining half-hour each pair began deliberating over their assigned items. At meeting’s end, each pair shared their conclusions so far, which created an opportunity for colleagues to question and then add to those views. Jack then called for an adjournment and he invited everyone back in two weeks for updates and further deliberations.  This would allow for pairs to return with more researched conclusions.

They were encouraged to consult with outside experts, if they so wished. Jack then invited them all for lunch to celebrate a job well done so far. It was a particularly enjoyable lunch because they all felt they had accomplished so much. There were special positive feelings about the new business option they had chosen; within a Blue Ocean marketplace setting. It will be interesting to see how far they get in two week’s time!

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Author, Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Founding Principal with Leadership Solutions, Inc., is based in New York, and author of Smart Decisions: Goodbye Problems, Hello Options. He has drafted a potential new publication, People Count more than Numbers: Enlightened Leadership Re-visited that offers a slew of fresh leadership concepts and practical models. Feel free to follow author at: Linkedin.com/in/peter-arthur-smith-2115722/

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