See the wider context
Connect customers, stakeholders and constraints around a choice.
Strategic thinking
See the bigger picture. Make sharper choices.
Connect daily decisions to the needs, constraints and longer-term choices that matter to your organisation.
A different way forward
INSO workshopsDecide with confidence
- Suggested format
- Tailored session or pathway
Depth and reinforcement follow the decisions participants make.
- Who it is for
- Shaped around practice and feedback
Leaders, managers and emerging leaders who need to connect their work to wider priorities.
- How we work
- Live · blended · on-demand where useful
Scope, format and preparation agreed around your team.
When this helpsIs this your
Is this your
situation?
Urgent work leaves little room to question whether it serves the right goal. Practise stepping back, seeing the wider system and choosing where to focus.
- Activity is easier to describe than its purpose.
- New priorities are added without changing old commitments.
- Local improvements create problems for another team.
What changes
Practical progress you can use in the work.
Leave with more
than a good conversation.
Make a deliberate trade-off
Explain what to prioritise and what to leave aside.
Connect strategy to work
Translate a direction into a decision and a useful action.
Inside the workshopA clear shape.
A clear shape.
Room for your reality.
Suggested workshop outline. We shape the sequence and depth around your team.
Our approach to building capability01Look beyond the immediate task
What we do
Map the need behind a familiar request. Explore who is affected and the wider consequences of a local answer.
What this produces
A context map for the work.
02Identify the real choices
What we do
Distinguish goals from choices. Practise naming alternatives and the resources or commitments each would require.
What this produces
A set of strategic choices.
03Challenge the direction
What we do
Test the preferred option against a different future or stakeholder perspective. Discuss the assumptions that would need to hold.
What this produces
An assumption map and a stronger rationale.
04Bring it into the week
What we do
Translate the choice into what to start, stop or change. Explain how an everyday decision supports the wider direction.
What this produces
A practical priority statement.
What you keepUseful in the room.
Useful in the room.
Useful on Monday.
- A context and stakeholder map
- A framework for comparing strategic choices
- A priority statement linked to everyday work
Before we beginA little preparation.
A little preparation.
A more useful session.
- Bring a current organisational priority.
- Choose a decision that competes for resources.
- Share the constraints participants need to respect.
After the workshop
Keep it moving.
Explain the choice behind a priority in a planning conversation. Invite a peer’s challenge before committing more work.
Try a different way of thinking
From activity to strategic choice
A department wants to add a new communication channel because competitors use it.
Illustrative exampleStep 1 of 3
Connect
Name the customer need and organisational priority the channel would serve. Ask what current activity already addresses that need.
01 / 03
- Connect
Name the customer need and organisational priority the channel would serve. Ask what current activity already addresses that need.
- Choose
Compare improving an existing channel with adding another. Make the resource trade-off explicit.
- Translate
Write the chosen direction in one sentence, then identify what the team should do differently this week.
The useful shift
Strategic thinking connects a choice to a need, a trade-off and a change in the work.
In practice · University of Oxford
From founder ambition to practical progress.
The cohort completed seven weeks of structured company-building, applying the work to their own ventures as they went.
Related work at EnSpire Oxford: founders applied work on strategy, customer need and experimentation to their own companies in a seven-week programme co-led by INSO.
Read the storyA good fit when
People moving from delivering tasks to shaping direction.
Another approach may fit better
A complete market research exercise or an outsourced corporate strategy.
Explore the ways we can helpBefore you choose
A few useful answers.
Is this for senior leaders only?
No. The examples and level of responsibility are adapted to the audience, including managers and people preparing for broader roles.
Do participants need a strategy background?
We start with the decisions they already make. Preparation helps us choose accessible examples and the right level of challenge.
What are you working through?
Interested in strategic thinking? Tell us about your team, the situation and what you would like to leave with. We can shape a useful starting point together.
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INSO · Strategic thinking · Suggested workshop outline. Format and scope are agreed around your team. /workshops/strategic-thinking