Services / Strategy & consultancy
Strategy away days, properly facilitated.
Everyone has been to a bad away day: a hotel room, a flipchart, a lot of agreeing, and nothing different on Monday. A good one starts with independent research beforehand and ends with a written plan that survives the following week.
At a glance
Good for
Leadership teams, boards and trustees setting direction for the next one to three years
Led by
Rachel and Jamie O'Reilly, Chartered Marketers and Fellows of the CIM
How it starts
A free conversation, then stakeholder research two to three weeks before the day
You get
A written strategy with owners and dates within five working days
Sounds familiar?
Why most away days change nothing
01
A blank flipchart
The day starts from whoever speaks first, not from evidence.
02
Twenty priorities, none delivered
Nothing gets cut, so nothing gets done.
03
Nobody follows up
The plan never meets the following week, let alone the following quarter.
What you get
Everything the day needs, before and after
Run to our MORPH method, refined over eighteen years.
Stakeholder research
A confidential questionnaire to your leadership team and, where useful, staff, trustees, customers or funders.
An evidence-based SWOT
We arrive with a draft drawn from the research and your market. The room challenges and prioritises it.
Independent facilitation
A director runs the day, keeps the quiet people talking and holds the group to a decision.
A written plan within the week
Owners, timings and the evidence behind each decision, in a form you can put to a board.
The 5–2–1 rule
Five priorities at most. Two things you will stop doing. One action within a fortnight.
A 90-day check
We come back and check what actually moved.
How we work
The MORPH method
1
Map
Two to three weeks out, we gather confidential input and market evidence.
2
Open
We put the honest picture in front of the room and let it be challenged.
3
Rank
Everything is scored and cut. The stage most away days skip.
4
Plan
Every priority leaves with an owner, a date and a first action.
5
Hold
Ninety days later we check what moved.
Independent
People tell an outsider what they won’t say in the room
An independent facilitator gets answers an internal chair cannot, and nobody internal has to choose between chairing and contributing.
Confidential input. Findings shape the agenda before anyone sits down.
No agenda of our own. We are there for the decision, not a particular answer.
Senior experience. Both directors have sat on the other side of the table.
Written up fast. The strategy follows within five working days.
The work
Strategy in practice
Who leads it
Rachel and Jamie O'Reilly
Directors · Chartered Marketers · Fellows of the CIM
A director leads every account, supported by a core team of seven, most of whom have worked with us for ten years or more.
Common questions
Where do away days take place?
Wherever suits you: your own premises or a venue you choose. We can suggest venues in Hampshire.
How many people can take part?
Most days work best with a leadership team or board of up to around twelve people.
How much does an away day cost?
Each day is quoted as a fixed fee, including the research beforehand, the facilitation and the written plan.
Do you run board and trustee days?
Yes, including governance, direction and the honest conversation about capacity.
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