Agenda
Two people in silhouette sorting sticky notes on a wall lit from behind.

One day, one room, one decision your team has been putting off

I run strategy days for teams of four to fifteen. You bring the question. By five o'clock there is an answer, a name next to every next step, and a single page that says so.

Book a day

Why one day, and why one question

Most away-days try to fix everything and end with a list nobody owns. This one picks the single decision that is blocking the most other decisions, and stays on it until it is made.

I am not a consultant and I do not know your business better than you. My job is the room: who speaks, when we stop talking and start choosing, and making sure the quiet person at the end of the table is heard before lunch.

A desk in a dark room lit by a single angled lamp, a closed laptop and glasses on it.
People seated along a wooden table writing in notebooks, sunlight across the table.

09:30 – 12:30

Morning: what we are actually deciding

Everyone writes first

Twenty minutes of silence, each person writing what they think the question is. Seniority speaks last.

The wall

Every note goes up. We group them until one question is left that everyone agrees is the right one.

What we are not deciding

A second list, just as important: the things we agree to leave alone today.

A long meeting table in a bright room, a team seated around it with laptops open.

13:30 – 15:30

Afternoon: three options, no more

Three options

Small groups build the best case for each. Nobody argues for the option they arrived wanting.

The cost of each

Money, people, time and what we stop doing. Written on the wall where everyone can see the sums.

The vote

Everyone votes on paper. Then we talk about the votes, not the other way round.

A team seated along a conference table facing a woman speaking at the far end of the room.

15:30 – 17:00

Late: who does what, by when

The decision, out loud

Said by the person who will be held to it, in one sentence, in front of everyone.

Next steps with names

No step without a person and a date. "The team" is not a person.

When we check

A date six weeks away, already in the calendar before anyone leaves the room.

The page you get the next morning

One sheet, by nine. No slides, no photographs of the wall. If it does not fit on a page the day did not work, and I say so.

Printed pages and a notebook spread on a pale desk beside a wooden bowl and a brass pencil.

Example · a bakery, nine people

The questionDo we open a second shop, or a wholesale kitchen?
DecidedThe wholesale kitchen, in the unit behind the current shop.
Not decidedA second shop. We look again in eighteen months.
Next stepsLease: Maria, by 14 March. Oven quotes: Sam, by 21 March. Three café customers asked: Jo, by the end of the month.
Check-inTuesday 29 April, 08:00, same room.

A fictional page, for an invented bakery

Price and conditions

  • One day, up to 15 people£1,800
  • Charities and co-ops£1,100
  • The six-week check-inincluded
  • Room, if you do not have oneat cost
Ask about a date
Before the day
A one-hour call with whoever is paying, and a ten-minute call with everyone who will be in the room. Separately.
What I need from you
Everyone for the whole day. Phones in a box. Nobody leaving at three for "just one call".
If the day does not reach a decision
It happens, rarely. You pay half and we find out together what was missing.
Moving the date
Free up to two weeks before. Later than that, half the fee, because the day is usually lost.
A hand with a white pen writing notes in a spiral planner beside a keyboard.