Tomorrow's Narratives

Discussing about a company or organization stretegy is always complex and requires to consider a variety of internal and external factors. In the context of ideation workshops, this could become a never-ending conversation if not an obstacle to the development of interesting solutions. On the other hand, developing solutions without considering the overall vision could also be risky, driving excitement around product or service ideas that don't fit the broader strategy or brand image.

A technique to avoid getting stuck into today's problems as well as completely forgetting the vision is to suddenly project everyone in the future. Ask the stakeholders around you to imagine how a newspaper, magazine or blog of their choice would talk about their company or the new product/service they have launched in the market in two or five years from now. Let them imagine the storyline, write down the headline and sub-headlines, and the beginning of the article.

The exercise can help clarifying several aspects, according to the specific goal and context of the coversation. Here some examples of questions this activity may help answer to: is the vision for the future of the company shared among the different stakeholders? Is there alignment around the key value propostion of the new product or service under development? How does a new solution fit the overall strategy?

Don't be afraid of trying this out during strategic conversations or at early stages of the development of a solution, and make this exercise as much playful as you can. It could work as a good ice-breaker as well as a nice way to wrap-up a long day of brainstorming.