This workshop template will help your team collaboratively create a vision for what the intranet will achieve within your organization, and a strategic direction for achieving that vision. This template is based off an intranet strategy webinar presented by the VP of Strategy at ThoughtFarmer, Gordon Ross. To view the recording visit: https://www.thoughtfarmer.com/blog/upcoming-webinar-how-to-create-an-effective-intranet-strategy/. The questions used in this workshop are loosely based off "Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy." To read this article visit: https://hbr.org/2012/09/bringing-science-to-the-art-of-strategy

1. #tfwebinar
Strategic Workshop Template

2. Why are we here?
Strategic Workshop Goals:
• Collaboratively create a vision for what the intranet will achieve inside our
organization.
• Determine a strategic direction for achieving that vision.
• Walk away with a steering plan and a list of to-do items to make that vision come
to life.

3. Strategic Workshop
Who: Core team / steering committee (7 to 12)
Duration: Half-day to full-day
Format: Large boardroom, lots of wall space, food, coffee
Tools: Sharpies, post-it notes, digital camera, poster paper, tape
Resources: Company strategic plan; mission/vision/values; intranet charter

4. Workshop Format
To begin, hand out post-it notes and sharpies to participants. There are five
questions they will need to write responses to. One answer per post-it note. Once all
questions have been answered, the facilitator will organize the post-it notes into a
table like the one below.
Objectives Conditions Enablers
(TODO’s)
Barriers Mitigations
(TODO’s)

5. Let’s begin!

6. Question One
What are the goals or objectives we have set for the
new intranet?

7. Question Two
What conditions are needed in order for our team to
meet the objectives we have established for your
intranet?

8. Question Three
What is needed in order to make these conditions a
reality?

9. Sample Barriers as a lack of a condition
1. Access (inability to access the intranet due to device or network connectivity)
2. Content (lack of useful, valuable content)
3. Culture (lack of openness to innovation, aversion to risk)
4. Information design (consensus on a meaningful information design, process to determine successful
IA)
5. Leadership (lack of engagement from leadership, upper management, top-down support)
6. Motivation (lack of willingness to participate, what's in it for me, self-interest)
7. Permission (lack of clarity around what's permissible, where am I able to collaborate)
8. Skills (lack of training, lack of practical knowledge and applied know-how)
9. Technology (lack of connecting parts to allow for systems integration, self-service (e.g. single sign-on))
10. Time (not enough time in the day, competing priorities)
11. Value proposition (lack of understanding of the value, lack of real &
perceived benefits)

10. Question Four
What are the potential barriers to achieving these
conditions?

11. Question Five
What is the plan to deal with potential barriers? What
do we need to do in order to avoid or mitigate them?

12. Once all responses have been
recorded and organized, the chart
should look something like this

13. Workshop Output
Objectives Conditions Enablers
(TODO’s)
Barriers Mitigations
(TODO’s)

14. Dot Vote/Star Vote
The final workshop step is completing a cost/benefit
analysis or an effort/impact type analysis. Ask the group:
• What is going to yield the biggest results?
• What is going to take the most effort, be the most difficult to do?
Done silently, get participants to vote on what they think the
biggest benefit is, what the easiest/hardest tasks are to
complete, and what is the most costly.

15. Once all votes have been tallied, the
chart should look something like
this

16. Workshop Output: Dot Star/Star Vote
Objectives Conditions Enablers
(TODO’s)
Barriers Mitigations
(TODO’s)

17. To Finish Up
What has emerged from this workshop are two major to-do lists:
- Enablers
- Mitigations
• Wrap up with some discussion about the intranet and reflect on your
findings
• Assign a scribe to capture the results
• We recommend taking a photo and recording the workshop output
into a spreadsheet to track your progress
- See next slide for a sample table

18. Keeping Tabs on Your Progress
Possibility Initiative Action Outcome Measure Milestone
Engagement Access:
From
Home
Ensure all staff can
securely access the
intranet from home on
their desktop computer.
Staff have the ability to
login and use the
intranet 24/7
% Active Users (number of
uniquely identified users /
total staff headcount)
Expressed as percentage.
Q2 2016
Engagement Access:
On Mobile
Ensure staff have secure
access to the intranet
from their corporately
issued mobile phone /
tablet device
Staff have the ability to
login and use the
intranet when on the
road and not located in
a corporate office to get
the information and
services they need
% mobile visits (visits from
mobile devices / total
visits) Expressed as a
percentage. (source:
intranet stats)
Active mobile users by
department (count of
uniquely identified users
from mobile / devices
segmented by division /
group and ranked)
Q3 2016

19. Next Steps
The person responsible for presenting the strategy has lots of content
to work with. There will likely be an editorial process that needs to take
place, synthesizing themes and actionable items. We recommend
following up with people to determine how easy or hard some of the
items are. Also, put the draft strategy into a PowerPoint and run it past
a sponsor or your steering committee. The goal is to get people who
matter to pay attention to what you are trying to do.

20. Good luck!