Creating a Real-Time Strategy
Because in uncertain times, clarity emerges through shared sensemaking.
Many strategies look clear on paper.
Far fewer feel clear to the people expected to execute them.
In complex, fast-moving environments, leaders are often required to decide while information is incomplete, priorities compete, and multiple futures remain possible.
Creating a Real-Time Strategy is designed to help senior leadership teams think together in the present, integrate diverse signals, and arrive at shared clarity about the way ahead.
When Organisations Call Us
Organisations typically explore Real-Time Strategy when:
- The external environment is shifting faster than planning cycles
- Leaders hold different views of priorities and risks
- Past strategies no longer feel fully relevant
- Alignment exists in intent but not in direction
- Decisions need to be made without waiting for perfect data
Often, the challenge is not a lack of intelligence.
It is the need for collective sensemaking.
Why Creating a Real-Time Strategy Is Different
This is not a traditional strategy offsite or planning exercise.
Real-Time Strategy focuses on:
- Thinking together rather than presenting positions
- Making assumptions visible and examinable
- Integrating multiple perspectives in the moment
- Exploring scenarios rather than committing prematurely
Because strategy is not just a document.
It is a shared understanding of where to focus, what to prioritise, and how to move forward together.
Our Lens on Strategic Sensemaking
Our approach to Real-Time Strategy is grounded in a few core beliefs:
Strategy emerges through dialogue, not debate
Diverse perspectives strengthen decisions when held well
Visual and experiential thinking unlocks deeper insight
Uncertainty needs exploration, not avoidance
Alignment is built through shared meaning, not consensus alone
We do not arrive with answers.
We help leadership teams think more clearly, together.
How a Real-Time Strategy Engagement Typically Unfolds
Each engagement is tailored, but often follows a deliberate arc:
Capturing themes, tensions, and perspectives from across the organisation through pre-work and conversations.
Helping leaders articulate how they currently see the organisation, the environment, and the challenges ahead.
Using facilitated dialogue and experiential methods to examine multiple plausible futures and trade-offs.
Integrating insights to clarify priorities, strategic choices, and areas of focus.
Articulating shared direction, guiding principles, and next steps that leaders commit to collectively.
Real-time strategy work is not about certainty.
It is about clarity amidst complexity.
What This Enables Over Time
When Real-Time Strategy work is done well, organisations begin to see:
- Stronger alignment within senior leadership teams
- Clearer prioritisation and decision-making
- Greater confidence in navigating uncertainty
- Strategies that feel owned, not imposed
- Faster movement from discussion to action
Most importantly, leaders develop the capability to think strategically together, repeatedly.
Where Real-Time Strategy Is Most Valuable
Creating a Real-Time Strategy is especially powerful:
- For senior leadership or executive teams
- During periods of disruption or transition
- When multiple strategic narratives are competing
- When long-term plans need near-term clarity
- When alignment matters more than perfection
How We Hold The Work
Our Culture & OD engagements are guided by a simple principle:
creating SPACE for teams to think, speak, and choose together.
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S
Safety
Creating a safe space to speak honestly even when conversations are difficult
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P
Presence
Staying attentive to what is happening in the room, both spoken and unspoken
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A
Authentic Dialogue
Encouraging open conversations that surface real perspectives and tensions
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C
Choice
Allowing direction to emerge through shared sensemaking & not prescription
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E
Enabling Tools
Using methods & tools only when they serve the moment and the context
Stories of Strategic Clarity
Across organisations, Real-Time Strategy engagements have helped leadership teams:
- Align on priorities in uncertain environments
- Surface and reconcile differing strategic perspectives
- Explore scenarios without defensiveness
- Move forward with shared confidence and intent
Frequently asked questions
Don’t see an answer to your question?
Drop us an email and we will get back
Real-Time Strategy focuses on sensemaking rather than planning. Instead of working toward a fixed output, the work helps leaders think together in the present, examine assumptions, and align on direction based on current realities.
No. While it is especially valuable during uncertainty, Real-Time Strategy is equally useful when leaders want to proactively examine direction, priorities, or emerging opportunities before issues become urgent.
Experiential and visual methods help leaders externalise thinking. They make assumptions visible, enable richer dialogue, and allow complex ideas to be explored collectively rather than defended individually.
This work is most effective with senior leadership teams who collectively shape direction and priorities. The specific group is defined based on decision-making authority and the need for alignment.
The primary outcome is shared clarity. Leaders leave with a common understanding of the current reality, strategic priorities, and the way ahead, along with stronger capability to navigate future complexity together.
Let’s Begin with a
Conversation
If your leadership team is facing complexity, competing narratives, or strategic uncertainty,
it may be time to think together in real time.
Let’s explore what clarity looks like for your organisation right now.