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It does not matter if your team or a consultant prepares a strategic decision. Both need anchoring of the material created by the working group ahead of the big strategy meeting. so how do you pull it all together when the big day is coming up.

The chairman and secretary are responsible to secure the proposed decisions are well anchored. The internal anchoring involves multiple stakeholder roles:

1. Decision maker – business accountable
2. Decision approver – supporting the decision
3. Recommending parties – key stakeholders required for the executions

The time just before the strategy session and immediately after is extra valuable. All material for the strategy session should be in final revision 72 hours before the session and ready for anchoring. This gives all three stakeholder groups to review the material in advance. It also gives all key contributors a chance to brief their superiors.  An important steps towards the decision.. The role of the Chairman is to secure all three stakeholder groups are on board with the direction. The role of the secretary is to secure concerns get addressed.    The best way to address issues is to make minor updates ahead of the meeting.

The strategy session itself has is now set on a good path to be successful. The anchoring session is likely to result in valuable comments that are good input to the strategy execution.  Immediately after the strategy session you have the opportunity to add vital contexts to the minutes. Focus on comments enabling a fast move into execution.  It is rare will you reach the required level of details in the meeting to secure execution along the intentions laid out. Act fast to distribute accurate minutes within 24 hours.

Good questions to work with as Chairman and Secretary are:

• Do we have a clear enough view of the key stakeholders and their positions ahead of the meeting? – This should guide where you spend briefing efforts.
• What are the key obstacles we can knock off before the strategy sessions? – Elimination of minor issues in advance increase chances of success.
• Have any of the key stakeholders an alternative strategic option to suggest? – Alternative options should be part of the decision base.

Additional reading on the subject

• Cognitive biases affecting strategic decision making [ARTICLE] – by Michael Graber & Jocelyn Atkinson
• What makes strategic decisions different [ARTICLE] – by Harvard Business Review
• Decision making strategies [ARTICLE] – by Kendra Cherry
• Decision making: Factors that influence decision making, heuristics used and decision outcomes [ARTICLE] – by Cindy Dietrich