5 Strategy Exercises For STRATEGISTS

One of the biggest problems for strategists is that they don’t get enough chances to practice the skillset of strategy. In this video I’ll share five strategy exercises to help you improve your strategy skills.?

But first let me tell you why practice is so important for strategy. A lack of practice nearly got me kicked off the PlayStation pitch team at 2AM the night before the biggest pitch of my life.?

I had made it onto the final team who flew out to San Francisco to pitch PlayStation, we had gone through the final run through of the pitch. The nerves were getting to me and I was messing up my strategy slides.?

The CEO and CCO came over to me and said they were going to cut me from the team,? because I hadn’t had enough practice pitching strategy to clients.?

I was devastated, I told them that I would stay up all night and get this perfect. I realized in that moment, we are expected to be perfect but we never practice our craft.?

They gave me a chance and I ended up making the team and we won the pitch and I made some of the best work of my life.?

Practice has not only helped me, running the Planning Dirty Academy for the last 3 years I’ve noticed the strategists who practice are the ones who have transitioned into world class strategists. A great example of that is an Academy member who went from an account manager to a strategist, Tyler Koke. He practiced retrofitting strategies for iconic campaigns, you can check out his Ikea one here.?

That is why I created a guide of ten exercises that every strategist should practice. The following are five of those exercises you can practice either by yourself or in a group. The five exercises Word Golf, Warhol’s Words, Ladder Builders, Brief Surgery, and Opening Moves all test a different skill set needed in strategy.?

Word Golf?

What is it??

Exercise where you’re trying to use as few words as possible to make a strategy.?

Why is it important to practice?

One of the most important skills for strategists is to be brief, we need to be very conscious of how many words we use, as we are trying to keep the attention of our audience. This exercise demands that you reduce the word count without reducing the meaning.?

What are the steps you take??

1. Reveal a paragraph that has been written, this could come from a deck or an email you have written that week or you could take from my collection of paragraphs that need to be shortened. You create PAR by working out how many words you used in the rewrite. E.g when you rewrote the sentence it was 30 words instead of 50 words, that then becomes par.??
2. You then put 30 seconds on the clock and the strategists have to rewrite the sentence with the least words possible?
3. At the end of 30 seconds the strategist responds back with their sentence and word count?
4. You have to decide whether the sentence makes sense and then how many words above or below PAR they are. E.g Someone with 27 words would be -3 points, 35 words would be +5
5. At the end of the 9 exercises, the person with the lowest score is the winner.?

How long does it take?

Each round takes about 2 minutes (for 2 people). 9 holes of word golf will take you about 20 minutes.?

Hints??

You never need to write prepositions (I, WE, YOU), you never need to use the word ‘just’

Example of the exercise

WORD GOLF - HOLE 1?

WORD COUNT 43 - PAR 26

After the launch of Ticketmaster Connect back in December 2021, our ticket trajectory was not met. We’re competing against a serious local ticket hawker (SLTH) that only operates in local areas. SLTH currently does 400K Tickets/ Week while we do 15K Tickets/ Week.?

ANSWER

Launching in December 2021, Ticketmaster Connect's ticket trajectory has not been met, currently 15K Tickets/ Week. Competition, serious local ticket hawkers (SLTH) does 400K Tickets/ Week.?

So in this one, the count is 26 words so my score would be 0 as the PAR is 26.?

Warhol’s Words?

What is it??

This is a game to see who can make the most memorable strategy. The tool you have at your hands is the ability to paint with words. There are two types of words in the world, visual words which have an image attached to them and verbal words which have no image attached.?

This game needs to be played in groups of three or more.?

Why is it important to practice??

Making a strategy that sticks in people's mind is essential to the job. One of the best ways of doing that is using visual words, which paint pictures in people’s braids.?

What are the steps you take??

1. Come up with a list of one sentence strategy statements that you’re trying to get across. This can come from you or you can use this list attached.??
2. You then put 1 minute on the clock and the strategists have to rewrite the statement using visual words or an analogy to make it more memorable
3. You give all the answers back to the leader and they read out the answers?
4. The group then votes on which answer they think is the best one?
5. Everyone vote is a point towards that strategists
6. The first strategist to 10 points wins

Hints??

Alliteration, analogies and picturing words

How long does it take?

20-40 minutes depending on how many strategists you have.

Example Of Exercises

Certain songs can become a positive emotional touchpoint for fans of their favoured football club.?

ANSWER?

Every Club Has Their Perfect Pitch Songs?

Songs are the 12th player of a team?

Lead singers are you new lead strikers?

Kicking Goals With Sound?

Soccer Song Birds - Every club has their iconic song.

You would vote for the statement that best encapsulates the spirit of the original statement

Exercises 2?

The complement of alcohol and caffeine that is achieved in an Espresso Martini creates the ideal state for consumers on a night out.?

ANSWER?

Shaken and stirred - the mix of caffeine and alcohol?

Head racer, body chaser - the mix of caffeine and alcohol

Cocktail of moods

You would vote for the statement that best encapsulates the spirit of the original statement

Ladder Builders?

What is it?

An exercise where you put together the rungs of the benefit ladder.?

Starting with the top rung (the emotional benefit) or bottom rung (product or service) and you then have limited time to try and fill out as many ladder rungs as possible.?

Why is it important to practice? What skill does it help you improve??

Ladder Builders gets you comfortable with using the benefits ladder and helps you to get comfortable with emotional benefits without the pressure of a real brief.?

Practicing ladders helps to show that there is not one answer to a benefit ladder. The benefit ladder is used to help come up with the creative brief and strategy on a page, consumer goal. It also helps you to create the messages for the different levels of the comms framework.?

What are the steps you take??

1. Start with either a product or service at the bottom of the ladder or a emotional benefit or brand tagline at the top of the ladder.?
2. Then it is the job of the strategists to come up with three different ladders filled out with the product or service, the features, functional benefits and emotional benefit for that product. You have five minutes to write out as many benefit ladders as you can??
3. Pass the ladder to a partner and then give each other points on how many filled out ladders you both create?

Hints?

It is always easy with a definition of the rungs of the ladder and some examples.?

Product and service - Is anything that you could buy that would solve for the problem at hand?

Features - The distinctive attribute or description of the products, these attributes help to solve a problem.?

Functional Benefit - How it helps someone in that moment overcome a specific problem. Ask yourself, why is this feature so important??

Emotional Benefit - The higher order desired state that comes from the problem being solved in that moment, it is usually benefits and goals that sit on a day to yearly basis. Ask yourself, why is solving this problem in the moment so important??

If you are looking for more emotional benefits, you can download my 24 consumer goals cheat sheet which has a list of them.?

How long does it take?

30 minutes

Example of exercise:?

Bottom of the benefit ladder?

Strawberries?

Divorce Lawyer?

Impressionist Painting?

Headphones?

Cup of Tea?

Top Ladder Rung?

Tranquility - Feeling relaxed?

Individuality - Feeling unique, special or different?

Material Gain - Avoiding the loss of money or material possessions?

Understanding - Engaging in activities involving original thinking or novel or interesting ideas?

Belongingness - Avoiding feelings of social isolation or rejection

ANSWERS?

For the first example let’s put strawberries as the bottom rung on the ladder. Then work up from there.?

Bottom Rung - Strawberries?

Product/Service - Strawberries?

Feature - Easy to transport?

Functional Benefit - Perfect for a picnic?

Emotional Benefit - Feelings of joy and well-being?

Second ladder might be;?

Product/Service - Strawberries?

Features - Natural source of sweetness?

Functional Benefit - Eat sweet foods that aren’t bad for me??

Emotional Benefit - Feeling healthy?

Third ladder might be;

Product/Service - Strawberries

Features - Pick strawberries from the farm?

Functional Benefit - See that the food is all natural?

Emotional Benefit - Connection With nature?

Now let’s look at an example of when you start at the top rung;

Top Rung -? Exploration - Satisfying one’s curiosity about meaningful events (Exploration)

So we might land on Museums playing this role. So we would work out the rungs in between for this.?

Emotional Benefit - Satisfying one’s curiosity about meaningful events (Exploration)

Functional Benefit - Understand how past events impact today??

Features - Collection of artefacts that changed the course of history?

Product/Service - Museums?

Second product or service might be a Therapist?

Emotional Benefit - Satisfying one’s curiosity about meaningful events (Exploration)

Functional Benefit - Help you untangle what is going on deep in your head?

Features - Trained professional in human psychology??

Product/Service - Therapists?

Third product or service might be a Podcast.?

Emotional Benefit - Satisfying one’s curiosity about meaningful events (Exploration)

Functional Benefit - Understand an issue from multiple perspective??

Features - In-depth interviews with experts??

Product/Service - Podcast?

Creative Brief Rewind

What is it?

Share advertising campaigns that you admire and then try and write the creative brief for that specific spot.?

Why is it important to practice??

It’s important to practice writing the key documents of a strategist without the pressure of a real client.?

This also helps you see what the different briefs would look like for great work and how they differ from the current briefs that you are writing.?

What are the steps you take??

1. Find a campaign or advertising spot that you like?
2. Play the spot for the strategists?
3. Give them the format that you want them to respond in e.g your companies creative brief formula or Get/Who/To/By
4. Give them 5 minutes to work out what is their favourite?
5. Discuss as a team which one was your favourite response?

Hints?

If you want an easier version of this, then you can also give the strategists the PR release too as the client will talk about what the goals and problems of the campaign.?

If you are struggling for great campaigns to use, check out the Cannes Lion Winners

If you need a refresher on how creative briefs are written you can check out the free mini course that I have on writing creative briefs.?

How long does it take?

10 minutes per campaign that you analyze.?

If you want an example of this exercise check out my videos on creative brief rewinds for Cheetos, Extra Gum and Hinge

5 Step Brief Surgery?

What is it?

Share client briefs and see how strategists would go about diagnosing the brief and get the strategist to write down what is missing from the brief.?

Why is it important to practice?

This improves your response time on looking at a client brief and working out the gaps that you have and information that you need from a client.?

What are the steps you take??

1. Give the team a client brief
2. Give them 5 minutes to dissect the brief
3. Get participants to report back what was missing from the brief.
4. Extra points for how they would ask for that information.?

Hints?

It’s important that you have a structure for the output that you’re creating. For example, having a strategy on a page as your final output makes it easier to understand what information is missing from the brief.?

If you do not have a company template for how to write a strategy on a page then you can look at the video on the nested Strategy On A Page document here.?

If you want more examples of client briefs to practice on, you can sign up to the Planning Dirty Academy.?

How long does it take?

10 minutes per client brief?

Opening Five Moves?

What is it?

Give strategists hypothetical situations and then get them to tell you the first five moves that they would make after receiving that information.?

Why is it important to practice?

This helps to get younger strategists who are used to taking orders to now start to flex their muscles in making decisions.?

Role playing common scenarios that strategists find themselves in is important practice to help them navigate those situations in future.?

If you are doing this in a group you often find that they will get more information about how others would approach that same problem which can be beneficial for other strategists in the room.?

What are the steps you take??

1. You share the hypothetical situation with the strategists?
2. Then ask them to write down the first five moves that they would make when they hear this information?
3. You would give them 5 minutes to write their responses?
4. The team would then share how they would respond to this information?

Hints?

When you are writing out the hypothetical situation, make sure to give a timeframe and a budget that they have to work with.?

Think about all the common questions that you get asked as a strategy leader and then respond to that.?

You are not expecting them to do the work but expecting them to show you their process.?

The important thing is that everyone writes down their answers but when it comes to the sharing section you want to hear from the more senior members of the team as they have the most experience and junior strategists can learn from them.?

If you need more hypothetical situations, I have a bunch of them in a 10 strategy exercise guide that you can use.?

How long does it take?

15 minutes.?

This is depending on how many people you have in the group.?

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