Strategic Signals Workshop
Most organisations spend time analysing trends. Far fewer step back to examine the signals, systems and structural forces that are reshaping their industries.
This 4-hour workshop is designed to help leaders step outside their immediate operational horizon and explore those forces.
Rather than predicting the future, the session focuses on something more useful: the tensions these shifts expose inside organisations.
In recent sessions with executive teams, conversations have quickly moved into debates around:
• operational efficiency vs brand identity
• AI adoption vs human expertise
• global scale vs local authenticity
When these tensions become visible, better strategic decisions tend to follow.
What We’ll Explore
The workshop is structured in four stages.
Signal Gallery: A curated set of emerging signals of change designed to help participants recognise emerging patterns across technology, markets and society.
Anchors and Sails: Mapping those signals against current strategy to identify forces that could accelerate direction (sails) or create resistance (anchors).
Future Scenario Simulation: A short scenario exercise where participants respond as if they were leading the organisation in their future environment.
Theme Development and Prioritisation: Bringing insights together to identify the most important themes and leadership questions to explore next.
What You’ll Leave With
• A clearer view of the signals shaping your industry
• A framework for identifying strategic tensions
• Practical tools you can use in your own leadership discussions
• Perspectives from peers navigating similar challenges
• A curated signal pack and workshop materials
The Setting
This workshop takes place at the Peckham Liberal Club, an "old working men’s club" on Elm Grove that has served the local community for well over a century. The club itself dates back to the late 19th century and has occupied its current premises, originally a Quaker hall, since the early 1900s.
Rather than a corporate conference room, this setting will create the space, and safety, for a slower, more thoughtful discussion about the signals and systems shaping the next decade.
With only 20 participants, the session is intentionally intimate and discussion-led.
Lunch will be provided, with time afterwards for anyone who would like to continue the conversation nearby.
About the Facilitator
John Vary is a futurologist and founder of Stretch, a strategic foresight practice helping organisations make better decisions under uncertainty.
Over the past two decades John has worked in innovation and futures with organisations including Burberry and the John Lewis Partnership.