What does it take to co-create a business strategy in just a few days?
From buy-in to breakthroughs: the Jarther+ strategy co-creation frameworks that outperform top-down plans
I’ve known Jarther since 2013 and we worked on some excellent media projects over the years, including Smarter Business for Telstra. He also introduced me to many leaders and innovators whose stories I loved telling — and I’ve always wanted to tell some of his. While I’ve moved on from working in the media, I still love a good interview, so after a recent project I interviewed some of his clients to get the insider’s view of the Jarther+ experience.
This article is the second in the series, here’s the first: Empowering people to shape strategies they live
After reading the first article in this series, a friend and mentor from my media days told me, ‘Jarther is one of the smartest, most innovative leaders you’ve introduced me to over the years — and properly inclusive too, which is exceptional.’
I asked her why she thinks his inclusive leadership is exceptional, rather than common, then she pointed to stories in our media (and social) feeds about non-inclusive leaders who seem to relish issuing diktats to the people they supposedly serve. And how it’s almost not surprising to hear about those unfiltered top-down decisions causing chaos while the instigators pass the buck.
On the upside, we also riffed on what we’ve learned from Jarther about bringing people into the tent (or circle or room) and ensuring multiple perspectives are included. As his recent clients explain below, Jarther is especially skilled at focusing group discussions towards identifying — then achieving — shared goals.
Co-creation starts with inclusive conversations
The first step of successful co-creation is to invite a broader group of people to participate in the planning sessions. Jarther opens conversations with perceptive prompts to help more people share their ideas.
‘Jarther made it clear everyone gets to write their thinking down, everyone gets to put it up on the board, states a marketing director at a multinational technology company. ‘He’s naturally good at bringing people into the conversation contributing ideas. The process is very inclusive and everyone gets equal time.’
She is also impressed by how Jarther keeps the energy going throughout each session, guiding conversations and asking great questions:
‘He feels like part of the team as well; he's very invested in the content and the discussion. It feels like a really nice top and tail: from that ideation through to co-creating a plan together and then everybody feels really good about it.’
The CEO of a national industry body agrees that Jarther is skillful at cultivating a team’s growth mindset, adding that participants in Jarther+ workshops all know ‘if you don't know, it’s safe to ask.’
‘Towards the end, after the changes Jarther and his team had driven, we got people lining up,’ he reports. ‘And the team now is such a better team than it used to be. We now have a very positive environment: the culture in the office changed from a dour, quiet, reserved place to one where people wanted to come and had a desire to be part of it, to bring their energy to the team and the business.’
Workshops guided by Jarther and supported by assistants accelerate winning plans in days, not weeks
Every idea generated in a Jarther+ strategy session is captured in real time by workshop assistants to give the group a clear view of all options. Then Jarther guides the group to identify priorities and refine the best ideas into winning combinations.
The workshop assistants are the ‘ears and eyes’ in the room, adds the marketing leader in a multinational financial services company, who recently engaged Jarther+ to help develop a new outreach strategy. She says having the assistants in the room, recording ideas and nuances in planning, frees Jarther to focus on accelerating the plan.
‘They know the client’s time is valuable. That's why you've got this team working on it: they’re doing research, reviewing key documents and synthesising things so that in the workshops you're focused with Jarther on the things that really matter. He is great at immersing everyone and making sure the discussion is focused — it’s actually very smart.’
The marketing director at a multinational technology company agrees Jarther is very skilled at encouraging everyone in these co-creation workshops to participate collaboratively to explore breakthrough ideas, rather than sticking to what they comfortably know already.
She also notes some participants were more used to strategy being developed for them, rather than with them — the top-down directive model — and anyone who has been given ‘playbooks’ developed by traditional consulting firms knows what that can feel like.
Jarther+ workshops are instead focused on accelerating shared learning and shared ownership:
‘I think it was eye opening for a lot of people in the team to hear we could go from ideation to a plan in 24–48 hours, where everyone has brainstormed and everyone’s fully included,’ she says.
‘And not only do you have a plan you’ve developed as a team in 24–48 hours, you also have everything you need to set up the team to activate very quickly with certainty. From my perspective, the big value is in his ability to accelerate that plan. I work with Jarther because I know what I'm going to get: a well thought out plan that's prioritised, that has actions.’
Proven methods help the team design, own and share success
Jarther’s success in the corporate, academic and entrepreneurial worlds is unmatched by any consultants she’s previously worked with, explains the marketing leader in a multinational financial services company:
‘He’s been in exec roles across several big brands and he's built brands himself, so he understands the pressures of corporate life and what his clients are dealing with day to day. So you don't need to spend a lot of time immersing him in that world because he’s lived it and can hit the ground running.’
‘Jarther encourages everyone to think a bit differently. He brings in his academic research to prove the value of operating with that growth mindset and thinking with greater impact.’
This mindset shift builds resilience too. Participants in Jarther+ workshops report the frameworks support equitable participation, leading to greater collaboration and trust in the team:
‘What Jarther achieved was getting every single person in the room to contribute. Ultimately, we became a team. And we became commercial,’ says the CEO of a national industry authority.
‘It was a watershed moment when our team accepted we must be commercially minded. We need to deliver a good service AND make money for it, so when people realised they controlled the outcome was huge: our organisation’s revenue continues to grow.’
Sometimes teams need to reset, refocus and recommit so they can work on sustainable growth together. Guiding a team through major cultural change is hard, declares the business transformation leader of a multinational technology company.
‘We committed and we stayed true to the change program for the full duration,’ she says.
‘Jarther helped us structure and understand why the change program was going to deliver an outcome — and we had to be accountable for using and delivering the strategy. He makes sure there’s follow-through, because you can’t spend this money to create a plan and then not do anything with it. His team helps us know the work we’re doing is valuable and Jarther is good at checking in: because he’s been involved, he’s got an interest in seeing the outcomes.’
She reports her regional team has successfully attracted double the usual number of attendees to customer-engagement events and lifted marketing performance in every solution category and every market segment.
‘Our quality of marketing execution has improved with fewer activities yielding the highest outcomes,’ she says. ‘Local scale events are now the biggest contributor to high customer engagement. Just as importantly, our people recognise their career pathways are expanding and they’re highly rating their career experiences in the business. More than 80% of employees reported they understand what success looks for them in the new model and they are confident and ready to operate in the new model. The cultural impact is huge.’