Running a Hot Air Balloon Workshop

Tool to get stakeholders to agree on strategic investments

I wrote recently about the challenges of getting stakeholders to find consensus around strategic projects. This article describes how to run the workshop.

https://medium.com/@stegel/using-anchors-and-winds-to-solve-the-right-problems-dd1daee0c35f

Pre Work

The facilitator will identify an Executive Champion that owns the overall outcomes of this workshop. Have the Executive Champion define a strategic goal for the participants to focus on. Typically, this is something to do with a key corporate initiative such as Digital Transformation or Consumerizing Work.

Round 1 (10 Minutes)

In the first round, we ask each individual to identify the things they personally identify as Anchors and Winds related to the strategic goal. Each item should be documented on individual sticky notes (use separate colors for Anchors and Winds). As a facilitator, you are using this time to go around and ensure that everyone understands the exercise.

Round 2 (20 Minutes)

Now we break off into small groups of 3–4 people to discuss everyone’s observations. Feel free to use your favorite group-creation method, just make sure you get a mix of roles (and if you know the group well, personalities) in each group. You don’t want all IT folks in one group and all business people in another.

Each group should now select an “artist” to draw their own Hot Air Balloon on a flip chart. Have each member of the group then discuss their sticky notes, starting with Winds. After reading each one, have them put their Winds around the balloon and their Anchors around the basket.

There is likely to be overlap of ideas within each group, so encourage members to speak up whenever they have a similar thought. Once everyone has shared their ideas, the group should settle on five Anchors and five Winds to share with the room.

Round 3 (30 Minutes)

This round begins with each group sharing their top five Anchors and Winds and then placing them on new balloon on the whiteboard. Again, Winds around the balloon, Anchors around the basket. Give each group three minutes to share their items and answer any clarifying questions.

After each group completes their sharing, invite everyone up to the whiteboard to review the items. Tell everyone they have the freedom to move any sticky notes next to ones that are similar. The goal is to create clusters of themes for both Anchors and Winds. After 15 minutes, give the group a five-minute window to draw circles around any clusters and come up with a name for each theme. Chances are, you’ll see different individuals gravitate towards a specific theme or two and often take an interest in naming it.

One technique we recently introduced is “voting dots” to help participants identify their top five themes. Each member of the group is given five sticky dots. They can use all five on one theme, or spread them around however they want. Spend no longer than five minutes on this. And lastly, if there is a key decision maker in the room, give them slightly larger dots and ask them to vote last.

Wrap Up (10 Minutes)

Now it’s time to define next steps and owners. As you review the themes with the group, make sure to ask someone to be an owner or point of contact for each Anchor. Suggest that person (or those people) who gravitated toward discussing and naming of a particular theme. They are probably interested and best positioned to own that theme.

In 2–3 days’ time, each owner should get together with their technical and business resources to formulate how they will learn more about the problem space and what technical solutions may be available to address the problem.

The whole group should reconvene in one week later to discuss the plan for each theme and see if there is any overlap or opportunity to share ideas.

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