The Playing To Win Workshop

Read time: 3.5 minutes

In this article, I’m sharing an effective workshop framework you can easily adapt to help your team clarify its purpose, priorities, and path to success.

It’s inspired by the powerful insights from the book Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by Alan G. Lafley and Roger Martin.

Sidenote: you don’t need to read the book to get value from this workshop.

It’s tailored specifically for teams looking to align and execute their strategy with confidence.

Why does this matter?

Because teams often get bogged down in day-to-day tasks, losing sight of the bigger picture.

Even the most talented groups need a clear sense of purpose and focus to achieve meaningful, lasting success.

The truth is that most teams fail to develop a winning strategy because they avoid making tough choices.

They try to be everything to everyone, spreading their efforts too thin and diluting their impact.

Strategic alignment isn’t just for CEOs or business strategists—it’s a critical skill for every team.

When teams think strategically and align their actions, they create a multiplier effect that drives exceptional results.

What You’ll Gain from This Article:

By the end, you’ll have everything you need to help your team move from confusion to clarity, from reactive to proactive, and ultimately, from playing to survive to playing to win.

Let's get into it…

Workshop Title

"Playing to Win Together: Aligning Team Strategy"

Objectives

Duration:

2.5–3 hours

Materials Needed

Workshop Agenda

1. Icebreaker: Winning as a Team (15 minutes)

2. Defining the Winning Aspiration (30 minutes)

3. Where to Play (30 minutes)

4. How to Win (30 minutes)

5. Building Capabilities and Systems (30 minutes)

6. Action Planning and Commitment (30 minutes)

7. Wrap-Up and Reflection (15 minutes)

Follow-Up:

After the workshop, summarise the team’s "Winning Aspiration," focus areas, strategies, and next steps.

Schedule a check-in within 30–60 days to assess progress and refine as needed.

Conclusion

This workshop creates alignment, clarity, and actionable strategies while fostering a sense of ownership and shared purpose.

Using this workshop, you’ll never have to guess what’s holding your team back or waste time on unfocused efforts that don’t move the needle.

Instead, it becomes a simple process of clarifying your team’s purpose, prioritising what matters most, and building a focused plan to achieve meaningful results together.

If you want the unbranded slides and handouts for this workshop, you can get them in my Bestselling Book Workshops Bundle.

You get this workshop and others, including all slides, workbooks and handouts.

If growing teams and organizations using the power of workshops is a goal of yours, you can shortcut your journey and join 11,000+ others here.

See you next week.