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Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 1a25f650ccb9ae60be4bce9a2ebc1eb18ec0e47ea5d62ffe50b352ef56463863

# Good to Great Workshop

Teams work in small groups to articulate a central Hedgehog Concept, list and analyze pressing organizational obstacles, and establish an operational accountability framework. Across seven structured steps, participants generate aligned strategic priorities and assign explicit owners and review cadences.

**Time:** 190 minutes. Source specifies 3 one-hour blocks plus a 10-minute wrap-up, totaling 190 minutes. UWT consolidates the 13 micro-phases into 7 facilitator steps matching the exact 190-minute total.
**People:** 6 to 20. Small groups of 3 to 5 participants, sharing into whole-room plenary sessions.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Produce a shared statement of organizational focus, an inventory of analyzed operational obstacles, and an action framework with named owners and review cadences.
**Use it when:** Use during strategic planning sessions or leadership offsites when a team must clarify core competencies and resolve persistent operational roadblocks.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the group lacks organizational authority to set strategic priorities, or when immediate short-term incident response requires all available attention.

## Materials and tools

- 3 flipchart stands with flipchart paper
- Marker pens (1 per participant)
- Sticky note pads (3 pads per small group)
- Timer or digital countdown display
- Whiteboard or dedicated wall space for plenary synthesis
- Masking tape

## Before participants arrive

1. Arrange tables and chairs to support small groups of 3 to 5 people.
2. Draw three overlapping circles on the main whiteboard labeled: Passion, Best in the World, and Economic Engine.
3. Prepare two additional plenary wall areas labeled Brutal Facts and Disciplined Action Framework.

## Say this to open

Today we will run three focused strategic modules adapted from Good to Great. First, we will articulate our Hedgehog Concept by finding the sweet spot where what we care about, what we can do best, and our economic engine intersect. Next, we will confront our brutal operational realities without softening the truth. Finally, we will build a disciplined framework with clear ownership to address those realities. Let us begin with the three circles.

## How to run it

### 1. Introduce and explore the Hedgehog Concept (30 minutes)

Deliver the opening script. Explain the three circles: what the team is deeply passionate about, what it can do better than competitors, and what drives its economic engine. For example, a specialized logistics team might identify repeat contract margin per route rather than gross billings as its economic engine. Break the room into groups of 3 to 5. Direct each group to spend 20 minutes drafting candidate answers for all three circles onto sticky notes and sorting them by circle on their tables.

### 2. Share and synthesize the Hedgehog Concept (30 minutes)

Have each small group send a representative to post its top 2 notes per circle onto the plenary Venn diagram, taking up to 2 minutes per group. Facilitate a whole-room discussion to synthesize these notes into 1 or 2 core statements placed at the center intersection. Stop when the room reaches consensus on the central statement and record it on the main board.

### 3. Introduce and catalog brutal facts (30 minutes)

Introduce the principle of confronting harsh operational truths while keeping faith in ultimate success. Instruct individuals to spend 5 minutes writing current organizational breakdowns, constraints, or dysfunctions on sticky notes, one item per note. Next, have participants work in their small groups for 15 minutes to share notes, cluster duplicates, and identify common themes on their group flipchart.

### 4. Analyze root causes and strategic impact (30 minutes)

Instruct small groups to select their top 2 critical obstacles from their clustered list. For 20 minutes, groups analyze each obstacle by writing down its underlying systemic cause and how it directly threatens the agreed Hedgehog Concept. For the remaining 10 minutes, groups post these critical obstacles on the plenary Brutal Facts board, and the facilitator clusters similar items across groups.

### 5. Introduce disciplined culture and set priorities (30 minutes)

Explain disciplined culture as consistent operational adherence to core focus rather than bureaucratic oversight. Have small groups spend 20 minutes reviewing the central Hedgehog statement alongside the posted brutal facts to formulate up to 3 strategic priorities that resolve the obstacles while reinforcing the Hedgehog core. Reconvene in plenary for the final 10 minutes to group overlapping proposals.

### 6. Build the disciplined action framework (30 minutes)

Facilitate plenary selection of no more than 3 final organizational priorities. For each priority, the room defines 3 required operational elements: a named individual owner, a recurring review cadence (such as biweekly or monthly), and an observable progress metric. Record these explicitly on the Disciplined Action Framework board.

### 7. Confirm commitments and wrap up (10 minutes)

Named owners confirm their initial review meeting date and record it on the board. Facilitate a brief plenary reflection by asking up to 3 volunteer participants to share the most significant insight from today's session. Confirm which designated participant will photograph the boards, transcribe the outputs, and distribute them within 24 hours.


## Debrief questions

- Which of the three Hedgehog circles generated the sharpest debate or divergence?
- Which identified brutal fact was hardest to name openly, and what made it difficult?
- What specific operational cadence will prevent these action items from being ignored?

**Finished output:** A documented central Hedgehog statement, an inventory of prioritized and root-caused operational obstacles, and an action framework containing up to 3 strategic priorities with named owners, metrics, and review cadences.

## Remote

Use an online whiteboard with three pre-drawn sections matching the physical boards. Create breakout rooms of 3 to 5 participants for group drafting and root-cause analysis steps. Bring everyone back to the main room for plenary sharing, clustering, and framework synthesis. Keep cameras on during plenary synthesis to support hand-raising and consensus checks.

## Hybrid

Form distinct in-person and remote small groups. Remote groups write directly on the shared digital whiteboard, while in-person groups write on physical sticky notes. A designated facilitator assistant transcribes physical notes to the digital board before each synthesis phase. Project the digital whiteboard in the physical room so all participants see the identical consolidated record.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants may submit obstacles privately to the facilitator on folded cards or direct chat messages to preserve anonymity.
- Participants may choose whether to act as group spokesperson, scribe, or analytical contributor during breakout tasks.

## If the session gets stuck

**Small groups drift into broad marketing aspirations rather than verifiable organizational capabilities.**

Ask them to identify specific services or metrics where external data or client outcomes show demonstrably superior performance.

**Participants hesitate to voice serious operational obstacles due to fear of assigning blame.**

Intervene to reframe the prompt around workflow bottlenecks, resource limits, or misaligned policies rather than individual coworker performance.


## Terms used here

- Hedgehog Concept: A strategic focus defined by the intersection of passion, distinct capability, and economic driver.
- Brutal Facts: Unvarnished operational realities, systemic flaws, and constraints an organization must acknowledge.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in WorkshopBank as 'Good To Great Workshop', adapting concepts from the book 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins.

Retained the three core thematic areas (Hedgehog Concept, Brutal Facts, and Culture of Discipline) and 190-minute total runtime from WorkshopBank. Condensed the source's 13 sub-phases into 7 clear facilitator-led steps to ensure clean session pacing and structure. Added concrete group sizes, hybrid mechanics, and neutral examples.

[WorkshopBank](https://workshopbank.com/tools/good-to-great-workshop)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/good-to-great-workshop-workshopbank/