Strategy workshop facilitator for leadership teams in Manchester
Our strategy workshop facilitators work across Manchester and the North West. We design and chair your leadership team's planning session, so everyone can take part and it ends in decisions with owners and dates.
We chair your planning day so the whole leadership team can be in the argument, instead of one of you running the room. Serious planning, with silly props. We work at venues across the city centre, Salford Quays and Cheshire, or at the one you've already booked.
Annual planning days, SLT and board away days, leadership offsites and retreats, and 2027 planning workshops in Manchester or at your venue.
What your team leaves with
The detail depends on what you define as success before the day. What's certain is that your team leaves with:
- Clarity on what matters most.
- Energy and urgency to act on it.
- Belief in the plan, and consensus behind it.
- The ability to describe your choices and the next steps.
- A tighter team.
- New planning skills, learned on your own plan.
Where to hold a strategy day in Manchester
For a strategy day the room matters less than what happens in it, but it still matters: daylight, a table big enough to spread out, and walls for paper. These Manchester venues do that well, with a country house for when the day becomes two.
The Midland
Peter Street · Hotel and boardroom
Where Rolls first met Royce. Meeting rooms from boardroom size to the 700-capacity Alexandra Suite, minutes from Oxford Road and Piccadilly.
Kimpton Clocktower
Oxford Street · Hotel and boardroom
A former Refuge Assurance building by Oxford Road station, with meeting rooms off a grand hall.
Manchester Central
City centre · Hotel and boardroom
The convention centre. Useful when the planning day sits inside a larger leadership conference.
Rookery Hall
Nantwich, Cheshire · Country house within an hour
A country house that offers exclusive use for senior teams, with 38 acres for breakouts when the weather's kind.
De Vere Cranage Estate
Cranage, Cheshire · Country house within an hour
A rural retreat with 28 meeting spaces and grounds for breakouts, within reach of Manchester Airport.
Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations cover most of the city centre venues on this list. Manchester Science Park and the Manchester Technology Centre sit on the Oxford Road corridor. Rookery Hall is about 10 minutes from Crewe, which is on the London Euston line.
All our Manchester venue, restaurant and evening ideas
Venues researched October 2026. We don't take commission, and listing a venue doesn't mean we've run a session there. Check availability direct.
Why bring in a facilitator
What we do that is hard to do from inside your own team.
We do the prep
One-to-ones, pre-work and the data, ready before anyone sits down.
Structure that works
Frameworks proven in hundreds of sessions, fitted to what you need to decide.
The skills to run the room
Timing, pace and the recovery moves when a conversation stalls.
Objective and neutral
No budget to protect, so we can challenge anyone, including the CEO.
We spot the patterns
The things people keep circling back to, which are hard to see from inside the team.
We read the room
Who has gone quiet, who is holding back, and when to push or pause.
We coach in between
Support for the people who own the next steps, so momentum carries.
We adapt on the day
Because we do this a lot, we change the plan when the room needs it.
What you can count on
Whoever's in the room, every session we run meets the same standard.
Experienced facilitators
More than 500 workshops facilitated, by people who have built, run and sold companies. Collette Easton is an Association for Coaching accredited executive coach.
Success agreed first
Before we design anything, we agree with the sponsor what the session has to achieve, and build every part of it around that.
Speaking your language
Matt Roberts has been a founder, CEO, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Product Officer, and began his career in ad agencies. He has worked across every function, so he speaks your team's language and nothing slows down.
Every voice heard
We talk to attendees beforehand, and chair the room so the most senior voice never sets the frame.
Nothing lost afterwards
Decisions, owners and dates are captured as they happen, and the follow-ups are agreed before anyone leaves.
Skills your team builds by doing the planning
We don't teach theory. Your team learns these by planning its real year, with us alongside.
Estimating the value of an idea
Put a rough value on each option before anyone argues for it, so the debate is about evidence, not volume.
Strategy writing
Turn the discussion into a short written strategy the whole room recognises and can explain.
Goal writing
Write goals that will move you forward faster, educate the reader, and inspire the team pursuing them.
Goal resourcing
Match people, skills, team structures, leads and money to the few goals that matter most, so progress comes faster.
Questions people ask first
Why use an external facilitator for an away day?
Because the person chairing can't also argue for their own view. We have no budget to protect, so we can challenge the CEO's favourite idea when it needs it, and everyone else gets to take part properly.
What's the difference between a facilitator and a consultant?
A consultant brings the answer. We bring the process that gets your team to its own answer, and the experience to know when that answer is weak.
Where we work
We run planning days and away days across the UK, Europe and the US, in person or online. These are the cities we're asked about most.
Strategy days elsewhere: London and Birmingham.
Also in Manchester: away days, ai strategy workshops and venues, dinner and evening ideas.
Related
Last updated
Tell us what has to be decided.
Thirty minutes with Matt Roberts. Tell us who'll be in the room and what you need by the end, and we'll tell you how we'd run it.