Strategic Thinking & Influence

Carry weight in the room,
whatever your title.

A team workshop for managers and specialists who are not the most senior person in the room. How to think beyond the task, and how to influence the decisions that matter without relying on seniority.

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The Gap

Being good at the work is not enough to be heard.

Most capable professionals were promoted for their expertise. They work hard on the task in front of them, put everything they found into the update, and expect the quality of the work to speak for itself.


Senior people do not decide that way. They have limited time, a stack of competing priorities, and a short list of colleagues whose judgement they already trust. Work that is hard to follow, or that comes from someone they do not know, waits.


The habits that close that gap can be taught: thinking beyond the task, putting the point clearly, and building the credibility that gets it heard.

Where It Goes

Four ways good work goes unheard.

None of these is a question of ability. Each one is a habit, which is why they recur until somebody names them, and why they respond to practice.

Busy with tasks, unclear on the goal

The week fills with activity. Nobody has stepped back to ask what the work is ultimately for, so it is hard to say what to start, stop or continue.

Effort follows whoever asked last

Time goes to the loudest request rather than to the stakeholders who will decide the outcome, so the work that matters most gets what is left.

The challenge is never made

A better idea stays unsaid because there is no obvious way to question a senior view without seeming difficult.

Relying on merit alone

Strong work from someone without the relationships or the track record to carry it. Influence rests on competence, credibility and relationships together.

What We Cover

Think beyond the task. Influence from where you are.

Three connected parts, worked on with participants' own priorities, updates and stakeholders rather than invented case studies.

Part

01

Think beyond the task

What the work is ultimately for, and what that means for what to start, stop and continue. Who the stakeholders are, what they need, and where time and effort should actually go.

Part

02

Put the point clearly

Lead with the "so what", keep only what carries it, and make a clear ask. A short introduction here, covered in depth in Executive Storytelling.

Part

03

Influence from where you are

Building the competence, credibility and relationships that get good work heard. Being present in the room, challenging ideas well, and describing your own experience in terms decision-makers recognise.

Sessions close with a short personal commitment for the following thirty days, so the habits are practised at work rather than left in the room.

Formats

For a team, or for a larger event.

For Teams

Team Workshop

Two hours to half a day  ·  In person or online

For a team, a cohort of high potentials, or a learning and development programme. All three parts, with exercises built around the work participants are doing now.

  • Thinking beyond the task, applied to their own priorities
  • Turning a real update into a clear "so what"
  • Influence from where they are, without relying on seniority
  • A personal thirty-day commitment to close

For Events

Keynote

Conferences and internal events  ·  Any audience size

A shorter version for a larger audience, covering the same ideas without the exercises. It works well as the opening to a development week or a leadership offsite.

  • The goal behind the task
  • Why merit alone rarely carries a decision
  • Competence, credibility and relationships
  • One commitment each person can act on
What Organisers Say

Delivered, and rated by the people in the room.

Every participant who responded to the survey after the 2026 L&D Week workshop rated the session four or five out of five.

"The feedback from participants has been amazing, reflecting the value of your insights, practical examples, and engagement during the session."

Banire  ·  2026 L&D Week, Nigeria

Fit

Worth being direct about who this suits.

This is practical development built on participants' real work. It asks for their attention and it does not suit every situation.

This fits if

  • Your people are capable specialists or managers whose work needs to influence decisions above them.
  • You want practical habits they can use the following week, not theory.
  • Participants can bring real priorities, updates or stakeholder situations to work on.
  • You want the session to connect to development they are already doing.

This does not fit if

  • The real need is one important presentation. Executive Storytelling covers that in depth.
  • You need a motivational talk with no expectation of changed habits.
  • You need formal training in managing people. That is a different programme.
Modupe Sanda

Who Does The Work

Much of the work depended on people he had no authority over.

Modupe spent close to two decades in FMCG marketing, much of it in roles where a decision depended on how well a case was put and who was willing to back it.

Later roles meant leading change across markets through teams he did not manage: a regional planning platform transition inside a global project, and coaching managers in Kenya, Brazil and South Africa through it. The workshop teaches what that work required.

Practical Detail

What booking involves.

Delivered in person across the UK, or online where that suits the group better. Exercises use participants' own work, so the session is agreed with you beforehand.

On confidentiality

Commercial material stays with you. Nothing participants share is reused, referenced or shown elsewhere, and a non-disclosure agreement is signed beforehand wherever you need one.

Formats

Team workshop or keynote

Group size

Up to forty for a workshop, any size for a keynote

Delivery

In person across the UK, or online

Lead time

Four weeks preferred

Fee

Priced on enquiry, based on format and group size

Tell us about your team.

Who they are, what they are working on, and what you want to change. If the fit is not right, we will say so.

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