Nemawashi Strategic Bets Prioritization

What participants gain

• Prioritize top 3-5 strategic bets for the 5-year horizon
• Align the leadership team on resource allocation principles
• Expose and resolve hidden departmental conflicts
• Develop a shared mathematical rationale for strategic choices

Materials needed

• Large bubble chart matrix printed on A0 paper
• Circular seating arrangement without tables
• Voting tokens in varying sizes
• Calculators or spreadsheet access
• A4 specification sheets for each strategic bet

How to run Nemawashi Strategic Bets Prioritization, step by step

1. Arrange the team in a physical circle with no tables or barriers between them to flatten hierarchy.
2. Distribute the specification sheets for the extracted strategic bets from the previous session.
3. Instruct the team to silently score each bet using a simplified WSJF formula (Cost of Delay divided by Job Size).
4. Pass a talking piece around the circle, allowing each executive one minute to share their highest and lowest scored bets without interruption.
5. Identify the bets with the highest variance in scores across the team and open the floor for structured debate on these specific items.
6. Guide the team to recalibrate their scores based on the new perspectives shared during the debate.
7. Instruct participants to place sized voting tokens on the large bubble chart to represent the final priority and resource weight of each bet.
8. Facilitate a final review of the board, asking the team to confirm if this portfolio represents a winning 5-year strategy.
9. Document the final configuration and capture the specific rationale for the top three selected bets.

Facilitator tips

• Enforce the talking piece rule strictly; do not allow cross-talk during the initial sharing phase.
• Focus the debate on the underlying variables of the scoring formula rather than personal opinions of the bet.
• If a bet is highly contentious, ask the team what specific data would be needed to resolve the uncertainty.
• Maintain a calm, deliberate pacing to contrast with the high energy of the previous divergent phase.
• Ensure the CEO speaks last during the circle sharing to prevent anchoring the rest of the team.

Common challenges

• Executives manipulate scores to favor their own departments - Challenge the group to evaluate from the perspective of the customer, not their P&L.
• The team avoids making hard trade-offs - Remind them that strategy is about what they choose not to do; enforce a hard limit on the number of priority bets.
• Debate spirals into granular execution details - Pull the conversation back to the strategic impact and cost of delay.
• Silence or passive agreement - Directly ask quieter members to explain the rationale behind their specific scores.

Running it virtually

Use a digital circle format by enforcing a strict speaking order based on a shared visual list. Utilize a digital spreadsheet for real-time, anonymous score aggregation before revealing the variance.

Expected results

A finalized, mathematically weighted, and collectively agreed-upon portfolio of strategic bets plotted on an impact versus effort bubble chart.

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