Reading the landscape together
A 30-minute version of Strategy Radar, used in the Strategic Thinking workshop. Participants map the forces acting on their role or team across the three time rings and six categories, with a short opening framing. For the full 90-minute leadership version, see Strategy Radar.
Strategy Radar maps the forces acting on an organisation across three dimensions on a single canvas. Time is encoded by concentric rings: Now (0–1 year, biting today or already in motion), Medium term (1–3 years, taking shape), and Horizon (3+ years, possible developments and weak signals). Category is encoded by twelve fixed sub-bearings grouped under six parents: Capability (people, tools and tech), Culture (beliefs, behaviours), and Operations (supply, delivery) on the internal half; Customers (demand, habits), Competition (rivals, alternatives), and The Wider World (rules, shifts) on the external half. Pressure is encoded by marker size. The fixed structure is deliberate: the canvas works as a self-contained tool without requiring a facilitator to interpret categories.
The radar draws on the logic of several established analysis frameworks: strengths and weaknesses analysis from SWOT, environmental factors from PESTLE, competitive forces from Porter's Five Forces, and the search for uncontested space from Blue Ocean Strategy. Participants do not need to run these frameworks separately; the canvas geometry surfaces the same questions through placement.
The synthesis question at the close of the session asks where uncontested space exists that the organisation could move into, drawing on Blue Ocean thinking. It is posed once the radar is fully populated. Meaningful opportunities typically emerge from the pattern of the whole canvas rather than from any single ring or category.
The exercise can run as a facilitated rotation, with small groups working through each ring or category in turn, or as a whole-group discussion with contributions mapped visually in real time. Extension activities, Gap Map Exercise, Customer Conversations, and Thinking in Scenarios, are available as pre-work or depth activities for groups that want to go further on specific parts of the radar.
Teams leave aligned on what they know and what's emerging, both inside the business and in the wider environment. It sets the tone for a more honest, forward-looking strategy conversation, helping leaders avoid groupthink, challenge assumptions, and make better-informed decisions.
Strategy Radar is an environmental scanning canvas that helps a leadership team build a shared, honest picture of the forces shaping the organisation. It plots three things on one map: time as rings, category as bearings, and pressure as marker size.
Open with a short framing: why scanning the environment matters, and how the Strategy Radar works. Time is shown as three rings (Now, Medium term, Horizon), category as six bearings across the internal and external halves, and pressure as marker size.
Have the group populate the canvas, placing the forces acting on their role or team across the rings and categories, using larger markers for the forces under most pressure. Run it as a facilitated rotation through each ring, or as a whole-group discussion mapped in real time.
Draw the map together: what is known, what is emerging, and where uncontested space sits that the team could move into. Note the two or three forces that matter most for the conversation ahead.
Use Strategy Radar (short) in the Strategic Thinking workshop to give participants a shared picture of the forces shaping their work. In 30 minutes the group maps those forces by time, category and pressure, after a short opening framing.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
