What we
do isn’t
rocket science

And we believe anyone can learn to do it… with a little guidance.

Professional development for professionals 

Here at Stormy Lake, our driving focus is to provide clear, compelling and useful solutions that make a measurable difference. It is also to work with our clients rather than for our clients.

As we began thinking of new ways that we could be useful, we realized that we have experience and expertise that we could share. Not in the form of projects, but in the form of training and professional development. So, we’re bringing what we do and what we’ve learned to small groups to share our knowledge and skills.

Who is teaching?

We are. Our experts in each area will take you through bespoke learning material and give real-life examples of making your work better. Click here for more information on who we are, what we’ve done and what we each specialize in.

Structure

Each course includes two half-days of instruction, separated over 1 to 2 weeks. The break allows time for your team to process the information. Most courses include a short (~1 hour) exercise, usually to be completed in pairs.

Total time commitment for each course is 7–8 hours and can be offered in person or virtually. It’s ideal for 4–8 participants, but each course can be tailored to the size and needs of your organization.

Cost

Starting from $4,500. 

Questions?

Connect with us at training@stormylakeconsulting.com.

THE FUNDAMENTALS
OF STRATEGIC
PLANNING

Description

Henry Mintzberg, a professor at McGill University and one of the most highly regarded authorities on all matters strategy, remarked that strategic planning often spoils good strategic decision making, causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers. A Strategic Plan must be more than a roll-up of tactics with some hopeful objectives. A Strategic Plan must chart the course for the organization.

This course will provide the fundamentals to build clear, compelling and useful strategic plans.

Details

You’ll learn how to create a strategic vision (not a vision statement) and work backwards to build your strategy, identifying key strategic bets your organization/division will need to make.

Along the way, useful planning tools will be shared, including:

• SWOT – the useful version, not the perfunctory version

• Strategic Options Analysis

• Strategy Canvas

• Porters Five Forces and 3 generic strategies

• Making the leap from “what we know is possible” to “what we don’t know how to do yet”.

All strategy is a change process. You’ll learn how to create a Strategic Plan that prepares your team and your organization for the change that the plan inspires. Otherwise, you will be stuck with a nice document and no progress.

You’ll also learn how to give a plan a strong narrative structure that ensures the strategy is obviously the right thing to do – even if it is a bold departure from the status quo.

Who is this for?

Managers and Directors who want to move beyond a tactical approach to planning and be better able to set a strategic direction for their division or organization.

Outcomes

Write better Strategic Plans with less effort. And by better, we mean plans that are clear, compelling and useful. 

Instructor

Philip has written strategic plans for 11 different sectors from financial services, to health care, to tourism, to complex social issues. Some plans were more effective, and some were less. He brings these experiences to your planning. Learn from his mistakes. And from his wins – there are a lot more of these, or he would be a horrid choice to run this program.

BEHAVIOURAL
SCIENCE
FOR DMOS

Description

In this course, we’ll apply fundamentals of consumer psychology and behavioural economics to destination marketing. Learn how consumers gather information about destinations, what inspires them to visit, what they’ll remember about their trip and what they’ll tell their friends.

Details

You’ll learn how psychological theory applies to visitor decision making – before, during and after their trip, including:

·       How messaging, word of mouth, and research shape visitor expectations

·       Encouraging prosocial behaviour through behavioural “nudges”

·       What experiences will stick in visitors’ memory

·       Drivers of word of mouth during and following a visit

·       Consumer reactions to and interpretation of risks to their trip (e.g., weather, wildfires, illness)

·       How different visitors can want different experiences from the same attractions

Visitors often report happier memories of a trip if they engage in less varied and more intense activities. From a distance, visitors expect that they’ll want variety to the extreme, but visitors with simpler itineraries and better “best” moments tend to report the best holidays overall.

Who is this for?

This class comes in two flavours. Cherry Chocolate has an emphasis on marketing and is most suitable for marketing directors, content directors and content managers. Rocky Road emphasizes the in-destination experience and is best matched to destination development managers and operators. This course is an excellent opportunity to bring in your members for a collaborative session.

Outcomes

More efficient marketing spend, better word of mouth and more of the visitors that you want.

Instructors

Bob combines his destination marketing and branding expertise with his academic career studying behavioural science. Don’t get him started on vacation prototypes and exemplars.

amplifying
your
BRAND

Description

OK, you’ve got a brand. Now what? In this course, you’ll learn how to better align all areas of your organization with your brand as well as utilize your brand to its full potential. This includes adapting internal organizational processes and behaviours; understanding how your brand can be used to meet organizational and departmental objectives; and how your brand can resonate strongly with all audiences.

Following “how to” live the brand, we’ll go beyond the traditional methods of bringing a brand to life by co-creating creative and engaging ideas for external and internal audiences to directly interact with your brand.

Details

A series of presentations, discussions, and interactive exercises will cover:

• Beyond marketing: understanding a brand model (purpose, promise, personality, attributes)

• Brand awareness: gaining a deep understanding of your organization’s brand

• Brand distillation: distilling your brand down to its very core and essence for easy use

• Brand alignment: what parts of the brand are most relevant to your work?

• Brand articulation: creating “on-brand” content and stories

• Brand audiences: understanding your primary audiences

• Brand amplification: what new things can we do to live the brand?

Upon course completion, you’ll have a fully developed on-brand activation plan ready to implement.

Who is this for?

Managers and tactical staff on marketing, events, sales and communications teams receive the most obvious and immediate benefit, but including more operational team members (e.g., property management, community relations, human resources) often leads to more effective implementation.

Outcomes

You’ll come away from this course knowing how to properly understand and utilize your brand to its full potential. As well as have new, tactical, and immediately actionable strategies to better align with your brand—across multiple departments and with your partners and customers. 

Instructors

Nicole has been working with organizations across multiple sectors for over 10 years, helping them to evolve, better understand and activate their brands. Jason has more than 20 years of writing, animating and designing stories for multiple platforms, including television, books, apps and campaigns.

For example, for a multi-cultural shopping centre in the Lower Mainland, we built a brand based on being the most inclusive place around. As part of the brand launch, we worked with the food court staff to be more welcoming. They would thank guests for dining at the mall. Not only did this support the brand, but it had an unexpected outcome: mall guests started to do a better job of cleaning their tables because they’d had a human interaction with the staff. Brand support went up, staff workload went down, customer satisfaction increased and mall efficiency was improved.

BECOME
THE strategic
THINKER YOU
WANT TO BE

Description

For the past 21 years, we have studied different approaches to thinking and we’re bringing what we’ve learned to you. In this course, you’ll be introduced to 12 distinct strategic thinking skills that will make planning more nuanced, more effective and easier. 

Details

Through a series of presentations, discussions and exercises, this course will strengthen your strategic thinking through the exploration and development of 12 skills:

• Pattern finding

• Thinking in story

• Making connections

• Seeing what is missing

• Being open to possibilities

• Understanding the context

• Identifying a better problem

• Adaptive thinking

• Doing the math

• Thinking as a team

• Seeing the other point of view

• Simplifying

Practical examples will be provided for each of these skills. Together, we’ll match them to problems faced by your organization.

Who is this for?

Managers and directors who want to advance their planning skills, as well as small teams who want to improve collaboration and strategic capacity.

Outcomes

Having more tools in your strategic thinking toolbox will allow you to solve more complex problems in less time—and will provide you with more confidence when selling these solutions to others in your organization. You will be provided with a set of exercises to refer to after the course to continue to build your strategic thinking muscles. 

Instructor

Philip has 35-years of experience as a strategic planner. He is on a perpetual quest to self-examine his thinking tools and help others become proficient.

For example, on a snowy night in Paris sometime in 2008, Travis and Garrett were trying to return to their hotel but they couldn’t find a cab. They thought about three things: One, there should be a smart phone app to order a cab. Two, there were a lot of under-used limo drivers looking for more work. Three, taxi customers were frustrated with the status quo. By connecting these dots, Travis and Garrett were able to see an opportunity and started Uber.

the hidden
dangers of
marketing
research

Description

Speak to any research professional and they’ll tell you, “Most research is crap” (except their own, of course). This course will teach you how to set up research projects that you can trust to generate useful results. You’ll learn to recognize when different methods of research are appropriate and create your own survey or focus group questions that aren’t at-all ‘crap’. 

Details

Through a series of presentations, discussions and exercises, participants will learn to confidently frame good research questions, get answers to those questions and present results that will help turn research results into better decision making for their organization. Core topics will include:

• Identifying the decision that the research will help make (the decision problem)

• Identifying the information needed to make that decision (the research problem)

• Understanding how to combine information that supports decision making

• Avoiding common pitfalls when writing qualitative or quantitative questions

• Understanding samples, populations and different types of sampling bias

• Practical consequences of statistics

• Writing up results to drive action

Who is this for?

This is statistics for people who hate math and survey writing for people who don’t write surveys. It’s for managers who don’t like their recommendations being overlooked. It is for anyone who wants to make better decisions from research they can trust.

Outcomes

You’ll be able to design surveys and qualitative research that better answers your business problems, as well as be able to commission effective research using the right tool for the right strategic question.

Instructor

With his PhD in marketing from the Stern School of Business at NYU, as an instructor at Grant McEwan University, and after 6 years consulting, Bob has seen more than his fair share of faulty, misleading, and sometime dangerous research. You can benefit from Bob’s frustrations.

For example, for a client in the tourism sector, we fielded a satisfaction survey shortly after people returned home to capitalize on their fresh memories of the trip. We expected raves, but instead got something much more muted. After all the build-up of expectations for a trip, many people experience the post-vacation blues, and this was when we asked for their opinion. With this bit of knowledge, we were able to design and time more accurate surveys and the destination got a more accurate read of their visitors’ experiences. This experience also helped us to understand why destinations sometimes receive dramatically different ratings when visitors are intercepted in-destination versus surveyed back home.

BOARD AND
EXECUTIVE
FACILITATION

Description

Managing an effective board or executive meeting is an artform. It requires flexibility and a clear focus on the outcome, otherwise, it’s very easy to get derailed and leave wondering if you got the direction you require.

This course will give you the skills and confidence to create effective outcomes from fuzzy situations. You’ll be able to provide leadership without co-opting the meeting.

Details

In this course, we’ll discuss 5 areas that lead to more effective facilitation:

• Preparation: this includes getting clear on the meeting’s objectives, identifying any politics at play, background preparation and drafting the agenda.

• Facilitation: exploring useful facilitation tools, styles and formats.

• Reporting: how to conduct analysis from the meeting and prepare an effective meeting summary.

• Strengthen core facilitation skills: how to build organizational objectives, goals, strategies and tactics; identify process and outcome measurements; and reviewing the role of HR.

• Practice: reviewing facilitation advanced tools.

Executive and board planning is (or should be) an ongoing process rather than an event. This course helps you facilitate sessions that ensures a board is nose-in and fingers out. You will get the Board’s direction and support while still leading the strategy.

Who is this for?

Directors, VPs and executives who either need to lead planning for executive or board-level meetings or attend these meetings and want better outcomes. 

Outcomes

You will be able to successfully lead the next meeting, confident that your meeting outcomes will reflect the wisdom of the board, providing a clear and compelling direction to your organization. You’ll also find that the meeting will be significantly less daunting.

Instructor

For the last 20 years, Philip has facilitated strategic planning sessions for board and executive teams using active facilitation style. He is a certified facilitator in the Simplexity method of Applied Creativity for creative problem solving and innovation.

“Somehow Philip was able to turn the seemingly scattered discussions of the board into a clear yet nuanced strategy framework. Almost in real time. Made the rest of the Board planning process very easy.”

Sustainability
as a brand
strategy

Description

Embedding a triple-bottom-line approach into your organization offers benefits for people and planet as well as shareholders. In this course, you’ll learn how to integrate sustainability into the core of your brand to futureproof your organization.

Details

Sustainability is no longer a strategic luxury – it is an imperative demanded by customers and investors alike.

Through a series of presentations, discussions and exercises, participants will identify opportunities to create more benefit for stakeholders, measure the results and communicate the outcomes in line with the brand. Core topics will include:

• Why and how to move toward a higher purpose for your brand

• Understanding the difference between “add on” impacts and “embedded” impacts to become a purpose-driven brand that drives greater emotional attachment and meaningful change

• Assessing existing programs

• Aligning programs with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to demonstrate your commitment and measure social and environmental impacts

• Linking impact communications to brand promotions

Who is this for?

Directors, VPs and executive teams who want to attract and retain customers, employees and partners based on meaningful and relevant core values. 

Outcomes

By embedding sustainability into the core of your organization, your operational areas can contribute to increased loyalty and impact among stakeholders. Working together, you will increase the relevance and resilience of the brand for the long-term.

Instructor

For more than 20 years, Stephanie has been helping executives bake purpose into their brands to achieve greater benefits for organizations and communities. An entrepreneur herself, she has plenty of real-world experience to complement her education in global business and local economic development. 

For example, Eminence Organic Skincare believes in providing the best skin care products possible, for people and planet. Its healing and beautifying products are free of harmful ingredients, opting instead for hand-picked fresh ingredients from its award-winning certified organic farm in Hungary. Eminence uses wind and solar energy to power its manufacturing facility, plants a tree for every product sold, and uses the sale of its products to fund the Eminence Kids Foundation. The foundation partners with local organic farms to deliver fresh produce, cold-pressed juices, and handmade soups to children in North America and Europe who are undergoing treatment for their illnesses. 

Data that
changes
minds

Description

People remember stories, not data. This course will explore how to use storytelling as a bridge between the logic of data and a genuine emotional connection. It will also examine the power of visual storytelling to increase information retention and impact. 

Details

Expect to utilize proven story frameworks to better connect your stories with data points. We’ll re-imagine your existing strategy decks with a more focused and concise expression, by exploring:

• What is a story and how to create one that people remember

• The neuroscience behind data and stories

• How to communicate with carefully curated visuals and layout

• How to build data slides in visually impactful ways

Who is this for?

Managers, Directors and the people who work for them. Anyone who needs to create and share more impactful presentations. Different levels of seniority offer different presentation challenges and each will be addressed in this course.

Outcomes

Being able to connect story to data will improve the impact of your presentations and persuade your audiences to make more aligned strategic decisions. Through data-driven stories, you will affect more change in your organization than you could otherwise achieve. Don’t fall into the void of being just another graph in another PowerPoint presentation.

Instructors

Bob, our PhD marketer, and Jason, our storyteller, combine to tap into your left and right brains.

Sometimes you should use the data. Often you should tell a story through a carefully built visual. One time we turned some data into a word cloud and that one image was quoted by an entire industry for 3 years. A statistic or a chart rarely have that reach.

Behavioural
Science for
Municipalities

Description

In this course, we’ll apply fundamentals of consumer psychology and behavioural economics to municipal government outputs. This includes tips, tricks, winks and nudges that make for a happy community.

Details

You’ll learn how psychological theory applies to the municipal context, through the following course topics:

• Framing citizen options and municipal policy changes

• Encouraging prosocial behaviour through behavioural “nudges”

• Memory and perceived service quality

• Understanding residents’ journeys through municipal services

• Communications in a crisis

• Building good relationships with citizens

• Psychographic segmentation

Who is this for?

Municipal directors, managers and coordinators. Non-profits who want to add capacity and improve donor relationship development. Even elected Councillors will find great value.

Outcomes

You will be equipped to better influence how your citizens perceive your municipality and make decisions. You will learn science-based tools to encourage or discourage specific behaviours, as well as have a strategic understanding of the determinants of citizen health and happiness.

Instructor

Bob combines his municipal marketing and branding expertise with his academic career studying behavioural science. Bringing these two disciplines together will be a joy. 

For example, The City of Calgary was one of the first municipalities to put up posters of children asking motorists to not speed where their parents were working. This strategy– showing drivers an identified victim–proved to be far more effective than the ubiquitous “fines double in construction zones” sign.