Abstract
Strategy workshops constitute an established and widely utilised mechanism within organisations, employed to develop, refine, and communicate strategic objectives. They frequently serve as strategic episodes within an organisations’ planning processes, shaping both direction and decision-making. Extant research suggests that such workshops often rest on implicit assumptions regarding the underlying logic or rationality of participating actors. This paper interrogates these assumptions by examining the nature of actors’ contributions and the focal points of their attention during strategy workshop activity. The study examines organisations across the fields of Health, Education, and Local Government. Using a strategy‑as‑practice lens, ten organisations participated in strategy‑making workshops that employed a directed causal cognitive mapping process. The observation being that the design affordances of the strategy tool and the workshop itself had a profound effect on inputs, attention and cognition.