As we discussed in Unlocking the Power of Discover, one of the most important things to understand is the progress you’d like to make with your results. This is especially important before you start using the Theme tool, as clear goals lay the groundwork for creating targeted themes that will help you take action.

The Benefits of Targeted Theming

Reviewing the AI-Generated themes gives a big-picture understanding of key topics in the exchange. Targeted theming is when you theme a select number of representative thoughts to highlight key concepts in order to:

• Inform your action or strategic plan
• Close communication gaps
• Market your product or service
• Recognize high-impact contributions
• Assign tasks to team members

Targeted theming offers two key benefits over a theme every thought approach.

1. Fast. Once a good selection of thoughts are captured, duplicate or repetitive thoughts can be skipped.
2. Relevant. Thoughts are themed because they are relevant to taking action and we know that leaders taking action from their exchange is key to participant satisfaction and future participation.

Different Ways to Theme

There are as many ways to theme as there are exchange topics. Below are three examples of how you can align your theming with the progress you are trying to make.

• Insight Themes
• Impact Themes
• Role Themes

Insight Themes

In a culture exchange you could theme thoughts according to insight:

• Known insight, agree
• Known insight, disagree
• New insight, agree
• New insight, need investigation
• New insight, disagree

These themes can be used to share the actions you are taking along with what you learned as a leader. It also offers an opportunity to share with participants where thoughts in the exchange align (or not) with the bigger picture organizational strategy.

Impact Themes

In a leadership exchange focused on strategy you could theme according to impact:

• High impact, low hanging fruit
• High impact, longer-term
• Low impact, low hanging fruit
• Low impact, longer-term

These themes focus the efforts of your leadership team where they will be most effective. In this situation, theming as a team can also offer a valuable opportunity to build buy-in for next steps.

Role Themes

In a problem solving exchange you could theme according to role:

• Sales & Marketing
• Growth & Analytics
• Executive
• Service
• All

These themes will make sure that you leave the exchange with concrete task assignments and the ability to hold team members accountable. They also offer the opportunity for teams to review their own results and run their own exchanges if new questions emerge from their results.

Targeted theming is an approach to move your results forward. If you want other theme sets to consider, visit our theme sets page  If you need immediate support, please contact our support team at help@thoughtexchange.com or your Customer Success Manager.