Make your next retreat worth every penny you pay for it
Off-site meetings are a great way to set aside daily distractions, bring team members closer together, and inspire powerful strategic changes to drive businesses to new heights. The problem is, executives often leave an off-site meeting feeling the weight of a hefty bar tab more than the promise of future progress. Done well or done poorly, what happens at off-site retreats resonate for years. People will either remember a fun and worthwhile expedition that they can’t wait to repeat, or they will view the trip as a waste of time and productivity that could have been better spent elsewhere. There really isn’t much in between, so be sure to think strategically before your team packs their bags and prepares for a potentially galvanizing off-site meeting.
Know Where You’re At and What You Want
The first step in planning a successful off-site is to understand where you are in the strategic process and determine what outcomes you want from the meeting. Does the group need to hold an expansive conversation about broad strategic options, or is it time to make some concrete decisions? What time frame applies to the issues that will be discussed? Three to five years? Five to ten? The answers to such questions will determine the objectives, which will in turn determine the agenda and the participant list. The CEO or team leader should determine what the meeting is meant to discover or develop in advance; then, an agenda or program can be constructed that drives toward the desired outcome. It is also highly recommended to develop some sort of “fact book” of relevant data that attendees can review ahead of time to help prepare for progress. “Off-sites can go sideways because half the people attending don’t have enough information to make an intelligent contribution,” remarks Logan Chandler, a partner at Connecticut based Schaffer Consulting, which helps companies develop and execute strategic plans.
Limit the Scope
Many people are simply too ambitious in terms of what they expect to get out of a two or three day meeting. Multiple drastic changes rarely stem from such a short period of time, so it’s best to define a narrow scope that the entire organization can actually get behind, rather than have too many small changes that get lost in the shuffle. Many off-sites derail because the meeting designer lacked the discipline to restrict the scope and number of issues to be considered. Another way to limit the scope is to make sure you have the right people in the room for each conversation. This means that some people may only attend a portion of the off-site, which can turn into a positive both ways. Employees need only attend those meeting which are most relevant to their area of expertise, and in turn can enjoy a little extra free time for some valued rest and relaxation.
Structure Tactfully & Openly
The greater expectations, higher stakes, and the unique nature of strategy discussions require special planning to ensure meaningful and constructive conversations take place, yet surprisingly little guidance exists for designing strategy off-sites. There is no shortage of advice for leaders about how to conduct a meeting and there are plenty of how-to guides for meeting facilitators, but there is virtually nothing to help the off-site designer. Whether it is the executive who convenes the meeting, a subordinate, or an outside facilitator, the basic aspects of what goes into planning an off-site go past the usual existing structures of a meeting about creating clear objectives and developing an agenda. A good place to start, however, is by laying a few ground rules. For instance, many companies specify breaks during which participants can check their smartphones and tablets. The rest of the time, all use of such devices is forbidden. Another way to keep conversation on track is to use a white board as a “parking lot” for great off-topic ideas that arise to set aside for later discussion. This strategy minimizes tangents and allows for greater focus on the present topic of discussion without discarding ideas and innovations still worth exploration. Since garnering everyone’s input is often one of the primary reasons for holding an off-site in the first place, the CEO or group leader should begin by asking open-ended questions and weigh in last. This strategy encourages more participation and often leads to unbiased and better group decision-making. Other strategies include allocating a set number of markers for each participant to place on a diagram of the company’s suggested priorities. This way, all present will get to explain their point of view and focus on the aspects most important to address.
Wrap Up With Action
How you follow up your meeting is just as important as how you prepare and run the event. Bill Gisel, COO of Rich Products, explains, “You have to make sure you don’t walk out of the meeting and simply forget everything you’ve just done.” Attendees must first agree on an action plan that specifies roles, responsibilities, milestones, metrics, and reporting frequencies. Rich Products uses action registers at the end of each meeting, which list each item requiring action and specify who is accountable for what. Each person responsible for a particular goal or action can then provide a continual updates and feedback, for instance at a monthly progress report meeting. The implementation details will be forthcoming at the end of the off-site, but executives shouldn’t leave the premises before they’ve captured the meeting’s outcomes in one page of prose. However your team chooses to do so, you must establish follow-up mechanisms to make sure initiatives stay on course and within budget for the year to come.
written by Brian Kenny, [email protected]