The Keys to Planning a Successful Offsite: Invest in Culture, Strategize for the Future, and Maximize ROI
We understand; bringing your team together for offsite meetings can be expensive and time-consuming. While these events can provide a great environment for team-building and alignment, without strategic planning such benefits can feel short-lived and easily lost when team members move back into their day-to-day operations. Too often, planners and participants assume that the offsite is just another meeting, but it differs in critical respects from every other meeting that top leaders and employees attend. Offsite meetings are broader in scope and more “big-picture” in purpose than your typical workplace meeting and they can range in purpose from team building, onboarding, problem-solving, or strategizing for the future years, and a mixture of all elements.
When you bring together the right people in the same place at the same time—whether virtual or in-person or both—with open minds and sustainable cognitive energy, you provide space for everyone to focus on the big picture issues. When your team has an opportunity to be informed by facts and insights, you’ll find it inspires decision-making that leads to action. These are our top tips for constructing a successful offsite with tangible takeaways and clear ROI.
Structure a Strategic Offsite
The strategic offsite is the one meeting that the CEO owns completely, but that does not mean they will be the ones to moderate or organize it. The business leader who convenes it and helps design it will ultimately be measured by its results. Expectations for the offsite run higher than for a typical executive session because it is usually the only opportunity the top management team has to explore strategic issues in-depth.
To help you organize a top-notch offsite meeting that generates tangible results, take time to consider the following:
SETTING YOUR STRATEGY
It is obvious that arranging transportation, food, sleeping arrangements, social events, and the meeting venue is part of the logistics, but don’t forget the strategy behind it all:
Start with the end goal in mind. Have a clearly laid out plan for the future and attainable, actionable goals at the end of the meeting. After the meeting, plan follow-up on objectives regularly to ensure goals are being met.
Decide the gathering size needed to discuss objectives. Will the whole company be there or just the department or Leadership? What should they talk about, when, and why?
Build your agenda. Decide how you will communicate objectives and expectations for the offsite, both prior and during. If you assign pre-work, how will you communicate the purpose and importance of it?
To prevent mental fatigue and encourage engagement include a variety of activities and environments.
MESSAGING AND MATERIALS
Layout clear meeting objectives and keep goals both focused and minimal to set realistic expectations and prevent overwhelm and increase meeting productivity.
Decide which materials will reinforce your agenda. Which documents need to be prepared in advance to help you capture the work being done at the event? Which presentations or handouts are needed for the sessions you’ve mapped out? Who needs to be involved? What’s the timeline for completing them prior to the offsite?
Proper planning for a successful offsite leadership retreat increases the return on the investment of scarce leadership capacity.
Add Team Building to Your Offsite Agenda
Trust is a major component in building successful teams and companies. The goal of an effective team-centric offsite is to learn, communicate, bond, and grow in a way that promotes the company culture and mutual trust in a compressed timeline. Employee offsite meetings are one of the best chances to let employees interact with the leadership of the organization. When the message leadership sends out aligns with their regular efforts to improve company culture, it shows that leadership is in touch with the realities of working life and builds trust. This alignment is the first step toward giving employees authentic recognition from leadership—even when your organization grows past the point where everyone works on the same floor or even in the same state.
Remember, while the concept is simple, achieving these goals becomes a more complex logistical challenge as you add more people to your organization. Here are some activity suggestions that can be meaningful for everyone attending:
TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES
Games. It’s not often you get all your employees in one spot, so pick activities that are both fun and meaningful. Selecting a more involved, collaborative game raises the stakes and provides an opportunity for bonding and learning about each other outside of work. This could include hands-on activities like a sandcastle building competition or team engagement via improv games.
Volunteer Work. Many service organizations offer professional coordinators to help with setup, making it easier to mobilize your workforce for a good cause. Engaging in service-oriented work as a team can help employees to feel they are a part of a bigger community and mission. Whether you assemble wheelchairs or paint at a local daycare center, your team will be bonded by this shared experience of giving back.
Roundtables. Among all the learning that goes on during company offsite meetings, some of the best insights can come through feedback from coworkers. Setting structured time aside for open discussions on communication, leadership, successes, and failures can lead to both personal and career growth. Being open is also an important step in building unity in your organization. Roundtables allow for different forms of communication as not everyone is comfortable speaking up in front of the CEO.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Personal Growth. A presenter with an impressive life story can provide a human element to your company retreat and show your employees you are invested in their personal growth. Their vulnerability can set the stage for the entire day.
Functional. A functional keynote speaker can take your employees through exercises designed to improve common working skills, such as communication, or develop your company’s mission and values.
Leadership. Where possible, have leaders speak directly and authentically to their employees. What questions do they get from employees? How is the organization progressing toward its vision?
ENTERTAINMENT
Fun Activities. Offsites shouldn’t be all work and no play; you left the office for a reason! In addition to cementing company goals and culture, offsite meetings should also be an opportunity to bond. Organize fun, local activities like a painting class or an obstacle course to help your employees bond and blow off steam and build a sense of community within your organization.
Food and Drink. Don’t forget to work in mealtimes and consider throwing a happy hour into the mix!
Musicians/Comedians/Magicians. Consider performers to boost the atmosphere and energy of your event.
Unstructured Time. While it’s fun to mix with new people and participate in programs, it’s also important for employees to have some discretionary time. Planning time buffers in the program can give employees the chance to catch up with friends from work or take a walk and decompress. Those scheduled “in-between moments” can sometimes be the most memorable and have a positive outcome.
Ready to Build Strategy Into Your Next Offsite?
If you’re looking for a great way to engage your team, you can’t go wrong with a strategically planned offsite. You’ll be amazed what a change of environment can do for your company; from team-building and problem-solving to strategizing for the future years. Schedule some time with us today and we’ll delve into the essential planning strategies that will inspire decision-making, lead to action, and help your offsite event deliver a clear ROI.
MAGGIE KENNEDY
Maggie Kennedy is the co-owner of Kennedy Events is a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.
About Kennedy Events
Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
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