Team Retreats Are More Important Than Ever: Some Do's and Don'ts
“We know we need to bring people together and get away from the day-to-day grind. We're not sure how to design our time away so we can get what we need out of it.”
Statements like this one are coming up frequently when we talk to leaders in our network. If ever there was a year to get a team offsite or retreat right, it seems like this is the year. Coming out of the pandemic years, organizations are adjusting to the impacts of hybrid and remote work, setting their sites on the long-term, and wondering about disruptive developments like A.I. (no, this blog wasn’t written by Chat GPT).
Gathering the team for meaningful time together to reflect, connect, plan, learn, and align can be a powerful catalyst to explore opportunities, get stuck things, unstuck, and solve problems that are hard to solve when you’re not all together.
We Need to Re-Group, Re-Connect and Re-Energize
We’re seeing the trends pointing to increased burnout, varying levels of productivity, lower employee engagement, and increased job mobility. All of those hours on Zoom calls getting the work done, have left little room for social connection, rest, and reflecting on why the work we do matters in the first place.
Employees are asking:
Am I creating value here?
Do I know what’s going on around here?
Why don’t I feel as close to my colleagues anymore?
Where are we going as an organization?
Are we sure we’re aligned on our work?
Why am I so tired at the end of the day?
So where should you even start in thinking about putting your retreat together? Start with the end in mind.
Get your retreat outcomes together first
A retreat/offsite done well, is a powerful way to boost the energy and excitement of a team. Certainly, poorly designed retreats can have the opposite effect. Taking busy people away from their work needs to feel like a worthy exercise and have a net-positive result.
Getting the design right starts with focusing on what outcomes will best serve everyone. Some teams need more connection, others need more alignment, and some need it all.
To define desired outcomes, start with questions like the ones below:
How do we want to feel after this time together?
What do we want to be able to do?
What new insights or skills could we learn together?
How can we create more clarity where we need it?
Some Do’s and Don’ts for Retreat Design
With a focus in mind, you can line up the right experiences. Common goals for retreats are social connection, enlightenment, decision-making, and energizing the group.
Connection: Creating time for social connection sparks feelings of belonging and community. When people learn about each others’ strengths, interests, stories, and hopes there’s a greater sense of knowing each other which fuels belonging.
Do: Design prompts and questions that engage people in conversation. Find ways for people to interact with those they don’t work with every day, but also build time for people to freely connect with those they have bonds with.
We know people who love bringing personality assessments into retreats. We have strong feelings about them because most are not science and evidence-based, but if that’s your thing, find a good one to build awareness and understanding.Don’t: Don’t rely on quick icebreaker activities (ahem, Two Truths and a Lie anyone?) alone to fill the social connection component of your agenda. Also, don’t assume that open hours for lunch and dinner will result in everyone actively participating in conversations that connect.
Learning: A retreat can be a great opportunity to create new awareness, inspire new ideas, and teach a relevant skill or two.
Do: Do a quick check-in with leaders/teams to get a sense of where there is a need/interest in learning. This might be a refresher on giving feedback, or it could be something specific to your industry.
Learning should take advantage of having people together and allow people to practice, discuss applications, and reflect on how concepts and skills can support future growth.Don’t: Do not simply find a way to fill time by bringing in a speaker that may or may not have an application for the work ahead. We’ve seen clients bring in external trainers that talk at the group for an hour, and then leave without a close connection to the agenda and the ideal outcome of the retreat. This goes for TED Talks and videos as well. You have people in the room, let them practice, discuss and ideate.
Decision Making: This is a time when people can focus on ways to improve the way work happens. New alignments and agreements can be made, and experiments can be crafted. This involves the group making decisions about how to improve.
Do: Carefully facilitate conversations with the group that clarify what needs to be decided and how. Perhaps include pre-work that collects insights from the participants so that everyone knows what work is ahead during the retreat. Have clear actions that will take place after the retreat to put decisions made into place.
Don’t: Try not to make assumptions about what problems and improvements need to be addressed and then simply present those to the group. Also, try to avoid having only one or two people providing all of the input and making all of the decisions.
You don’t want to be in a situation where nothing happens after the retreat because no one fully understood what was being decided, or perhaps they just don’t support the decision.
Plan: Engaging the group in reflecting on where they’ve been, what they're able to do now, and what could be possible in the future is a great way to affirm your vision, mission, and values. It will go far in strengthening alignment and excitement for the direction of your organization.
Do: Ensure everyone in the retreat is participating in sharing their insights, reflections, and ideas. Use Post-it notes, index cards, and small group conversations to do this. Clarify how the group’s input will shape the future direction. Maybe the decisions are being made in the room, or perhaps this is a step in a larger process. This helps set expectations for what happens next.
Don’t: If creating alignment, support, and participation is a desired outcome, don’t create the vision/plan in isolation and then present it to the group as “the way forward.” People support what they help create, and not allowing synthesis, contribution, and questions can result in disengagement.
Bringing people together to focus on connection, learning, decision-making, and planning in the post-pandemic era of hybrid work can have an exponential impact on boosting social bonds, building purpose and meaning, and creating excitement for the future.
It takes rigor to focus on what outcomes you really want to achieve with the time together. Then, it takes a smart design to ensure the right blend of experiences to help you to achieve the outcomes.
Don’t get caught putting the time on everyone’s calendars and having to scramble to fill the time with activities. Your team will thrive in a well-designed and well-facilitated retreat experience.
Looking for help designing and facilitating your retreat?
If you’re looking for help designing, planning, or facilitating your retreat or offsite, send us an email or book a time to chat further. Need more details? We’d love to help!
