Team retreats have become one of my specialties since I started my business 4 ½ years ago. I guess it’s not all that surprising considering I love working with teams, I was a Training Director for ten years, and I have a passion for helping businesses figure out where they want to go and how to get there.
Bringing a team together for an offsite at least once a year is essential, especially if your organization is experiencing a lot of change.
I've learned in my experience that a retreat must contain both business AND fun.
The fun parts of a retreat foster relationships, build trust and can break down barriers. The business parts of the agenda get to needed focused planning and problem-solving, which can be difficult to achieve in the day-to-day work.
Getting clear on outcomes is an important first planning step. Here are a few examples of common outcomes from retreats I’ve led:
Create a strategic and/or operating plan for the year
Draft or revisit the company’s mission and values
Develop a decision-making model
Clarify roles and responsibilities
Problem-solve a long-standing issue
Once you’ve drafted the outcomes, THEN you can design the agenda (and agenda design deserves it's own separate blog post).
If a retreat is on the horizon for your team or organization this year, contact me as I'd love to help!