So you want to plan a team offsite

Over the past two years, I've had the privilege of organizing eight team offsites, for my team and C-level leadership teams I've supported. An offsite is a great way to bring the team together for team bonding, development, planning or brainstorming. 

​Some teams may choose to hold an offsite quarterly, semi-annually or annually. It all depends on the purpose and your team/business needs.

People have often asked me what makes a team offsite effective. Here are ten ingredients I have noticed makes a difference:

1. ​Theme: Having a specific theme for the offsite focuses your content and​ audience. It also helps in measuring the impact of the offsite learnings in a specific area. I recommend using a theme around something that is most important for your team at the moment. For instance, if you are building a new team, focus on a theme around the journey ahead. If you have a specific area of development for your team, focus on that.​
2. Outcome: As you plan out the offsite, have a specific outcome in mind. In fact, go ahead and write an outcome statement. This should represent what you want everyone leaving the offsite to be able to say that was different than when they walked in. And it should be connected to your theme and content. For example, I gained tools to be more effective in my role or I developed a deeper appreciation for  my colleagues in a meaningful way.
3. Planning: Be intentional about your planning. Start early and make sure each segment is there for a reason. Imagine what the energy in the room would be like at the end of each segment and order the segments in such a way that it works for your audience, theme and outcome. For instance, if you want your team to introspect in the late afternoon, something that brings a somber mode would be helpful. If you want your team to leave the offsite in high spirits, end with a segment that will do just that.
4. Mindfulness: State your intentions with your team. Let them know why the theme was chosen, what the outcome is, why the content was setup a certain way, how they will work together etc. And as you start the day or change gears in segments, have a moment of mindfulness. It doesn't need to be anything grand, just five minutes for everyone to connect with themselves, the segment and be intentional about it.
5. Engagement: Oh, and on how to work together, be explicit about rules of engagement. Trust me, it's needed :) no matter how long you've all worked together. Have just a few or have the group come up with the whole list. Whichever approach you take, make sure the group explicitly agrees to the list you end up with. That's the only way accountability can happen. I usually start with some variant of these three: Be present (and engaged, no devices), be open (to learn, share, and connect), be generous (to yourself and others, ask questions, no right/wrong, get curious).
6. Crowdsourcing: Involve the whole team in planning the offsite. Have people in charge of segments of content, team bonding activities (yes, not all work, have some fun too), meals and logistics. I've found that you can still keep the content fresh and involve everyone. Crowdsourcing your planning makes the team feel they are part of the process. Moreover, you'll get more creativity infused than you'd get on your own. What if you have a large team, how would you keep track you ask? Have a central person be the project manager for the overall planning.
7. Breaks: People are happier when they have breaks. Build in bathroom breaks, time for people to rest their brains or catch up on work, and time to mingle and catch up with each other. I typically break about every 1 hr 30min but no more than 2 hrs. Do what works best for your team. Breaks are really important
8. Variety: Have a variety of content, people learn in different ways. Include some presentation, interactive open session, interactive team work and self reflection work. Variety also means having different types of facilitation/presenters - a good mix of internal, stakeholders and/or external is ideal. It brings different perspectives to your team.
9. Retrospective: Whether you do this at the offsite or shortly after, always, always include a retrospective. Otherwise, how would you know what worked and what didn't? I like to use the scrum retrospective approach and have the team reflect and write up their thoughts on unsigned post-it notes on what went well and what could be improved. We then group those ideas and discuss each one as a group. The goal is to have all voices heard and have something concrete you can hold on to for improvement next time and continue to see it get better. Oh, and don't forget to check-in on that outcome statement ;)
10. Follow-up: OK, this is pretty key. You plan before the offsite, you facilitate during and you followup afterwards. Make sure you capture and share decisions and actions. Following up is important as it sets the stage for forward movement. One of your actions should include thanking people who made it a success - your team, speakers, planners etc.

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Those are my thoughts. What are your favorite ingredients for an effective team offsite?