Retreats done Right: 7 Tips to take your Company Offsites to the Next Level!
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2. Send a Pre-Retreat Feedback Survey
3. Set Retreat Objectives & Success Metrics
4. Create an Agenda in Alignment with your Values
5. Communicate Expectations to get the Team excited!
6. End the Retreat with Learnings + Commitments
7. Complete a Post-Retreat Survey
I am a big fan of remote work. The freedom & flexibility it offers is incredible, & for me personally, it allows me to live the life that is right for me. That being said, I also believe that there is nothing quite like in-person connection. Spending extended periods of time physically with the people we work with strengthens trust & deepens our relationships, which only have a positive effect on the team’s performance & the organization’s success.
If your company has chosen to build a remote or remote-first culture, I recommend that you bring your people together, in-person, on a cadence that works best for you & your unique team. Could be 1x/year, semi-annually, or even quarterly! Whether you call it a company retreat, offsite, quarterly business review (QBR), or something else, here are my top tips to intentionally plan team experiences that are fun, human, inclusive, & next level:
1. Clarify the Purpose of the Retreat
Before you just jump in, take a step back. Why are you even getting together? What is the ultimate purpose of this retreat? Is it to deepen connection? Get aligned? Reset & reignite the team? Build trust? Celebrate? All of the above?
Work with stakeholders & ask these powerful questions to understand what success looks like for each individual stakeholder & to clarify the overall purpose of the retreat:
• After this retreat, what should everyone be able to understand, know, & do?
• How do we want everyone to feel before the retreat, during the retreat, & after the retreat?
• If after the retreat you say, “WOW! That was the best thing we have ever done at this company!” What happened?
• How will we know if we have executed a successful retreat, from your perspective?
2. Send a Pre-Retreat Feedback Survey
Sending a pre-retreat feedback survey is a great way to understand what success looks like for each person on your team, & if they need any special accommodations (food allergies, breastfeeding mom, etc.). Also, this is a great time to get ideas from the group of what they’d like to do/see/experience.
It’s an extremely inclusive action to get curious with your team ahead of time, & let them voice their thoughts, feelings, ideas, concerns, & needs. Getting together in-person, especially when you don’t normally work together in-person, can be a lot for people. Some people have social anxiety, some don’t love to leave their families, some get stressed by having to travel. Put them at ease by learning from them what they need to feel most comfortable & excited for the retreat.
You can even tweak the questions from #1 for this survey! Here are some example questions to ask:
• After this retreat, what do you want to understand, know, & be able to do?
• How do you want to feel during the retreat? How about after?
• If after the retreat you say, “WOW! That was the best thing we have ever done at this company!” What happened?
• How will we know if we've executed a successful retreat, from your perspective?
• What do you need to feel totally comfortable & excited at the retreat (could include dietary restrictions, special accommodations, etc.)
This is also a great time to communicate the purpose of the retreat (that you determined in #1 above). Put it at the top of the survey so everyone knows WHY you’re doing the retreat & the objectives that the team wants to hit as a result.
This survey will allow your team to feel seen, heard, & valued. You’ll also be cultivating excitement for the retreat! Win-win!
3. Set Retreat Objectives & Success Metrics
Now that you have feedback from key stakeholders AND the rest of the team on what would make for a successful retreat, you can set objectives & success metrics in alignment with the retreat’s purpose.
It’s important to know how you’re going to measure success, & align with everyone else on it, too. If you want everyone to know the mission, vision, & Core Behaviors of the company by the time they leave the retreat, make sure you know how you’re going to measure that. Also, make sure to communicate that this is your desire! Then your team knows that if they don’t understand the vision, they need to take ownership to ask for more clarification.
If you want everyone to walk out having a deeper connection with another person on the team, make sure they know!
I personally like to give everyone a 1-page handout with the retreat purpose & objectives so they can keep it front & center & focus on it. I also bring it up throughout the retreat & check in with people to make sure they are clear & taking ownership to achieve the objectives of the retreat.
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SIGN UP4. Create an Agenda in Alignment with your Values
When it comes time to actually create the agenda for the offsite, don’t just do what’s always been done, or what other companies are doing. Design your agenda to align with the following:
• The purpose of the retreat (#1 above)
• Feedback received from the team (#2 above)
• To achieve the objectives & success metrics (#3 above)
• Your Company’s Core Behaviors & Core Values
Culture is your company’s values & beliefs manifested in the BEHAVIOR of everyone at your org. Therefore, your culture is an external expression of your values. That being said, bring your values to life during your retreat! It will deepen the connection & belonging your teammates feel with the company & with each other.
For example, Celebrate Everything is a Core Behavior here at The Perk. So our company retreats are VERY celebratory – there is confetti, there is champagne, there is cake, there is reflection & visioning exercises on what we are celebrating now, & what we want to celebrate one year from now.
We are also BIG learners here, & we always include opportunities to learn new things at our retreats. At our last retreat, we brought in a guest teacher who taught us how to reframe our thoughts around selling (we all wanted to get better at selling in a way that felt fun, human, & like US!).
• So before you put your agenda together, look at your company’s core values & Core Behaviors. For each one ask, “what is one thing we can do to bring this value to life?”
• While you are creating the agenda, take time to explain WHY you are including each item, & HOW it connects to at least one of your company’s core behaviors or values.
• And after you’ve curated your agenda, take a step back. Are your values infused throughout? One of my favorite questions to ask my coaching clients is “Does your calendar reflect your values?” The same goes here. Does your retreat calendar reflect your company values?
BONUS TIP: Make sure you intentionally schedule breaks & free time into your agenda! This was something I learned the hard way after I planned my first retreat. Being an extrovert, I didn’t even think about scheduling breaks in-between activities for those who need to recharge with some solitude. It can be really overwhelming & overstimulating for people if there is no space for alone time or processing time. It is much more human & inclusive to schedule breaks & free space!
5. Communicate Expectations to get the Team excited!
While you may be living knee deep in retreat planning for months before the big day, your team isn’t. So make sure to take the time to communicate expectations & get them excited! This can be done as a pdf guide, a recorded video, etc. Have fun with it! Get creative! Here are some things to include in your communication:
• Purpose & Objectives of the Offsite
• What you’ll be doing (Agenda & how it aligns with values)
• How you want them to feel before, during & after the offsite
• What they need to do to prepare
• What they need to bring (or NOT bring)
• What is expected of everyone (including team engagement)
• How success of the retreat will be measured
• How you’ve incorporated feedback received in the pre-retreat survey
• Other important information
• Ask: What do you need from us?
6. End the Retreat with Learnings + Commitments
Have you ever had the experience of going to a conference or a retreat & consuming so much information & thinking “I am totally going to apply these 100 things when I get back to work!” only to realize you have forgotten almost everything once your adrenaline dropped to a normal level? It happens to everyone. So to ensure that doesn’t happen to your team, make sure to end your retreat with Learnings + Commitments.
Budget at least an hour at the end to get everyone together. Here’s what you say:
“We’ve covered A LOT over the past couple of days – learned so much, shared so much. It’s important that we take our learning & put it into action to make positive change in our lives, careers, & for the company as a whole. So to make sure we don’t just forget everything when we get back to work next week, let’s take some time to put our learning into action.
• Reflect & write down ONE THING you are going to commit to putting into action in the next week.
• Reflect & write down ONE THING you are going to commit to putting into action in the next 30 days.”
Then, they can share in small groups &, if time & size of group allows, share as a whole team. You could have them write their commitment on a piece of paper & paste it on a giant wall all together. You can have them explain WHY they are committing to this, & what the impact they want to make as a result. You can ask people to find an accountability partner to help them stay committed.
It ends the retreat with deepened connection, reflection on all that has been learned, AND an intentional effort to make positive change for the team, culture, & org.
7. Complete a Post-Retreat Survey
The retreat is complete! Now it’s time to measure its success! Make sure your survey questions are in alignment with the objectives & success metrics you set in #3 above. And even though this step comes after the retreat is complete, I recommend creating it prior to the retreat so you can be super clear with everyone on how you are measuring success.
Here are some example questions you could include in your survey:
• I understand the strategic vision & where we’re going: Yes No
• This is my understanding of the Strategic Vision:
• I understand my role in achieving our vision: Yes No
• This is my understanding of my role:
• I feel excited about the vision & my role within it
• I feel connected to my team (scale of 1-10)
• I feel like I belong at this company (scale of 1-10)
• My favorite part of the offsite was ____
• My least favorite part was _____
• Ideas I have for our next offsite are _____
Alright Leader, you totally got this. Offsites, retreats, QBR’s - whatever you call them – they are amazing & fun & full of opportunities to take your team’s connection & performance to the next level. Be intentional. Utilizing these tips will help you create incredible, values-aligned, human + FUN experiences for your team (& you!).
If you have any questions, or need help, please do not hesitate to reach out! We love planning & executing next level retreats for our clients. We help with content curation, values-infused agendas, leading team workshops, or legit can take all of the admin planning pieces off of your plate!
You are amazing. Keep being you. The world needs it!
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