A corporate retreat can be far more effective than a long meeting held in your conference room, especially if you have a major piece of business at hand, such as strategic planning or important matters before the board of directors. Getting outside of the office will eliminate the distractions of your daily work and might enable you to think differently, relate to one another better and facilitate large corporate changes. Organize a corporate retreat by establishing a purpose, managing the logistics, using a facilitator and setting an agenda that will be respectful of everyone’s time.
Set a goal, or a series of goals, for your retreat.
- Imagine what you want to have accomplished, decided or established at the end of your retreat. That will help you define your goals and purpose.
- Be specific about your purpose. Your purpose should be more focused than “strategic planning,” for example. Identify specific actions or ideas that you want to have come out of the retreat.
Keep your purpose realistic. You might have large goals that cannot be accomplished within one retreat.
- Prioritize your needs and desires. If you know you will not have the time to accomplish everything, choose 1 or 2 priorities for this retreat, and end the day with a plan for addressing the other issues.
Establish a budget. You will need to know how much can be spent on transportation, facility rental, food, equipment and any entertainment.
Find a location that will accommodate your group and your goals.
- Make sure there is enough meeting space to hold the number of people invited to the retreat. If you will conduct smaller breakout sessions, look for a spot that has offices or rooms in addition to the space you will use for your meeting.
- Use recreational space if your retreat aims to build or include team building exercises. You could use a golf course, a dude ranch, an amusement park or other such locations.
Choose a good facilitator. This might be the CEO, a member of your leadership team or an outside consultant.
- Utilize a facilitator who is trained in group processes and has conducted retreats, training or development sessions before. A professional facilitator can remain neutral and really help your company put a plan in place to achieve your goals.
- Prepare your facilitator by sharing company background as well as the goals and the purpose of the retreat.
- Document the day. Assign someone to take notes and distribute those notes immediately after the retreat.
- Document next steps as well. Having a list of action items will keep everyone engaged even after the retreat, and hold people accountable for what they agreed to do.