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10 Tips for Running a Killer Offsite
Leadership Planning Sessions that Turn Vision into Reality
Roland Siebelink ⦨
February 23, 2024
For anyone in charge of organizing a leadership offsite program, great challenges await. For many companies, there are more complaints than compliments for these types of workshops. Instead of being fun and useful, they are too often boring and irrelevant. How can you stop that from being the case?
For starters, there are three main criteria to keep in mind. Offsite programs should have a real-world impact, provide a change in perspective, and create renewed energy for everyone in attendance. To help you reach those three key objectives, we have devised a list of 10 tips that can help you run a killer offsite workshop that will have a positive impact on your business moving forward.
Tip 1: Set Top-Down Stretch Goals Upfront
No offsite program should begin without company leaders stating long-term goals for the company, either for the year or for the following quarter. This helps to set the stage for what will be discussed during the workshop. Just make sure those goals relate to the overall vision of the company. Also, don’t be afraid to be ambitious with your stretch goals or assume that anything is impossible.
Tip 2: Gather Input Upfront
This is another task that should be done ahead of time. Before an offsite event, get feedback from both employees and customers on the state of the business. Learn how others view the state of the business. Just make sure you don’t overreact to that feedback or get too defensive. Instead, use the offset to address the feedback received and make improvements when necessary.
Tip 3: Pick an End Goal for the Offsite
There should always be a clear objective for what the business wants to achieve by the end of the offsite. This way, everyone in attendance will know what the offsite will produce in the end. Likewise, pick a methodology or tool that will help you get to that goal by the end of the offsite workshop.
Tip 4: Line Up Everything to Hit the Ground Running
It’s far too common for everything accomplished at an offsite to disappear afterward. Don’t assume that the offsite alone will have an impact on the business. Rather, create a post-workshop plan to implement afterward so that you can follow through on everything that happened during the workshop. Ideally, the leadership team will announce the post-offsite goals and how they will be accomplished.
Tip 5: Make the Workshop for Everyone
Offsite workshops aren’t just for the CEO or other company leaders. Everyone there needs to feel as if the program was designed with them in mind. To do this, take suggestions on what should be on the agenda and include topics people have asked for. Needless to say, the agenda shouldn’t be put together at the last minute. It needs to be carefully put together with topics that will help produce a positive outcome at the end of the workshop.