Retreats
I love retreats. The bonding, the openness, the reset. It’s a place to get to know your community better and set new directions.
But as I was advising on retreat design last week, I remembered one of the reasons why a lot of people Don’t like retreats—because the goals and outcomes are unclear. The other crucial mistake many teams make coming out of retreats is not having a transparent and actionable plan for follow up.
Key questions to ask:
Why are we having a retreat?
What are the goals? Is every session of the retreat speaking to these goals? (the answer should be Yes)
As a leader, what is my real agenda and how can I be more transparent?
What is my follow up plan to make sure good ideas are valued and potentially implemented?
Pre-Production:
Why are you having a retreat in the first place? Some of your team might feel overworked and that they don’t have enough time to do their work let alone be out of the office. How will you create value for them? Incorporate their input. State why you think it’s important to have a retreat, but that you want their input on key parts of it in advance so that they have a stake.
Have a large team in which not everyone can get their “hands on the wheel” of driving the retreat? Create a written instrument in which they can provide feedback. Retreat planning takes time, but the more you invest the bigger the return!
Design:
—What are your goals?
You need to set clear goals and make sure you return to them throughout the retreat. All activities should be driven by your goals.
One example:
—Get staff’s input on plans for the next six months.
Managers often design retreats asking staff for their opinions—but then those opinions aren’t included in action. So any skeptics coming into a retreat become all the more hardened in their frustrations when a month or two passes without clear action. This will especially be the case of they’ve been to a number of retreats over the years that haven’t demonstrated their impact.
Maybe you do actually want your employees’ input, but also want to make it clear you are their leader. You were hired for a reason, right? The key comes down to Framing.
Rather than just asking for their input generally, make sure to frame honestly and transparently. For example:
“This is my plan for the next six months.* What specific questions or feedback do you have?” Thus you have established you’ve thought through the plan, but are open to tinkering with it based on their opinions.
Then later, at the end of the retreat, provide a timeline (ideally no more than two weeks), when you’ll report back on how you are going to address that input.
This is the difficult, but vital, work of management.
(* it’s important to hold retreats at least twice annually. That way you get a throughline for your work and show that you’re dedicated to pulling the staff together (building morale, get genuine input, thank them in person/on zoom)).
A retreat is a promise. The name is a bit of a misnomer, because you’re not just “taking a break,” you’re framing what could be better in your office or community. And you’re dedicated time, away from normal duties, to focus on something vital. When possible, make retreats multiple days. There is no such thing as a “half-day retreat.”
In the era of zoom fatigue, that’s challenging right? But the same principals that apply to in-person retreats are even more important online.
Pacing
People needs breaks, and they especially need a long lunch break! Why?—well the mind can only pay attention for so long. If you’ve created a highly participatory retreat, then you can build energy and momentum between sessions and the dynamism can hold participants attention for longer. But every group has introverts, and giving a long lunch break shows that you realize people need to decompress and absorb what’s happened so far.
If your retreat has a lot of lecture (not ideal), then they need even more time in between to reset their minds to absorb what’s next.
Pacing also speaks to the kind of activities you include.
—When are people on their feet?
—Are snacks readily available?
—What strategies do you have to keep people awake, especially after lunch?
—Are you requiring cameras on, and what’s the reasoning?
If you are planning a retreat with adults you must always keep in mind that most crucial of concepts for adult learners: RATIONALE. I’m not a big all caps fan, but it’s needed here. Adults need to know why you’re doing something in order to buy in.
Follow-Up
Okay so you gathered tons of great data and your team members were really engaged during the retreat! What’s your plan for carrying that good will and those action items into your day-to-day work?
Some ideas:
Tie any action items into your larger goals. If one request was more updates on what’s happening with other teams, demonstrate how you are providing those inputs through your internal communications and remind people that this idea came out of the retreat
Provide anecdote reminders from the retreat in all-staff communication. One of the more innovative ice-breakers I experienced at a retreat were when the two female leaders of the office set up a small psuedo-hockey rink on the conference room floor, threw on jerseys, and passed the puck with their too-large hockey sticks narrating a metaphor for our team scoring goals on key benchmarks. It was kind of ridiculous, but very memorable and an easy anecdote to refer back to when we closed in on goals set from the retreat later in the year.
Delegate. Not all communication needs to come from the leader. Demonstrate that you are providing opportunities for staff to lead and work with team members on communications on various initiatives. This will strengthen your relationships with staff members and show that you’re dedicated to their professional development.
Remember, a retreat is a promise. Let me help you keep it.
