Off-site meetings are usually touted as a great way to break free from the daily grind and inspire your team to think big. But sometimes, you find yourself leaving the resort, conference center, or, heaven forbid, airport Hilton feeling like you've just lost two days you can never get back.
Done well or done poorly, off-sites can resonate for years. "People will keep buzzing about 'the meeting in the snowstorm' or 'the meeting at the Ritz,' " says Bob Frisch, managing partner of Strategic Offsites Group in Boston. Whether they're tempted to insert an obscenity when describing that meeting depends on how much thought you put into it.
Before
Set realistic goals. "Often people are too ambitious in terms of what they expect to get out of a two- or three-day meeting," Frisch says. "The CEO should determine in advance what the meeting is meant to discover or develop," and then create an agenda or program that drives toward the desired outcome.
One way to do that is to make sure you have the right people in the room for each conversation. That means some people may attend only a portion of the off-site. Be certain that even those who take part in just a single session have a "fact book" of relevant data that they've reviewed ahead of time, says Logan Chandler, a partner at Stamford, Connecticut--based Schaffer Consulting, which helps companies develop and execute strategic plans: "Off-sites can go sideways because half the people attending don't have enough information to make an intelligent contribution."