Strategic off-sites

When I received my daily quote from Fast Company this morning, I experienced a bit of a negative reaction…for about one millisecond.

Here’s what it said:

“People who are involved in planning off-sites aim too low.”—Brenda Williams, Founding Partner, the Lab

Brenda is probably right.

Luckily, the folks at Fast Company provided us with some guidance on how to plan a less dreadful meeting.

Can this off-site be saved?

After dozens of interviews with the best meeting planners and event designers, and after compiling a collection of firms that have seen results from retreats, Fast Company has come up with its own answers to the question, How do you plan off-sites that pay off? Here are our seven take-aways.

* Take-away #1: Agree on a definition of victory that matters.
* Take-away #2: To get the right results, invite the right people.
* Take-away #3: If you want mind-blowing results, expose people to mind-blowing ideas.
* Take-away #4: What people think is influenced by where they sit.
* Take-away #5: To make it work, keep it real.
* Take-away #6: You don’t always have to beat the clock.
* Take-away #7: What gets measured gets attention.

They also offer The Four Deadly Sins of Off-Sites:

* Sin #1: Booking first, thinking later.
* Sin #2: Placing too much trust in trust-building exercises.
* Sin #3: Investing too much power in PowerPoint.
* Sin #4: Giving too much time to Mr. Big.

posted in category(s): Points of Interest

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