"Offsite meeting."
For most business people, these words evoke the sensation of dozing off in a stuffy conference room far from home.
Last week, I attended a really good offsite. My leader brought our 70-member department together for 2 1/2 days, and it was energizing, thought-provoking, and fun. On the way home, I pondered how she pulled off this feat.
1. Location, location, location.
The worst place for an offsite: A conference room in your own building. Sure, it’s easy and inexpensive, but it’s also not off-site. Familiar surroundings promote everyday thinking. Offsites are designed to elevate the level of thinking, to accomplish things that are important and distinct from the day-to-day work.
Last week's offsite was held at Friendship Park in Cincinnati; we were in a beautiful, well-ventilated building with a glass wall that provided a view of the park. The occasional distractions of joggers and Segway tours were offset by the pretty scenery and the sense that we were in a space without boundaries.
The perfect location might be right under your nose. At a prior job, my manager held an offsite at her house. It was a lovely home, and it gave us a chance to connect with her and each other on a more personal level.
2. Don’t do anything for longer than an hour.
With the exception of Hollywood blockbusters, there aren’t many things people will enjoy sitting and watching for more than one hour. If you have four hours worth of content to share, chunk it up. Have one speaker present for an hour, then give the group a break, then do an interactive and fun activity before bringing out the next speaker.
3. Be present, literally and mentally.
The Blackberry stays on the table.
My department is made up of busy people, and each of us had left our cell phone number on our voicemail message in case of a work emergency. The ground rules were laid out early: If your phone rings, you may step outside and take the call, but everything else can wait.
It makes a noticeable difference when you’re in a room full of people who are not multi-tasking. When the devices are set down, the emails are ignored, and we’re all focused on the conversation happening in the room right now, the time together is more productive and powerful.
4. Food matters.
I’m not a nutritionist, and I’m still waiting for a scientific study that shows the effects of conference food on attendees’ learning and participation. But here’s my hypothesis:
Two or three hours after eating, blood sugar drops and a person’s energy level plummets. The cliff is steeper if that last meal was heavy on the simple carbs. If you stuff people full of doughy sandwiches and cookies at noon, then take away all food until dinner, prepare for a pretty exhausted audience by about 3 p.m.
My ideal offsite would have a continuous supply of snacks, including protein-rich snacks like cheese, nuts, and yogurt. We had a 2 p.m. delivery of energy bars and trail mix. The only thing that might have been better: Bacon.
5. Structure the social.
One side benefit of an offsite is that teams who don’t regularly work together have a chance to build rapport. To maximize this, plan a group dinner or activities during the offsite that encourage socializing. Mix up the seating and group assignments to shake up comfortable cliques and make new connections easier to forge.
At my recent offsite, we had plenty of chances to connect: A scavenger hunt and small group brainstorming sessions with randomly assigned teams, and a group dinner where everybody had freedom to mingle.
6. Let things sink in.
On the third day of our offsite, after a morning full of presentations and lively discussion, everyone was exhausted. When we wrapped up, my coworkers and I headed to the airport – where we all agreed it was OK to not talk to one another for awhile.
Introverts need time alone to recharge. Everyone benefits from some quiet space to process the new ideas that have been stirred up, to pick up loose threads of thought and follow them to interesting places.
The best way to conclude an offsite is with a little quiet space. End early. Send people home for the afternoon, or encourage them to take some hours off on the following day. Jumping right back into workday stress (compounded by a few days out of the office, yikes) is a sure way to wipe out the fresh ideas that you invested so much time and effort in cultivating.
What do you think of offsite meetings? What are some of the best and worst things that you’ve experienced?
