Recently, Courtney and I (co-founders of Teamings) took our families on a vacation together. This is something we do nearly every year and each year I’m blown away by its effect. This isn’t an official business retreat, but since we’re business partners, business discussions inevitably come to the table. Through these informal interactions we gained fresh perspectives and new insights.
This experience reminded me of the benefits of company, leadership or business retreats. There’s something about getting away from the everyday pressures of home and escaping from the world of business that allows us to see people and issues in a whole new light. The experience of a well put together business retreat helps to make relationships more cohesive and strengthens a team. Such getaways can lead to innovative breakthroughs, because they allow people to connect on an emotional level and help to break down communication barriers that limit creativity. To get the most from your company outing, you need to plan accordingly. Here are a few tips for team-building on a business retreat. Set a specific objective. Just like any meeting, a team retreat needs to have a specific desired outcome (objective). This objective will guide you in choosing the right venue and planning activities. Every aspect of your retreat should reflect your main objective. Make sure to clearly communicate the objective to the participants. You will also want to decide how you will measure the success. Pick criteria that will help you determine if you accomplished your objective. If your objective is to build team cohesiveness, you could use a team assessment survey. Give the survey to your team sometime before the retreat to evaluate how they worked on a particular project. Then after, have them evaluate their efforts during the getaway in the same manner. After their next work project is completed (a month or so after you return), use the same survey to have them evaluate how they worked on this project. You’ll likely see an improvement directly after the retreat, since emotional bonds will be heightened. The true indicator of success comes from the results of the third survey. Did the company outing allow for significant team building to survive the stress of day-to-day work? Build balance into the agenda When planning activities, remember a retreat is meant to remove the pressures of everyday life. Make sure to build fun and participation into the program. – Keep the activities varied. Energizing ice breakers, formal orientation, brainstorming, information sharing, large group discussions, small breakouts, physical team building activities, evaluation, next step discussions and plenty of breaks and free time should all be built into the agenda. – Don’t try to do too much. Most activities will take longer then you expect. You’ll want to create enough time for everyone to participate and relax. A lot of important conversations and teambuilding can happen informally during meals and un-programmed activities. Choose the right retreat venue. A venue is one of the most important choices you can make in your retreat planning process. Of course, you’ll want to ensure the venue can accommodate all your activities and help you achieve your objective. More importantly, you’ll want to make sure the venue provides the right environment that will be comfortable for your participants. Require action, follow up and maintenance. Retreats are only effective if the objective is met and maintained. The warm fuzzy feeling of a retreat will quickly diminish as everyone returns to the office and gets back to the daily grind. By requiring action and following up on the progress of that action, you can hold on to the progress your team made. For example, you can have everyone write down a few specific things they will work on. Have them share these goals with their peers and/or their managers. Make sure everyone is held accountable for these goals. Your team might also benefit from mini quarterly workshops and/or impromptu outings. These activities will remind your team of all the work they did on the retreat by allowing them to reconnect on that same emotional level they felt during the getaway. A powerful team building getaway provides an escape from the stress of day to day life, allowing a 360 degree view of people and issues. By focusing on a specific objective, providing a good work/play balance, choosing the right venue and requiring action you can create a successful retreat that will benefit your team long after. Teamings can help you plan a successful company outing by procuring the right venue free of charge, all while getting you the best prices. Contact us or call 1-888-278-9040.
