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How to Plan and Conduct a Business Off-Site Workshop

Written by: Roger Ingbretsen

Article Overview: The goal of your off-site workshop/s should be directed toward bringing a heightened sense of “awareness,” “passion” and “focus” toward what needs to be accomplished by you, your leadership team and your organization. This article will provide information on how to accomplish the goal.

How to Plan and Conduct a Business Off-Site Workshop



First and most important…plan your off-site workshop with your key staff/leaders (both formal and informal leaders). Your staff needs to provide input and not be surprised by the content of the off-site meeting. The following Fifteen subjects/areas are solid examples of where effective planning and dialogue by you and your key leaders can lead to substantial increases in organizational performance. When agreed upon, these areas can then be used at the off-site as subjects for discussion and resolution.

A good mind-set approach to discussing the fifteen subjects or areas is to answer for each topic the questions:

• What are we presently doing well and why?

• What are we presently doing poorly and why?

1. Discuss and begin to identify the kind of people (skills, attitude, and behaviors) who will flourish in the environment you and your team want to establish. Your ability to raise the bar and attain higher goals and objectives will depend on the team you field. Make sure your team understands the key role they play in hiring and developing the best talent.

2. Spend time discussing the importance of a good attitude both in them as leaders and in those they lead. As the saying goes, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. When that bad apple is a bad attitude, it can ruin your team. You can train skills but it is almost impossible to train adults to have a good attitude. Hire attitude – train skill.

3. Discuss the merits of having a winning attitude. When you’re winning, nothing hurts. But when you have a bad month or quarter, when a key player leaves for greener pastures, or when your industry as a whole is struggling, you and your leadership team have to set the tone, model the way and encourage your people to look for the light at the end of the tunnel.

4. Discuss and establish the best way to communicate with and listen to your entire team. Your strategic course of action is only as effective as your ability to communicate it. Have the pipelines set up to get your message out there, and don’t forget communication goes both ways. Educate you team on the best way to communicate with you.

5. Acknowledge what you and your team don't know. Identify those around you or outside your organization who are the experts and don't be afraid to lean on them. In today’s complex business environment no one expects a leader or the team to know everything; however, collectively you and your team should continually be gaining new and relevant knowledge.

6. Ask the question; are we easy to business with? There is no reconnaissance more important than scouting out the territory where your products and services meet their internal and external customers. Seeing the customers and actually interacting with them provides some invaluable information to you and your team.

7. Discuss the value of teamwork. The workshop offers a good opportunity to model teamwork and impress upon your people that, if you’re going to be successful, you’re going to be successful together. One is too small of a number to achieve greatness.

8. Discuss each player’s role. You work together, but each person has a particular job to do otherwise they would not be needed. Make sure each individual knows specifically what he or she needs to do to add the most value to the team.

9. Make sure your time and your teams time is used to its best advantage. While it's pleasant to swap stories about each other's golf game, you're better off saving them for the fairway. Use the time in the workshop to engage in “learning-oriented conversations.” This approach also sets the tone for your staff so when they are back in the office they will use the clock effectively. Time is money.

10. Discuss with your team the need for action but to also be wary of reckless re-engineering. If you're assuming leadership of a large organization or department, take the time to understand its current direction, goals and objectives. Making too drastic and immediate a change can derail both confidence and long-term strategy.

11. With your team, target a few early wins. Momentum counts, and nothing succeeds like success. It's critical for a new leader to create momentum during the transition. Pick some problems the organization has not been able to address and figure out a way to fix them quickly to establish a new direction. In some cases, action beats brilliance.

12. Focus on improving short-term productivity related issues affecting your group. This will show your team you are serious about improving their work life, further improving your reputation and credibility as a leader. It will also give them something to bring back to their folks demonstrating a new beginning.

13. You can't fix everything at once, so with your team settle on a few major priorities. Typically, you can't do everything you want to do, so you need to make some strategic choices. This is where you begin to align and focus the organization around a common vision for the future.

14. Express to your leadership team that you will not allow them to grow comfortable maintaining the status quo, even if they’re doing a good job. Raising the bar is the name of the game. Your goal and theirs must be to set a new standard for excellence.

15. It is easy to become so focused on the details of a particular task or assignment that you forget what you’re ultimately working toward. Remind your team how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, making sure they understand the big picture and can clearly communicate the big picture to their people. Discuss how important this is toward helping everyone to focus on where you need to take the organization.

NOTE: The goal of your off-site workshop/s should be directed toward bringing a heightened sense of “awareness,” “passion” and “focus” toward what needs to be accomplished by you, your leadership team and your organization.

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Article Tags: Business meetings, business offsite meeting, offsite meeting



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