Bolidea – Giving Rise to Stellar Companies

by Magda Rocki

Last week’s post dealt with pre-planning the basic elements that assure your startup’s offsite is successful: who should be there? Talking about what, when, and why?  This week’s focus is on executing the planning and ensuring everything runs smoothly the day of the offsite and onwards.

STEP TWO- Day of the offsite: Executing the planning and guiding your team towards resolution

Ask your team to turn off their cellphones: no distractions allowed! It can even be a good idea to disconnect the internet access during topic sessions, so that participants remain focused on the task at hand. The goal is after all to have everyone participate.

Remind the participants of the agenda items and add missing items ( if needed): to decrease the incidents of tangents and off-topic discussions,  make sure to stick to the proposed agenda items. Think of the agenda items as promises you don’t wish to break.

Appoint a notetaker:he/she should diligently record the major arguments centering around a subject, the strategies approved or disapproved and the decided action items.

Follow a sequenced agenda: set the stage, choose ground rules, set direction, and make decisions. If you’re the offsite’s leader, take charge and lead your team to tangible results.

Provide plenty of time for networking: allow ample time for the team to have snacks, enjoy beverages and just talk about whatever strikes them. Team building starts with building relationships, and building relationships starts with getting to know each other. Allow for networking time to be free and unscripted and let the team enjoy some casual conversation with each other. Better yet, finish the offsite early and do cool activities with your team. Take pictures, play board games, do some outdoor sports –team bonding is one of the key elements an offsite builds, so make an effort to bring its essence back to the office with you.

Make it an overnight event : instead of setting up typical ( and slightly awkward) team-building exercises , add some depth to your startup’s team bonding  by enabling them to eat dinner together, enjoy a couple of drinks, and stay up late discussing major business problems or brainstorming on a radically new strategy. These late night sessions are valuable in that team members put their heads together to address some problem or opportunity. More importantly, team members build relationships which provided a terrific foundation for strong teams.

STEP THREE- At the end of offsite and onwards: debrief, critique and create a follow-up roadmap

Take a few minutes to critique the offsite itself: what went well?  What could be improved in subsequent offsites? Was the agenda clearly followed? Is the response of the team favorable? Addressing these questions will allow you ameliorate the future format of the offsite and ensure that everyone’s time was well spent.

Put together a follow-up plan to continue the work from the offsite: One of the most frustrating things to experience with offsites is the lack of a follow-up plan to implement some of the great ideas which came out of the offsite. Put together an actionable follow-up plan with tasks, dates, action items, order of priority and owners and you’ll keep the excitement from going out of the offsite and will get some of the great ideas implemented. Neglect putting together a follow-up plan and you’ll have an offsite that the team sees as a waste of time. Make sure to communicate the follow-up plan to everyone concerned including the individuals who were not present at the offsite.

An offsite dual nature can vastly benefit your startup: it increase your team’s bonding factor and allows you to brainstorm and strategize your startup’s key elements in a fresh setting. If you want an offsite that is energetic and memorable, following the above mentioned directives will certainly push you a step forward in the right direction.

Happy offsite!