5 critical elements for an impactful team offsite

Are you planning your next team offsite?  It’s likely you already know what you want to include.  But how do you ensure your offsite has long term impact?

1.Build trust

The most productive discussions are ones in which the whole team contributes. People don’t fully engage unless there is explicit trust between team members. You can’t just assume it exists even if the team have been together for some time.

Schedule time for a simple exercise that allows everyone to share their vulnerability. These don’t have to be complex or “fluffy”.  They just need everyone to commit to enable trust.

2.Create openness

Every team has one or more things they avoid discussing.  Usually it’s because they want to avoid conflict.

Discuss how the team feel about and engage in difficult discussions.  Lay the ground rules. Define what’s acceptable and what’s not to get the most out of the conversations.

3.Build knowledge & identify risks

Use team assessment tools to help identify collective strengths and weaknesses.  Map these against team objectives to identify the risks of underperformance.  The team can then discuss alternative strategies to ensure they deliver on their KPI’s before issues occur.

4.Develop awareness

External facilitation has its advantages.  So much can be gained from observing a team in operation together.  When you are fully involved in the discussion you can’t observe team dynamics at the same time.

Team dynamics play such a huge part in the success of the team they can’t afford to be overlooked.  Observations can be played back to the leader or the full team to agree what would be useful to address.

5.Escalate learning

New environments open new neural pathways and activity in the brain. This boosts neuroplasticity (your brain’s ability to adapt) which promotes effective learning.  Your team are more likely to come up with new ideas and creative ways of overcoming challenges in the outdoors.

You don’t need to stand in a muddy field doing “team building” games.  Get out in the open and go for a walk/hike in a new location.

Do you want to make your next offsite more impactful?

I can help:

• Develop and facilitate an offsite team program to suit your requirements

• Deliver individual and team DiSC profiling assessments

• Coach individual leaders and the team to become more effective