Company offsites are a great chance for teams to connect, engage, and simply enjoy each other’s company.
Unfortunately, some offsites can easily turn into information sessions, with leadership directing information at employees without much time for interaction. 😓
We believe offsites present an awesome opportunity for people to engage, re-energize, and learn, while still focusing on key business goals.
First things first: What is an offsite?
An offsite is a meeting or event that happens outside of the office (i.e. off-site). They typically take place at business conference centers, hotels, or resorts, and include team-building activities and social events like cooking classes or sports competitions.
The purpose of an offsite is to:
❇️ Build and improve relationships
❇️ Learn from each other
❇️ Re-energize outside of the workplace
❇️ Increase productivity
❇️ Boost creativity
❇️ Improve communication
What makes a great offsite?
While offsites offer an engaging format to bring the team together, it’s also important to stay focused – but this doesn’t mean they should be boring!
🌟 Introducing the 75-25 rule: Our philosophy for a fun impactful offsite 🌟
Spend 25% of your offsite sharing & presenting information, and 75% interacting & engaging with others.
Interaction should be at the core of your offsite, seeping into all aspects from leadership announcements to coffee corners to team dinners. But don’t let this intimidate you! Here are our top tips to help you organize a great offsite – with interaction as the key ingredient:
🗓️ Create a detailed agenda with clear objectives and timing
🌼 Add check-in sessions (or questions) to the start of each day
🐭 Keep groups small
✂️ Make each session actionable (e.g. solving a problem or making a decision)
💻 Don’t forget tech support (there’s nothing worse than technical problems when you’re trying to keep everyone engaged and excited!)
💃 Make it fun!
An interactive offsite in action at PVH
As we’ve said, an offsite should be fun but focused. We organized a one-day offsite for 10 Agile & People Coaches from PVH, where we engaged in “serious play” – think Legos, post-its, and after-hours drinks – to turn strategy into action. While the day was filled with color and fun, each coach presented a one-page strategic plan at the end of it.
All in all, the best and most effective offsites balance fun and focus – just think of an offsite as a team meeting on a much larger scale.
👉Want to organize an unforgettable offsite with maximal interaction? We’ve got you covered! Get in touch with us today to learn more.
