When you look at the big picture, or goals you wish to achieve at your retreat, take a look at your past as you head towards the future:

  • Pre-plan, pre-plan and pre-plan again! Have committee meetings which include some veterans of your organization. Asking them what has gone right . . . and wrong . . . in your past retreat programs is a great idea. Overall, the big thing you want to accomplish in your upcoming retreat is to have everyone leave feeling that change has taken place with regards to their input. 
  • This change, whatever it may be, should happen immediately within the workplace. It won’t happen unless proper follow up takes place at the end of the program and at the beginning of the next work day or work week.  With members of your company attending, and those that were not able to join, the program leader has to be sure to implement the change that took place at the retreat whether people showed up or not. Your retreat will not be effective if you don’t put what you gained into action mode.
  • You have to ask yourself why you are getting together and what are you going to do after the retreat to implement the desired outcome. Even though this event might be ‘an annual company retreat’ you want to ask why you are getting together and most importantly; what can you do to initiate change for the better for yourselves, your company and your workplace.
  • When change happens in the workplace, are you looking just at your immediate department? Or are you also thinking about inviting your outside customers, higher up execs, administrative staff, worker-bees and the like? In order to fully experience change for the better, a key element should be to integrate all persons involved in whatever goal you want to achieve.

A few concepts to keep in mind before embarking upon the retreat include:

  1. Why are you getting together?
  2. Do you have action steps in place once you find the change with which you seek?
  3. Are the decisions made going to be put on deaf ears? Is the decision maker going to be open to hearing about things, wanting to change things, and implementing actions to do so for the betterment of the group and the company? If not; than ask to have co-chairs or co-leaders on the retreat so that one person won’t be the whipping boy or gal.
  4. Create a safe, open environment for people to express their views, share ideas and concepts and then reward them for ‘out of the box thinking’ efforts.
  5. Who are you inviting?  As stated earlier, you need to have a clear line of what you think the retreat is about, who it affects, and what the anticipated outcome is. Ensure that all of those people affected join if possible.
  6. What are the jobs of the people attending? Do you have responsibilities placed upon the participants, committee members, leaders, facilitator, experts and CEO?
  1. Does this retreat revolve around inter-departmental concerns? Sales? Diversity issues? HR issues? Fundraising? Clients? Operations?
  2. Is everyone on board?? Are there naysayers? If so; have an action plan for those that might prove to be a challenge to work with or will slow up the process.
  3. Timeline of events for the retreat:  Is there enough time made for camaraderie? Sessions for change? Lunch? Team building? Breaks?
  4. Setting up rules:  Have your committee members set up ground rules before you experience your event. Make sure everyone knows of the rules by sending emails and having sheets distributed the day of the program.
  5. Ask for feedback immediately and once again a week later:   Ask open ended questions so as to probe for good customer satisfaction (whether its your own people or outside clients).

If everyone attending makes a concerted effort to work with the program, you should be able to achieve your goals and a good time will be had by all. It will be worth the risk to hear others speak their minds, provide a common ground from which to speak in an open, friendly environment, and prompt an exciting innovation to initiate change. Results include great collaboration, conflict resolution, workplace viewed differently, and a new zest for the company, themselves and fellow workers.

If people can walk away from the retreat knowing they learned a bit about themselves, and/or each other, and/or the work that they do, then one can say that a company retreat was successful and worth having and having again.
The Professional Planner Group (PPG) is a full-service, certified, conference, meeting and event planning management company which specializes in delivering the most creative and cost-effective programs at the highest quality available.

PPG partners with hoteliers and vendors across the world for companies seeking to plan and execute a meeting or event. Ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small non-profit organizations, PPG provides assistance to an internal staff, logistics for part of a program, or plans, manages, and executes an entire meeting or event from start to finish. Contact: Todd Schwartz, CMP, for more information on how to "unleash your meeting's potential".

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