It was a time-consuming process, that wasn't related to my job description. 50% of the job was listening to my co-workers complain that they didn't want to go, that it was boring, and trying to beg, borrow and threaten the presenters to get on time, on topic presentations ready prior to five minutes before they were scheduled to present.
The big day finally arrives, and everyone is on their phones, they start to migrate after the second long presentation to the back of the room, by the afternoon, everyone had an "important call" and are sitting in the hotel lobby chatting.
Some good plans for the future might be made, but for the most part, are abandoned about a week out as people get caught up on the tons of e-mail that accumulated while they were out of the office.
Does this sound familiar? Of course it does.
As a former organizer, I know for a fact that the management who orchestrate these events have good intentions, but so often, things go wrong. And this isn't limited to just my organization. Harvard Business Review released an article in March 2015 about "Leadership Summits that Work." It has some great insights on what to do prior to your summit, during your summit, and after your summit to really drive collaboration. What really struck me though, were some of the horror stories about how much money and time is invested in these summits for little to no return.
Here is the link to the full article, for some light reading:
In homage to retreat planning season, here are my 5 tricks for keeping your leadership retreat on track:
1. Manage Technology. I have a love/hate relationship with my phone. I am tethered to it. I sleep next to it. Google knew I was pregnant before my husband did. It is a compulsion to look at it. In a leadership retreat, it is a killer of collaboration, causes mass distraction, and when everyone has theirs out, a clear sign that things have gone totally off track. I read an article that recommended doing a "phone check" similar to the coat check, which I guess could be effective, unless you have a child in daycare or a thousand other reasons why there could be a legit emergency.
As a horrible person, at one management session I led, I obtained permission from HR to bring Nerf guns and the group was given permission to shoot anyone who got out their phone during the session. Not only did people think twice about getting out their phone, it also injected some fun into the day. Not appropriate for all audiences, but totally worked.
2. Let Your Leadership Retreat Get Off Track. I led a management/innovation retreat once upon a time to discuss marketing strategies for the medium duty truck market. I had planned a tight schedule and I was dedicated to keeping people on it. Fifteen minutes into the session, a long discussion emerged regarding "What is the Medium Duty Truck Market?" There was apparently zero consensus, which I didn't see coming. It blew my schedule to hell not just on day one, but before even the first break. BUT, if we hadn't had the discussion and got some consensus on this important topic, I am certain that we would have left after three days and been unable to proceed.
3. Take Breaks. Even if you plan the most engaging presentations, lots of brainstorming sessions, and have enough humor to make your presentation seem like a Kevin Hart performance, people need breaks. I have sat in retreats where breaks were five minute dashes to the restroom so you could return to an uncomfortable chair for another three house stretch. Research shows that people focus best in 90 minute increments. Also, if you want to drive collaboration, it doesn't hurt to allow people to have enough time to actually learn the names of the other people participating. Plus, everyone loves the conference cookie.
I recently attended a conference that kicked off every day with a 5K walk around downtown Indianapolis. What a great way to get people up and refreshed and focused for a day of presentations!
4. Make it Easy. We had a yearly meeting where we needed to get the various marketing departments in our organization to give updates on their major projects. We would limit the presentations to 20 minutes and give no other direction. Painful does not even begin to describe the process. Plus everyone ran over. We shifted this to give presenters fifteen minutes and provided a detailed template that asked five questions:
- What is one thing your department needs to start doing?
- What is one thing your department needs to stop doing?
- What do you need to do more of?
- What is one thing you need help with?
- What is one thing you are proud of?
In general, presenters feel more confident in their direction, the presentations hit the major points, and attendees don't feel like they are in presentation hell. Win. Win. Win.
5. Get stuff out on time. Meeting organizers are whipped by the end of these meetings. It is hard work to get them together. The actual summit days are long, draining days, and just having them over seems like a celebration. But- it is critical that you keep up the momentum, so conference after-materials like notes, next steps, presentation videos, etc need to get out within a few days after the conference. Two weeks is too long. People lose excitement, get focused on other things, etc. Also, keep up the communication in measured increments after the conference. A two week check in, a month, a quarter, etc. Keep what you learned on your team's radar.
Nothing is going to change the fact that a leadership retreat or conference is a certain amount of time away from your daily tasks, but making sure that the time is well-organized, and well-spent and helps create an environment that makes your team more successful will make it one of the most rewarding experiences in your team's year.
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