HBR Guide to Setting Your Strategy

CHAPTER 6

Six Tips for Running Offsites That Aren’t a Waste of Time

by Melissa Raffoni

Let’s face it. Team strategy offsite meetings are expensive and time-consuming. While these events can provide a great environment for team building and alignment, such benefits can be short-lived and easily lost when team members move back into their day-to-day operations.

For the past 20 years, my team and I have worked closely with CEOs to plan and facilitate annual strategic planning offsites for executive teams. With facilitating these meetings comes the responsibility to drive sustained results. We’ve learned what it takes to make offsites “sticky”—meaning that the outcomes team members walk away with have an ongoing impact on their business.

Whether ...