O-F-F.SITE METHODOLOGY
The 5 Steps
The synthesis of years designing and delivering offsites.
1
DISCOVER
Ground the offsite through intention setting, context understanding, and open it through exploration.
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2
DESIGN
Prioritize, structure the offsite program, gather the team, and co-create a great experience.
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3
PRACTICE
Rehearse (only if you want "wow"), refine the last details, and make sure it all flows wonderfully.
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4
DELIVER
Enjoy the offsite. Flow between delivering your plan and feeling and improvising what is needed.
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5
1. DISCOVER
This first step is about getting the objectives clear from the different stakeholders, seeing who to engage and how, and understanding the broader context in order to deliver a successful offsite. For your version of "success".
"If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it." — Albert Einstein
"If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it." — Albert Einstein
(1) We set initial intentions and collect data (2) without costing the team additional meetings until (3) we have informed hypothesis to test through surveys and interviews with team members.
By the end of this step, you have gathered all the facts, data, and team perception necessary to inform the offsite design, grounded in broader organizational context.
ENGAGE
Deliver great first impressions that will leave the team wanting more. Do not limit yourself to the leadership team. Yes, they're essential, but they usually are engaged already. You make a difference when you engage everyone early on. Ask what people want and what they need: 1) personally, inspire enthusiasm so they unleash their passion, 2) as a group, explore what relationships and atmosphere are possible, 3) to facilitate our massive transformative purpose.
BE MINDFUL
This step is about self-discovery. Be mindful of the context at individual (i), group/ecosystem (we), and project/business (it) levels: where we come from, where we are, and where we're going. It is about doing and thinking as much as it is about feeling. The most important is to connect the offsite with other initiatives and plans so that the offsite is an enabler, not an additional layer. Focus on People, Culture, and Leadership initiatives where the offsite can provide the most boost.
STRETCH
Everything is possible. It is the time for divergent thinking, to open all the boxes, and to think big. The more ground you cover, the more chances you'll have to uncover the right topics and prioritize what matters most. Another reason to go wide touching many topics and people is creativity, in the words of William Plomer and Brian Solis respectively: "Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected." and "The more you connect, the more creative you become."
Deliver great first impressions that will leave the team wanting more. Do not limit yourself to the leadership team. Yes, they're essential, but they usually are engaged already. You make a difference when you engage everyone early on. Ask what people want and what they need: 1) personally, inspire enthusiasm so they unleash their passion, 2) as a group, explore what relationships and atmosphere are possible, 3) to facilitate our massive transformative purpose.
BE MINDFUL
This step is about self-discovery. Be mindful of the context at individual (i), group/ecosystem (we), and project/business (it) levels: where we come from, where we are, and where we're going. It is about doing and thinking as much as it is about feeling. The most important is to connect the offsite with other initiatives and plans so that the offsite is an enabler, not an additional layer. Focus on People, Culture, and Leadership initiatives where the offsite can provide the most boost.
STRETCH
Everything is possible. It is the time for divergent thinking, to open all the boxes, and to think big. The more ground you cover, the more chances you'll have to uncover the right topics and prioritize what matters most. Another reason to go wide touching many topics and people is creativity, in the words of William Plomer and Brian Solis respectively: "Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected." and "The more you connect, the more creative you become."
2. DESIGN
This second step contains all the activities that turn the raw data you collected into a great offsite experience, ready to rehearse.
You not only end up with content (slides or whatever you will use), you design the full experience from the audience's point of view and what you need to say and do for that to happen.
This step is where our methodology is most essential. Coming up with your own co-creative process for the Design step is tricky, we went through many test-and-learn cycles to get to where we are.
Also, this is the time to book the space and transportation (the earlier the better).
You not only end up with content (slides or whatever you will use), you design the full experience from the audience's point of view and what you need to say and do for that to happen.
This step is where our methodology is most essential. Coming up with your own co-creative process for the Design step is tricky, we went through many test-and-learn cycles to get to where we are.
Also, this is the time to book the space and transportation (the earlier the better).
Grounded and intentional, we (1) prioritize what's most important and organize it into an early schedule around which we (2) invite and brief facilitators to (3) co-create the necessary offsite experience.
By the end of this step, you will have prioritized and structured all the offsite sessions into the overall movement of the offsite, and an hour-by-hour program, the team will have joined and prepared both their sessions' content (what they will do) and user experience (what the audience will live).
FOCUS
A great discovery gives you loads of insights and potential offsite. Now that you have opened all these boxes, what can you combine? What boxes do you want to close? If you decide to do it all (broad), you will be superficial on everything (shallow). If you want depth, you will want to reduce the scope. This step is about convergent thinking, playing with "no" and keeping only a handful of topics, stories, and activities.
DISTRIBUTE
In Discovery, you engage with the whole organization to gather what is needed to design. Efficiency requires that a handful of people collect and process all the information. Now is the time to distribute that information in a simple way (you can share the raw data with the people who want to go deeper), and also distribute decision-making power and action items (roles, sessions, etc.).
STRUCTURE
You want to structure, not only to produce a great offsite but also to make it easy on the team that will be co-creating it. Structure supports both the "Focus" and "Distribute" KSF. In order to focus beyond gut feeling and decide as a team, you need structure through tools (we have templates for that). Also, the more people you involve in the offsite design and delivery process, the easier it needs to be. Structure helps with that simplicity.
A great discovery gives you loads of insights and potential offsite. Now that you have opened all these boxes, what can you combine? What boxes do you want to close? If you decide to do it all (broad), you will be superficial on everything (shallow). If you want depth, you will want to reduce the scope. This step is about convergent thinking, playing with "no" and keeping only a handful of topics, stories, and activities.
DISTRIBUTE
In Discovery, you engage with the whole organization to gather what is needed to design. Efficiency requires that a handful of people collect and process all the information. Now is the time to distribute that information in a simple way (you can share the raw data with the people who want to go deeper), and also distribute decision-making power and action items (roles, sessions, etc.).
STRUCTURE
You want to structure, not only to produce a great offsite but also to make it easy on the team that will be co-creating it. Structure supports both the "Focus" and "Distribute" KSF. In order to focus beyond gut feeling and decide as a team, you need structure through tools (we have templates for that). Also, the more people you involve in the offsite design and delivery process, the easier it needs to be. Structure helps with that simplicity.
3. PRACTICE
Imagine you are still trying to remember what you are going to say a few minutes before you get on stage (or worse, you're still making the slides), you can't observe and engage with the audience. You don't have enough headspace to be quick on your fit and improvise.
Give yourself the chance to experience flow by designing and practicing (steps 2 and 3) when it is time.
Give yourself the chance to experience flow by designing and practicing (steps 2 and 3) when it is time.
Excellence comes from multiplying iterations, whatever framework you use to loop (see PDCA and DMAIC for example), for the Practice step, we use Rehearse-Integrate-Refine. Through rehearsal, you'll be able to find areas of improvement and see how to connect each session with what precedes and follows. Ideally, you rehearse multiple times with the last run happening in the actual location of the offsite.
By the end of this step, everyone has gotten ready to do their part. They do not just have a slide deck, they have rehearsed and polished the details of the user experience, ideally on-site for the last rehearsal.
MANIFEST
When you watch a movie, how many takes does it take to get the magical moment you see? When you go see stand-up comedy or theater, how many times have the artists played with that content and tuned the experience? Until you're on stage actually delivering your session, it is not real. Doing it as if it were the day of the offsite is the only way to experience "rubber meeting the road" before it does. You cannot get the feeling and learning from delivery without actually delivering. You can use your partner, friends, or coworkers. The next best thing is to tape it.
PREPARE
You can wait for the offsite day to try your speech or your activity for the first time. It can be part of the philosophy of the offsite as a way to emphasize the value of "getting things done" or "agile"... But too many times, it is the default, the low bar we got accustomed to. The best way to figure out how much time you want to prepare is to assess (1) the impact potential of the experience, and (2) the number of attendees. Dedicating 30 hours of design and practice is going to mean different things whether you're facilitating a core 1h upskilling that will impact performance & creativity across the board (meta-skill) to an audience of 200 people or a 30-minute personal story to your 10 peers.
LINK
How the offsite will feel will depend a lot on your ability to create the right sequence from different angles: state management (tense & energetic arousal, hedonic tone), content (story, topic), i/we/it, active/passive, etc. Taking each session separately, the linking is about facilitating an experience that takes participants where they are in the moment you start, aware of what they went through: what they know now and what is on their mind, how they feel about it all, and closing in a way that what matters will stay with them before someone else takes over and imprint their stuff. Even better, setting the next facilitator for success.
When you watch a movie, how many takes does it take to get the magical moment you see? When you go see stand-up comedy or theater, how many times have the artists played with that content and tuned the experience? Until you're on stage actually delivering your session, it is not real. Doing it as if it were the day of the offsite is the only way to experience "rubber meeting the road" before it does. You cannot get the feeling and learning from delivery without actually delivering. You can use your partner, friends, or coworkers. The next best thing is to tape it.
PREPARE
You can wait for the offsite day to try your speech or your activity for the first time. It can be part of the philosophy of the offsite as a way to emphasize the value of "getting things done" or "agile"... But too many times, it is the default, the low bar we got accustomed to. The best way to figure out how much time you want to prepare is to assess (1) the impact potential of the experience, and (2) the number of attendees. Dedicating 30 hours of design and practice is going to mean different things whether you're facilitating a core 1h upskilling that will impact performance & creativity across the board (meta-skill) to an audience of 200 people or a 30-minute personal story to your 10 peers.
LINK
How the offsite will feel will depend a lot on your ability to create the right sequence from different angles: state management (tense & energetic arousal, hedonic tone), content (story, topic), i/we/it, active/passive, etc. Taking each session separately, the linking is about facilitating an experience that takes participants where they are in the moment you start, aware of what they went through: what they know now and what is on their mind, how they feel about it all, and closing in a way that what matters will stay with them before someone else takes over and imprint their stuff. Even better, setting the next facilitator for success.
4. DELIVER
It is time to deliver the offsite.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson
It won't go according to plan, or rehearsal.
Whatever happens, you will shine by flowing with what is, each moment. Ironically, the more you have prepared for your session or role, the more you can forget about it and focus on the present moment in a way that you notice what happens and adapt smoothly in order to offer the best user experience and maximize results.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson
It won't go according to plan, or rehearsal.
- People are too tired, the tech does not work, and you're given half the time or 30 minutes more than initially planned. Maybe something unexpected and truly beautiful happens and you want to give it space instead of maintaining your plan.
Whatever happens, you will shine by flowing with what is, each moment. Ironically, the more you have prepared for your session or role, the more you can forget about it and focus on the present moment in a way that you notice what happens and adapt smoothly in order to offer the best user experience and maximize results.
Not really an arc here, just an illustration for the dance between surrendering and manifesting each moment of the offsite.
By the end of this step, everyone has had a wonderful offsite, all the goals were achieved, energy is high.
Where Design and Practice were steps to manifest, very "yang" in nature, the focus here is to let go and surrender all your plans. You want to go beyond accepting the unplanned and enjoy it, thrive with it. You are only able to do it if you are diligent in your design and practice. We assume you were diligent when sharing the following KSF:
OBSERVE
Each moment is a co-creation between the facilitator and the participants, and the co-creation starts by observing each other. Are the participants tired? Are they tense? Are they ready for this content? Do the participants understand? Are they engaged? What does their body language tell me? Who is most engaged and can help me energize throughout the session?
FLOW
As the facilitator, you have the power to direct the content and experience on stage so depending on what you observe, you can adjust what you are going to say and do. Most importantly, you have the power to direct the participant's attention to fellow participants and share the power to co-create with the audience. The participants need you to allow them, it is your responsibility to set them up for success and enrich the experience with everyone.
ENJOY
When you go have dinner with your friends, does it make a difference if they're low energy, negative, and tense; versus enthusiastic yet relaxed? You want to prepare (design & practice) so that it is easy for you to get in-state that day. Facilitating an experience is a beautiful opportunity and a responsibility to your co-workers, they will get the energy you give so live your best life, be your best self, do your best work and enjoy it all for you and for them.
OBSERVE
Each moment is a co-creation between the facilitator and the participants, and the co-creation starts by observing each other. Are the participants tired? Are they tense? Are they ready for this content? Do the participants understand? Are they engaged? What does their body language tell me? Who is most engaged and can help me energize throughout the session?
FLOW
As the facilitator, you have the power to direct the content and experience on stage so depending on what you observe, you can adjust what you are going to say and do. Most importantly, you have the power to direct the participant's attention to fellow participants and share the power to co-create with the audience. The participants need you to allow them, it is your responsibility to set them up for success and enrich the experience with everyone.
ENJOY
When you go have dinner with your friends, does it make a difference if they're low energy, negative, and tense; versus enthusiastic yet relaxed? You want to prepare (design & practice) so that it is easy for you to get in-state that day. Facilitating an experience is a beautiful opportunity and a responsibility to your co-workers, they will get the energy you give so live your best life, be your best self, do your best work and enjoy it all for you and for them.
5. INTEGRATE
Peak experiences hold magical potential. You enter a realm where everything is possible on the levels of the individual, group, and project. You can feel the energy from everyone's attention focused on shared intentions.
This is just potential though, not impact. That energy will dissipate as quickly as you've gathered it if you do not follow through.
"When you make a commitment, you build hope.
When you keep it, you build trust."
— Stephen Covey.
Integrate is the step where you channel the energy for impact in the long term, at least until the next peak experience. It is the step where you keep your commitments and transform hope into trust.
This is just potential though, not impact. That energy will dissipate as quickly as you've gathered it if you do not follow through.
"When you make a commitment, you build hope.
When you keep it, you build trust."
— Stephen Covey.
Integrate is the step where you channel the energy for impact in the long term, at least until the next peak experience. It is the step where you keep your commitments and transform hope into trust.
1) You gather everything from the offsite, 2) Maintain momentum post-offsite through the follow-up communications and the continuation of the process you started with the offsite, 3) You make sure you follow through on the commitments made through the offsite.
By the end of this step, you have a clear understanding of the impact of the offsite in the long run, and you are using all the learnings to plan the next offsite. Ideally, you have maintained momentum and followed through on all the key initiatives.
JUST DO IT
Just do it. We mean it. Follow up and follow through. Do not let anything (AIs, ideas) linger. Be swift in the first communications post-offsite and maintain that momentum, not just the energy but action that impacts. It does not mean doing everything, it means making clear what will happen with every item that comes up: some things you will kill, others you'll park, and some you'll deliver on. You make clear which category they fall into and you keep your commitments.
"Good thoughts are no better than good dreams if you don't follow through." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
INTEGRATE
The offsite is a self-contained experience, with its own team making it happen. On the last day of the offsite, you share with the group how the offsite will be merged back with the day-to-day of the organization. The offsite team will transfer power back to the leadership team. It is important to manage the team's perception of the integration so that people understand the continuity between the liminal space of the offsite and the long-term progress. If the offsite allowed more dialogue, is it the new baseline? If not, why? Make sure people understand the intentions behind your actions and build trust through integrity.
REPEAT
Key themes have emerged through the offsite and the repetition is not over. A key success factor is to continue weaving these themes in the organizational tapestry. How can you maintain the values alive for the months to come? How do you want the movement you have started to continue? How will you facilitate it?
Just do it. We mean it. Follow up and follow through. Do not let anything (AIs, ideas) linger. Be swift in the first communications post-offsite and maintain that momentum, not just the energy but action that impacts. It does not mean doing everything, it means making clear what will happen with every item that comes up: some things you will kill, others you'll park, and some you'll deliver on. You make clear which category they fall into and you keep your commitments.
"Good thoughts are no better than good dreams if you don't follow through." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
INTEGRATE
The offsite is a self-contained experience, with its own team making it happen. On the last day of the offsite, you share with the group how the offsite will be merged back with the day-to-day of the organization. The offsite team will transfer power back to the leadership team. It is important to manage the team's perception of the integration so that people understand the continuity between the liminal space of the offsite and the long-term progress. If the offsite allowed more dialogue, is it the new baseline? If not, why? Make sure people understand the intentions behind your actions and build trust through integrity.
REPEAT
Key themes have emerged through the offsite and the repetition is not over. A key success factor is to continue weaving these themes in the organizational tapestry. How can you maintain the values alive for the months to come? How do you want the movement you have started to continue? How will you facilitate it?