Dr. Katharina Schmidt PsyD (Inspiration & Discipline) is an executive coach, independent corporate sense-maker and leadership researcher.
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The majority of organizations around the world are working on providing more flexibility about where, when and how people work—a 38% increase from April 2020. In the U.S., 52% of workers prefer a mix of working from home and the office. In a hybrid working world, offsites are becoming increasingly important rituals to connect and engage individuals with their organization, strategy, teams, colleagues and themselves.
Connecting people is a key priority in a post-pandemic working world in which workforce engagement is down and quiet quitting is up. Though the Great Resignation seems to be over for now, there are still plenty of signs that workers have readjusted their priorities during the pandemic and organizations are in the midst of figuring out working arrangements that fit the ongoing changes: onsite, in-person, virtual, on or off camera, synchronous and asynchronous.
Offsites are an in-person strategy to reengage and connect people in a seemingly disengaged and disconnected world. During offsites, people come together offsite of what used to be the office to zoom out, see the bigger picture and connect with each other. Presumably, this enhances trust and alignment. To fulfill this potential, offsite purposes need to shift from information dissemination to emotional connecting and activation. Offsites need to become less top-down, more bottom-up and some middle-out. This shift requires balancing top-down information sharing with PowerPoint slides by high-level leaders with dialogic elements in which all offsite participants get to share what they heard and connect with others.
So why are not all offsites designed and facilitated dialogically? First, it is more work for more people to design a meaningful process to transfer essential knowledge and guide dialogues in the right direction. Most offsite designers are primed by the concept of top-down PowerPoint presentations by the top leaders' approaches for offsites. Dialogic approaches are counterintuitive to traditional leadership approaches in which the leader is supposed to have all answers. Another reason for the unilateral design of offsites is that dialogic approaches feel less in control, as you never know where the group spirit might go during the dialogic elements. Last but not least: Dialogic design is more time-intensive. You have to think about priming participants, clear instructions for the dialogues, logistics and timing when groups go into breakouts. Dialogic approaches require trust that people will enter dialogues with integrity.
There is abundant research that shows that dialogic group approaches are predictive of better quality attention, information retention and follow-up action. Though many of us think that presenting data and facts and immersing people in information will change minds, it is not the most effective approach. A dialogic approach is much more in line with adult learning principles and improves the low retention rates of presentations. Adult learners need to be given data, facts and space to digest and relate to what they already know in order to change their minds and behaviors.
Oftentimes when clients share their offsite designs with me, I see two days of 90-minute presentations by all execs and a pep talk by some guru or a psychometric debrief or a team-building exercise. I usually start by asking: What does success for this offsite look like? Oftentimes the answer is connection, inspiration, trust or alignment with the goal to speed up strategy execution. I tend to gently insert that the best way to create inspiration, trust or alignment is not by presenting facts and figures but by engaging in dialogues and immersing people in thinking together with others.
There are a few questions I ask after that: What's in it for the participants? What's on people’s minds? How often have the strategic key messages been repeated? What about buy-in for growth ambitions, change fatigue, fear of lay-offs, organizational restructuring or acquisition plans? Answers to these questions are highly insightful to designing effective and inspiring offsites. Once the purpose, context, red flags and key messages for the offsite are clear, it is time to focus on the key principles when designing offsites. Let's take a look at them.
1. Beginnings are magic: Openings of the offsite need to create a clear and inspiring frame for the why, how and what of the offsite. The beginning sets the tone.
2. Morning hours of gold: Participants’ quality of attention is generally higher in the hours before lunch. Use those hours to present complex issues and data-heavy inputs.
3. Less is more and the power of storytelling: Crystallize facts and figures; in my experience, 20% of information creates 80% of perspective. Presenters need to tell stories.
4. Images say more than words: Presenters need to be aware of the power of visuals and design their messages with images.
5. Bring the customer in: Every organization needs customers. Bringing direct customer feedback into offsite agendas is a powerful instrument to keep customer focus high.
6. Variety in technologies: The brain needs variety to stay attentive: different presenters, phrasing, visuals and the use of interactive technology can help ensure people stay engaged.
7. Dialogue is digestion time: After data-intense presentations, participants should engage in dialogues to digest what they heard. Breakouts can be facilitated or self-guided.
8. Recency bias: The closure of the offsite influences what people take with them and what they will do differently after the offsite. Prepare key messages and asks.
Depending on the desired impact and resources available for impactful offsites, the possibilities are endless. I have experienced that even with very limited resources offsites can become more inspiring and activating if offsite designers and key organizational leaders are willing to crystallize, align and engage people in dialogues.
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