How to Plan A Fruitful Team Retreat
Team retreats may sound like fluff and fun, but they’re actually vital to functioning well both internally and externally.
Teams that are aligned and connected are much more likely not only to be fulfilling workplaces, but also profitable workplaces.
While there are lots of ways to have an enriching and restful yet productive day for your team, below are some of the things we consider that have worked well for us in years past. Your organization may need adjustments based on size, location, budget, etc. We suggest starting out by thinking about what you want to get out of the time together and how much time you can commit to gathering. Is it a half day? Full day? Two half days in a row or spread across the month? Once you have your why and time frame, you can get to planning!
Our Why
Our reason for gathering is outlined in detail here, but in summary, it’s this: to pause our normal daily operations and reflect, reset, and refuel for the year ahead as a team.
Time
We block a full day—from 9AM to 3:30PM—and include a coffee/breakfast and catered lunch, all on-site, so we can maximize our time together and not worry about those logistics during the day.
Where
We’ve hosted retreats at our own offices before in the past, and while this worked fine, we’ve switched to gathering off-site at a facility with inspiring, fresh surroundings to make things feel a little more special and fun. We find that getting out of our normal environment and sitting at tables in a circle rather than at our desks or in conference rooms helps shift our thinking and get us just enough out of our comfort zones to think a little differently! We’ve really enjoyed the setting and hospitality at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum the past two years.
What We Discuss
Our discussion topics are a result of collaborating with our facilitator, who has been the incredible Julie Laperouse of Screaming Peacock, the last two years. Julie is an executive coach, author, and speaker who took our requests and team dynamics and turned them into a day of team-building and business-assessing workshops.
We talked about where we see ourselves in our current personal lives—caring for aging parents, welcoming our first child, saving for a home, navigating challenging family dynamics—as well as what we’re missing that our competitors might be doing.
We like to focus on connecting as team members but also collaborating on how to keep innovating and growing the business we all work in, because we believe both influence each other.
Giving back to our community is also important to us, so Julie uses her local connections each year to help plan a charitable event for the day of our gathering. This year, we toured the Baton Rouge Food Bank and donated items we collected during team scavenger hunts. It was a fun friendly competition that ended with a beautiful cause.
Other Details
While we have our whole team in town, we also like to squeeze in a nice meal together. The night before our retreat, we went out to dinner to kick things off, which we found to be better than doing dinner after a full day of meeting together. This way, everyone is free to leave and enjoy their weekends after a day of scheming and planning!
Questions? If you’re interested in starting a similar tradition in your organization, or even personally, send us a message. We’d be glad to help you kick off the planning and give you some ideas!