1. Know your goals
1.1 First, the formulation of goals, then further steps. What aspects of communication do you want to improve? What metrics and indicators do you plan to influence? Be precise and concise in your formulations, break a large goal into small ones.
1.2 Try to assess reality, the current position of the team, its key goals and pain points as objectively as possible. Prioritize, highlight the most important and less important.
2. Involve your team
2.1 After the prioritization described in the previous paragraph of the article, discuss the team’s vision: find out how the team sees the situation and what they would like to get from the retreat.
2.2 Emphasize the importance of the retreat and your desire to make it as useful, interesting and wonderful as possible.
2.3 Involve participants as much as possible in the process of preparing for the retreat: the synergistic effect produces remarkable results. Moreover, this can significantly increases the team’s interest and anticipation of the retreat.
3. Choose the right format
3.1 Choose the retreat format based on your vision and the opinions of your team. Don't forget about your capabilities and resources.
3.2 Please remember that most often it is not what program is planned that plays a key role, but how it is ultimately implemented. Please adequately assess your strengths when organizing a retreat - your task is to correctly set expectations and exceed them.
4. Mix it up
4.1 The retreat is about creativity. There is no perfect recipe - experiment, try, act!
4.2 Choose the optimal date, time and duration of the retreat.
4.3 Be sincere, do your best. Create a festive atmosphere; create warmth and joy. Make sure participants feel comfortable taking part. Don't do retreats for the sake of retreats - an event that is not organized from the heart will receive the same response.
5. Follow up
5.1 Successfully conducting a retreat opens a new stage of the process - tracking its results.
5.2 Constantly measure the effectiveness of your team building activities and the value they bring to the team. Only through experimentation and research can you create the optimal system of team building activities for your team, in particular retreats.
5.3 Collect feedback from team members on how the past retreat helps them in their current work.
Key points
1. Retreats are a popular team building tool. Despite the apparent ease, it is important to treat its organization and implementation with great attention.
2. Don't do retreats for the sake of doing retreats, be genuine and do your best to make the team feel you care and that the atmosphere is amazing.
3. Please remember: the first retreat is the beginning of a long journey. How you conduct your first retreat often influences subsequent ones.
Good luck!