Retreats that Work, Expanded Edition: Everything You Need to Know About Planning and Leading Great Offsites

Citation

Trygstad, K. (2007), "Retreats that Work, Expanded Edition: Everything You Need to Know About Planning and Leading Great Offsites", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 460-462. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810710740245

Most change management efforts involve a retreat, even when the change agents or consultants have not thought about it initially. Retreats, whether conducted in a fancy hotel or a remote wilderness lodge, entail reflection or some form of thinking about thinking. Leaders may raise questions about strategy for the organization or the direction or pace of the change effort underway. Irrespective of the goals or the level of intervention, facilitating retreats is a special form of facilitation because of the high stakes involved with the client resource investment and the high expectations for results. It is further complicated by client and participant hopes sometimes differing widely. Retreats that Work focuses on results and on methods of orchestrating the many elements of retreats, offering discussion and advice that is as purposeful as we are told a facilitator must be throughout the entire process of contracting, planning and leading the retreat, to the final report. When well orchestrated, all pieces build to a great offsite and great client results. Participants will have experienced the joy of generating ideas, will have faced tough decisions and created a plan for action that should yield results in the workplace. Several chapters address specific types of retreats; advice and activities in those can be applicable to other sorts of retreats as well.

Liteman, Campbell and Liteman bring us many illustrative stories of what can go very well and what can go wrong in leading retreats. They offer advice, some as clear as warning us not to undertake a retreat if a retreat is not appropriate, and they provide the guidelines – nine reasons to hold a retreat and ten reasons not to hold a retreat. Other advice brings fundamentals into the open in the order in which the facilitator needs to apply them. The planning stage is essential: secure commitments from the client about openness and intentions, ask for desired outcomes and align yourself with those, negotiate for the flexibility to custom design the retreat and for the flexibility to make mid‐course corrections as issues arise. They summarize their acquired wisdom in a checklist for partnering with the client. They discuss the other stages of retreats just as skillfully and in order, concluding the first section with closing the retreat and working on implementation. In the second section of the book the authors provide materials for the client including how to work with the facilitator. A third element is a compact disc tucked into a pocket at the back containing materials the reader may share with clients: the small handbook of advice for the client and a number of handouts and templates that are part of the participant activities described in the book.

The goal of a retreat is for the participants to create something together, whether it is a new way of behaving together, a strategic plan or an innovation. They come together in a retreat because it is more conducive than the workplace to the awareness and conversations that are the beginning of group creation. The facilitator sets the conditions for these experiences and makes them richer with activities that open individuals to levels in themselves that are not tapped day to day at work, allowing them to contribute depth to the effort. As these individual resources come together they spark creative ideas for the organization. Retreats that Work is a fine resource of activities presented as a richly varied smorgasbord for facilitators. When it would be useful, templates and handouts for them are included on the enclosed CD. Taken together, the activities address many components of building toward results as well as addressing a broad range of personal characteristics and group dynamics. They use silence and reflection as well as highly energetic activity. The authors rightly believe that people are most productive when they use their emotional and artistic selves as well as intellectual selves. They use their physical selves in moving around and changing the immediate setting, and also in a few exercises. All activities are written clearly and many have an additional anecdotal experience in using it with a particular group. Activities usually come with a special section of “facilitator notes,” which are always worthwhile cautions to consider. They often come with call‐out boxes for “experiential elements” and “set‐up.” One sample activity that I have used with much success asks small groups to make collages that represent a particular idea or goal. Another sample and one of the many delightful activities that are new to me is an “obstacle buster” (one of three) that involves balloons representing identified obstacles, batted about then burst, and subgroups discussing the resources available to them to overcome the obstacles. The authors also offer models that help participants analyze components or opportunities of the particular discussion point.

The idea of retreating, of pulling back from the hectic daily work world in order to regroup has enormous appeal in a world that is moving very fast. In retreating with the very people who share your hamster wheel, however, there may well be suppressed thoughts and feelings in the group that now have the space to get to the surface. As the facilitator sets the conditions for generating possibilities and commitments, the facilitator also sets the conditions for the container of the retreat site to be a safe place rather than an explosives factory, a safe place where differences can come forth and be examined productively and the energies that power some emotions can be used generatively. The authors counsel facilitators to begin the work of creating this space in the early meetings with the client. They entreat us to be well informed about the client, the people and the dynamics before we begin our design. Interview the client thoroughly and negotiate to interview all participants. Additionally, negotiate for the flexibility during the retreat in order to make adjustments to the flow of the retreat according to the discoveries that occur.

Creating and maintaining the safe space of the container occurs in the retreat itself. The skilled facilitator will have planned activities to appeal to the several strengths, personality types and motivational states that he/she expects to show up, at the same time building to the desired results. And then, as anticipated and unanticipated behaviors occur, the facilitator will judge when to let the group handle things and when to step in and manage the situation preserving everyone's dignity. When to intervene is a section of this book, as well as how to handle a variety of ways in which things can go wrong. The authors provide many notes to facilitators on the potential for difficulties and alerts for special care in some situations. The facilitator's skills come into the spotlight when there are clashes or hostility in the group, when someone really disrupts the discussion, when a few members dominate the discussion, and when the offender of the norms established for the retreat is a senior manager. The advice here is brief and to the point.

How willing participants are to participate in the work and how well goals are served depend on the dynamics of the organization and also on the facilitator's skill in planning and in action. As well as specialized retreat skills, this book covers facilitator skills that are common to most group learning situations:: knowing what interactions and outcomes can be gained from specific activities, allowing for a variety of personal styles, and maintaining the energy and interest of the group. In leading the planned retreat, the facilitator must be constantly mindful of his/her role, what it is and what it is not. Self awareness is an essential quality for good facilitation. The reader finds page after page describing intentional behaviors for setting up situations for the participants and for reading and responding to participant behaviors, encouraging participation, knowing when and how to intervene, giving feedback, dealing with diverse cultures and norms in the group, recording the work, and monitoring the group's energy. For a quick synopsis, one page is a call‐out box of “Best and worst facilitator practices.”

The authors acknowledge throughout their sources of inspiration and learning in the literature. There are occasional call‐out boxes suggesting a particular book as valuable to the discussion at hand. There is an extensive list of recommended resources at the end categorized by Appreciative inquiry, Assessments, Case studies, Contracting with your client, Creative thinking, Diversity, Dividing people into groups, Facilitation, Flip chart preparation, Specialized retreat formats, Strategy, Teamwork and team building, and Varying methodologies.

The authors refer many times to the facilitator's skill. I suggest they are also describing the art of facilitation with this guide. It is an orchestration of great complexity with the piece not written until the retreat concludes. They remind us that “the word facilitation comes from the Latin root facilis, which means easy.” The work of the facilitator is to make the work of the clients easy. The work of the facilitator is not easy. It is exhausting work, worthwhile work and ultimately satisfying work. Using this book, however, is not exhausting work, because the authors have made it easy to use and they have set enough guideposts along the way to make the job of facilitating retreats an easier one. It is a worthwhile book and a very satisfying one. Retreats that Work is a fundamental reference for facilitators. Its value begins with the first chapter's cautionary advice that retreats are not always appropriate in which the authors point out specific limitations of the approach. Its value continues with positive guidance. Once an informed decision is made to hold a retreat, the authors want us to know how to design and deliver one most effectively. I believe the book easily accomplishes that goal.