Running a leadership offsite that ends with decisions

Most leadership offsites end with a long list of ideas and a good dinner. Two weeks later, little has changed. The offsites that work are planned around decisions, not discussions.

Agree the questions before you book the venue

Choose three to five questions the team needs to answer. Each one should end in a decision: yes or no, this option or that one, this budget or less. Send them out three weeks ahead with the facts each question needs.

Leave out anything that can be settled by email or in a normal weekly meeting. Time away together is expensive, and it should go to the questions that need the whole team in one room.

One agenda, two days

• Day one, morning: where the business stands, in numbers everyone agreed in advance.

• Day one, afternoon: the first two questions, an hour of debate each and a decision before the break.

• Day two, morning: the remaining questions.

• Day two, afternoon: owners, dates and what each decision means for the next quarter.

Bring someone to run the room

When the chief executive chairs the discussion, people wait to hear what they think. A facilitator from outside the team keeps time, makes sure every voice is heard and calls the moment a decision has been made.

Agree before you start how decisions get made. Most teams work well with a simple rule: everyone argues their view, the chief executive decides, and nobody reopens the question after the offsite.

Close the loop within a week

Send a one-page summary within two days: each decision, its owner and its first deadline. Put the first check-in in the calendar before anyone leaves the room.

Thirty days later, go through the list together. Mark what is done, what is late and what has changed. The second offsite is much easier to run when everyone has seen the first one lead somewhere.