1. Use your offsite retreat to ask fundamental questions. 

Questions such as: what has changed in the internal and external environment since last we met? One trend right now is the need to focus on better managing risk. Covid unearthed a whole new dimension of risk that requires greater understanding and maybe even a redefinition of how you manage risk.

One trend I’m seeing right now is the need to focus on better managing risk. Covid unearthed a whole new dimension of risk that requires greater understanding and maybe even a redefinition of how you manage risk.

Leaders are looking for ways to mitigate the external and competitive risks their companies face. Yet they know that simply avoiding risk and “playing it safe” is not the solution in a hyper-competitive global environment, but can be the road to ruin. Instead, they seek to simultaneously identify new opportunities and better manage the risks their organizations need to take to find the future first.

Pose questions such as: How well did we do in responding to the Covid crisis? And how has the Pandemic changed our culture? How have our customers needs evolved? What’s important now? Just figuring out the right questions to pose at the meeting is helpful in promoting forward thinking.

2. Use your retreat to “future proof” your organization.

“Future-proofing” is the process of avoiding technological, competitive and strategic blindsides. Use the meeting to conduct a debrief on how well or how poorly your organization adjusted to Covid’s technology and new customer demands, and discuss what ways your “Early Warning System” might be revamped for the fire next time.

3. Use the leadership retreat to think about the digital future.

No strategic plan is complete without a visionary technology component. Spark fresh thinking in this realm by posing such questions as: On balance, are we leading or lagging on technology? Where do we need to enhance or transform our technology strategy going forward? What customer problems do we need to take on? And how will this technology, if we adopt it, deliver greater value to our customers?

4. Use your offsite meeting to assault industry and company assumptions.

Retreats become transformational when executives and managers are provided with a process to wonder anew about the assumptions the organization has long made about customers, markets, culture, the industry, etc. Assumptions act like barnacles on the side of a boat– they slow us down, or worse, cause us to miss out on emerging opportunities. In a time when today’s business model has a shorter and shorter shelf life, assaulting assumptions is a critical and ongoing necessity to strategic thinking.

5. Use the offsite gathering to focus on innovation execution.

My 30-year experience in the field of strategic foresight and innovation suggests that management teams often lack confidence that they can execute on bold ideas and are delighted when provided with a process that enables superior innovation capability. Many in the managerial ranks got there by being super-competent in their functional arenas. But they quietly see themselves as “fish out of water” when it comes to imagination, innovation, and vision.  A well-designed strategic offsite builds executive team confidence.

6. Use the retreat to focus on white space opportunities.

If the rate of change outside your organization is faster than the rate of innovation inside your company, it’s time to take action. It’s time to figure out what needs accelerating. It’s time to shift from strategic planning (on an annual basis) to strategic thinking, which is ongoing, and needs to be part of the DNA. So-called “white space” opportunities are often assumed to be outside your organization’s walls, and outside its capabilities. But another way of defining them is to see them as those that fall between divisions, where no business unit has clear jurisdiction. Use your retreat to open up the white space of new possibilities, to identify new markets, and new revenue streams from existing capabilities.