strategic planning retreat manual

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How to Lead a Strategic Planning Retreat

There is no substitute for getting your team (and your whole organization) working toward the same goals. A strategic planning retreat can pull everyone’s heads out of the office, so you can look at the bigger picture together.

We have learned some important lessons that make the difference between success and failure in strategic planning efforts. If you’ve already decided that you want to lead your own retreat (instead of bringing in an expert facilitator), you can increase your odds of success by paying attention to these keys.

#1: Measure your Mountain

When I lived in Africa, a massive and beautiful plateau rose 3,500 feet above us just a few miles from our home. Since I was in fairly good shape from running and riding my bike, I didn’t really need any preparation to hike up to the top. But when a friend challenged me to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with him (19,341 feet!), I knew it would take a lot of work to get ready.

Before your strategic planning retreat, you need to measure your mountain to understand what you are trying to accomplish. Do you want to come out with a full 3-5 year Strategic Plan? A more limited Annual Plan? Or just a review and refresh of a plan you already have? Once you decide, make sure to set expectations by letting your team know exactly what you want to get done on the retreat.

Keep in mind: the bigger your mountain, the more work you need to do in advance.

#2: Assemble the right questions

A common pitfall in strategic planning is not digging deep enough to uncover the real issues. If you ask superficial questions, you will end up producing a plan that looks remarkably like what you are already doing but with bigger numbers. If you want to get past that, you’ve got to ask the right questions.

The right questions are not only difficult to answer, they can be difficult to think of. Here are a few to get you started:

#3: Share responsibility for preparation with your team

Sharing responsibility is not just good leadership, it’s also smart. Let people choose areas of ownership (or make assignments). They will accomplish more preparation than you could alone, and they will be more invested in the process. That’s two big wins for you.

What areas does your team need to prepare in advance?

• Logistics. This includes arranging the venue, meals and snacks, materials on site (projector, easel charts or whiteboards, and markers), calendar invitations, and reminders.
• Research . Someone needs to collect relevant information like recent financial reports, any available market information, and the last set of written plans or goals that you have.
• Employee survey results. Don’t take the risk of having your wonderful new plan blown off by your employees because you didn’t consult them. A simple survey can give you a feel for what employees are seeing and raise issues for discussion at the strategic planning retreat.
• Agenda and schedule. You need an agenda to follow that will guide your discussion at the retreat. A schedule and a dedicated timekeeper help you stay on task and make progress. If your team knows what is on the agenda, they can prepare to discuss items in their own areas.

#4: Stay in your role

Since you have chosen to facilitate the retreat, your team needs you to stay in that role. Here is what happens when you don’t have good facilitation:

• The group gets sidetracked and chases rabbits
• Discussions go long and do not conclude with specific actions or decisions
• Quiet people watch and don’t give their input
• Loud people talk too much and dominate

Committing to the facilitator role is difficult for most CEOs or owners/presidents. You can facilitate, or you can participate, but you can’t do both at the same time. The facilitator doesn’t answer questions—he or she asks them and follows up with more questions to get the team to really think.

Once you start championing an idea, you have become a participant, and it’s hard (or impossible) to facilitate discussion of the alternatives. If you switch roles mid-retreat, your team may get confused or disengage.

“You can facilitate, or you can participate, but you can’t do both.”

A strategic planning retreat could be just what your team needs to create alignment and break through obstacles.

Have questions?     Reach out and talk to us about how you can plan and lead a successful strategic planning retreat for your team.

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Written by Phillip Shero

View all posts by: Phillip Shero

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Making the Most of Your Planning Retreat

For some, the word “retreat” is a dirty word. It too often means a day (or more) spent in a windowless room engaged in conversations and discussions that rarely seem to do much to advance the organization. Even the word “retreat” suggests going backward instead of forward. Should it surprise us then that nonprofit board members recoil at the very mention of a “planning retreat?”

When it comes to strategic planning, however, a retreat can be an invaluable tool that can actually speed the planning process. Think about it this way: a good strategic planning process should engage the board (and often the staff) in grappling with some important and/or thorny issues. The board needs time to explore these issues and discuss them fully, and it is unlikely your regularly scheduled board meetings provide the time needed for this.

So, rather than have these important discussions in piecemeal over several meetings, or leave them to committees, consider carving out some time—unhurried and unencumbered by the regular business of the board—to “retreat” into a planning mode. Structured right, and well-facilitated, you just might find that the board retreat is where the board is at its most productive.

In our work with our clients, there is sure to be a retreat (or an “extended planning meeting”) at some point along the way. Our experience informs the recommendations that follow:

• Many boards maintain the practice of having an “annual retreat.” As the date approaches they struggle to figure out what to do with the time. If you have to figure out why you are having the retreat, don’t have it. Don’t waste your board members’ time.
• Plan the agenda carefully to maximize the time. Before you schedule the retreat, determine what it is that you really need to accomplish. If you could do the same thing in a regularly scheduled meeting or by sending it to the board in writing, don’t do it. Use the time to deal with BIG issues—with strategic questions—that truly need time and careful thought.
• Don’t underestimate the value of this opportunity for board members to get to know each other in a different setting. I’m not suggesting you spend lots of time on icebreaker exercises, however. I’m suggesting you find ways to help board members get to know each other at a deeper level and, ideally, advance the agenda too.
• While our experience suggests a 5-6 hour block of uninterrupted time works well for most retreats, we’ve also worked with organizations where the retreat was chopped-up into separate sessions on different days. In a few cases, we’ve had groups that have met on two successive evenings for 3-4 hours each. In another case, we worked with a group that separated their sessions by a few weeks, purposefully, so they could take ideas from the first session, explore them further, and then pick-up the work at the second meeting. These approaches aren’t ideal in maintaining continuity and cohesiveness, but they can work.
• It’s hard to facilitate and manage a meeting and also actively participate in it. Consider the potential value of paying a professional facilitator to help you develop your agenda and manage a meeting that helps you achieve your desired outcomes. A good facilitator can help to manage the time, ask (and ask again) the tough questions, and ensure participation by all the participants.
• Keep in mind that while a retreat is often a part of a strategic planning process, it should not be the process. We see a lot of “annual planning retreats” as just that—a once a year occasion to create the annual work-plan. These sessions are helpful but rarely strategic. You should anticipate that a planning retreat will be an aspect of almost any strategic planning process, but it will be just one part of a multi-step process.

In our experience, it is not unusual to find that board members can’t remember what happened at the last board meeting, but they can often recall quite distinctly what happened at the retreat that took place many months ago. The retreat offers an opportunity for some truly meaningful discussion and for important decisions that can shape the direction of the organization. Board members appreciate these opportunities.

Plan your retreat well, maximize the time together, and focus on the BIG issues, and you’ll find that retreats can be essential tools to advancing the work of your board and your organization.

You’ll find more strategic planning advice, like this post written by Starboard’s Jeff Wahlstrom, on our website: www.starboardleadership.com . If you would like to talk with a member of our consulting team about your strategic planning process or facilitating your upcoming retreat, use our contact form to begin the conversation.

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How to Run an Effective Strategic Planning Retreat

Posted On: May 27

Business Excellence , John's Rants , Strategy

A very close friend asked me to facilitate his organization’s upcoming strategic planning retreat, but unfortunately the days he needed were already booked for another client. The next best thing I could offer was some advice. I have probably facilitated 80 or 90 retreats in the last 20 years, from non-profits to the Fortune 50 – here is how I typically approach a planning retreat…

1. The best place to start is at the end, or as Mr. Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.” So step one is to create a very specific description of exactly what you want as the deliverables from the event. What would a perfect outcome look like?  How will it be measured? If you can figure out specifically what you want the retreat to achieve, it is pretty easy to go backwards from the finish line and build a program to reach it successfully.

2. Use an outside facilitator, someone with superb experience in running many, many similar retreats. There are two main reasons to use a facilitator; Process and People. Any truly qualified facilitator will have a proven process they had used for years to get teams successfully to the desired outcome. It really does not make too much of a difference what process they use, so long as it is intuitive, easy and effective. The other main reason for a facilitator is people, or better said: egos.  You need someone who is NOT from the organization that can step in and take control if things get off track, someone who is not afraid of the political ramifications of telling the boss to be quiet! An outside facilitator is perfect to play the part of “process weenie” in shutting down tangents and pushing back on overbearing individuals. If someone from inside the organization tries to run the retreat, it can often be a “career ending” performance.

3. Decide whether this is a “ strategic planning ” retreat or a “ planning ” retreat. In other words, are the people there actually going to take part in setting the strategy, or are they simply there to figure out how to implement someone else’s already developed strategy? I have seen a lot of retreats go up in flames when the participants thought they were going to be able to have real impact and influence on building the strategy, only to find out it had already been set in stone and their only role was developing a work plan.

4. Is the team ready to have this kind of high-level retreat? Do they have the level of trust and professional respect necessary to have the sort of open, honest and robust discussion critical in developing a truly effective strategic plan? If people do not feel extremely comfortable sharing opposing opinions, fighting for unpopular positions and challenging the status quo – you will never be able to have the intellectually rigorous debate needed to arrive at a superior strategic plan.

5. Try to get as much done before the retreat as possible. Typically I do three key things a few weeks before the retreat.

A) I deploy an internet-based “Organizational Effectiveness Audit” to every person who will be involved in the retreat.  This is a brief, confidential survey to gauge the level of trust, openness, and respect within the team. If the scores from this audit are not high enough, I will recommend replacing the first day of the retreat with a High-Performance Teams workshop in order to get the group ready for the rest of the work.

B) I ask everyone to carefully review the current Vision/Mission (if they have one) and to come prepared with any specific comments and suggestions — ONLY if they feel very strongly that changes need to be made. Opening up the vision and mission to general discuss is usually opening up a can of worms you’ll never get shut again. The way I look at it, the vision and mission are sort of like a tattoo. They are supposed to be pretty permanent and are very painful to change, so you need to be certain you’re not happy with what you have before you undergo the effort of working on it.

C) I ask people to do a fair amount of SWOT work before they arrive. I give them a number of key questions under Internal Strengths / Internal Weaknesses and External Threats / External Opportunities and ask them to fill in the answers to the best of their ability. The key here is that the answers MUST be in the form of a statement of “fact.”  Things they either know or don’t know. No guessing, no estimating, no assumptions – we need to deal with facts. This is usually pretty hard on the teams, because they have so many “unknowns” – but at least when we discover what we “do not know” – we now know we need to go find those facts!

6. Once we get to the retreat, it should be a very brief discussion to quickly determine if the vision/mission is still relevant and on target. (If not, I try to work fast to get consensus on appropriate changes.) With everyone on board for the vision/mission, the next step is to break people into teams to do the full SWOT analysis. I like to try to keep the teams small enough so that no one can hide and not participate, four to eight people is just about right. I also want each team to have representatives from different parts of the organization, not all from the same department or managerial level – diversity is important here in order to get several different views and opinions. I will typically give them about three hours to share all of the SWOT homework they did before the session and develop lots of new SWOT issues as a team. (Again, everything must be written as a “factor,” a clear and specific statement of fact).

*** Side Note: I do not let the teams talk to each other once they start the SWOT process. I want them to work completely independently because I am interested in seeing how strongly the different teams are correlated on what they feel are the best strategies. In consulting terms this is called MECE (Mutually Exclusive – Comprehensively Exhaustive). If all of the teams come back and say pretty much the same things, then I have a high confidence level that a bunch of smart people looked at a lot of data and came to a general consensus on the appropriate course of action — and I know that it did not happen through “group think” because the teams did not cross-pollinate! If all the teams come back and present wildly different strategies, I know I have a problem. And, if the teams come back with about an 80% overlap? Well, that is where the facilitator earns their fee, by working to mesh and mold the various ideas into a single coherent and agreed-upon strategy.

7. Once I feel comfortable that we have pretty much exhausted the SWOT analysis, I will ask the teams to go back and take all of their SWOT factors and prioritize them.

– An “ A ” priority factor is one that requires immediate attention. It is a critical issue and demands action.

– “ B ” factors are important but require no action right now. They might need action in a month or two, or we might have to address some “A” factors before we can take any action on one of the “B” factors.

– The “ C ” Factors are important, but there is nothing we can specifically do to impact them. These might be economic, political, or regulatory factors that we need to watch carefully and possibly respond to, but there is nothing per-se that the organization can do to influence or control this particular factor.

8. When the factoring process is complete, the teams sit back and look for patterns in their factors. Where do they seem to group together? Do we have a high number of “A” and “B” factors around say… customer focus or funding, or marketing? The goal here is to look for the three or four major areas that all of the critical A & B factors seem to be falling into. These then will become your Strategic Objectives (Strategic Thrusts, Major Objectives, Key Result Areas, Strategic Priorities…whatever name your organization likes.)

*** Side Note : you notice I said three or four Strategic Objectives. Okay, maybe you could stretch it to five – but you cannot have 23 Strategic Objectives! Not even 15, 12 or 10. The key to an effective strategy is FOCUS. You must get it down to the few truly critical priorities and then most importantly… figure out what to say “NO” to.

9. In most retreats, this is about as far as you can get, with possibly a little discussion about the tactical implementation of the strategies. This leads me to two VERY important issues.  The first is that the diverse teams we created to develop the strategies are not good for deciding on tactical implementation issues. Those plans should be developed by the people who will be held responsible for actually doing the implementation. I try to let the people who do the work every day figure out the best way to do it in the future. Yes, we give them some ideas and input, but ultimately they need to decide on the best way forward for the projects that they have the most expertise on and will be held accountable for successfully completing. The other key issue is that a strategic plan is NOT complete until you have also developed a “Strategic Execution Plan.”  So at this point, I usually complete the retreat and send the project teams off to work on their specific implementation plans.

10. Perhaps several weeks later, after a number of rounds of sharing and editing the strategic, tactical, and execution plan rough drafts, the entire planning team gets back together to look at the final document. Here is where they hash out the last details and work to create a document that everyone feels good about and is willing to commit to. Often times, when I feel the entire group is pretty much there, I will have everyone stand up. I then say, “If you are very happy with this document, this vision, these key strategies and the tactical and implementation plans to support it — and you are 100% committed to executing this plan and being held accountable for what is in it… please take a seat.” For anyone left standing, we discuss their issues until one of three things happens: they change their mind and freely sit down — they convince everyone else to make a change in the plan because of their input and then sit down- or they refuse to commit to the plan, which usually means they leave the organization (this does not happen very often – but it does happen!).

At this point the plan is finally complete and here is what you have accomplished:

• You have given everyone a say in the outcome, a chance to fully participate in crafting the key strategies to move the organization forward. This is critical for obtaining buy-in. If they helped build it – they own it.
• You have endured a thorough and exhaustive process to ensure the best possible ideas and suggestions went into the plan – and that the plan did not get hijacked in a group-think session.
• You have prioritized the key strategies to allow for the proper allocation of resources, people, funds, and time – by figuring out what to focus on and where you must say “no.”
• The people who will be responsible for actually implementing the plan have played an integral part in developing the specific tactical plan for effectively executing the strategic plan.
• You have gained consensus and commitment to accountability in a very public and powerful way.

Now comes the REALLY hard work…the 100% disciplined execution of the plan for the next ten months or so before it is time to start the process over again! (To see my article on Effective Execution click HERE )

Hope that helped a little – let me know if you have any questions or comments — John

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These are all good points – very well done! I thought that I might add that, in my consulting experience with “Strategic Execution Plans,” (love that terminology) I’ve personally found documents to be a poor way to enhance execution of strategic plans – they get forgotten about, lost, or quickly become obsolete when new ideas or challenges emerge, in my experience.

This has lead me to believe that Strategic Execution Plans must be online – with mechanisms of having people “interact” with the plan on a regular basis (at least 2 times per month). I think the plan must be structured in a way that: (1) allows people to regularly be reminded about their part in making the plan a reality – and be rewarded for doing so (2) allows for obsolete portions of the plan to quickly be “pruned” when necessary and (3) provides a quick mechanism of building solutions to problems into the plan “on the fly.”

Hope these thought are helpful to the conversation – thanks for your good work, John!

John – a wonderful summary of some true wisdom. We’ll be sure to read this before our next retreat. We’re considering our next one soon and the topic of venue came up. I wonder if you could share your perspective regarding on-site/off-site venues? Have most retreats you’ve worked on been one day affairs?

Loved Brian’s suggestion on recording elements online as well. We use an online “whiteboard” to track strategic topics – as well as weekly operational agendas. Having a short, scheduled discussion to review the more strategic whiteboards periodically might reduce the impact of sudden shifts that might occur as part of a yearly retreat outcome.

many thanks for your contribution.

Skip — I am a 100% fan of off-site retreats. I have seen so many planning sessions get completely derailed when they are held on-site — and people keep coming in a grabbing people for emergencies and phone calls and client issues… if you are serious about getting real work done – it needs to be off-site. Next question — luxury or isolation? Some people take their team to a lodge way out in the woods to keep them focused — others have retreats at fancy hotels so they can play golf on the last day. Either can work fine — as long as the group is very disciplined and understands that they are there for a planning retreat — not a vacation! Typically most of the retreats I have done start at 10 AM on a the first day — run all afternoon up to dinner — with significant homework assigned. Then an early start at 8 AM on the second day — go until about 4 PM – then let people go home. If it is a very large company with a highly complex strategy — we might add on another day — but after that people’s brains are mush and you won’t get any more value out of having them there. Better to send them off to work for a few weeks on what you developed — then come back together for a one-day review.

Hope that helps — let me know if you have any more questions — John

Thanks for your comment regarding “The Four Most Important Things I’ve Ever Learned”. I have been a “lurker” for quite a while. I didn’t post comments as I was new to the blogging world. I really appreciate all that you share – very helpful.

i really enjoyed your little article and they have been so helpful to me in making it easier for me to run my retreat effetively. God bless you so much.

Great Article. I am planning to start a full time ‘Corporate Retreat Business’ in Asia. I have been trained in Compression Planning in the US. Any pointers from anyone what steps I need to take?

John – I would be interested in knowing what some of the key questions you are asking the participants to answer re: Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities and Threats before they arrive for the off-site. Any suggestions??

Many thanks for this.

Mark, great question. Depending on the type of organization I add another five or six questions. Here are a few that I typically include:

If you are the CEO what would you be focused on in the next three years?

What do you think the staff of the organization needs to work on?

What you think the board of the organization needs to work on?

What is the one most important thing we need to accomplish during this planning session?

What do you believe are the three biggest trends impacting the organization over the next 3 to 5 years?

Again, I would talk to the CEO and key staff members to determine if there were additional questions I needed to add, but I try to keep it at 12 questions or less. I hope you found this helpful – take good care – John

Thanks for putting these ideas together in one spot; your generosity is appreciated. I’ve been looking at Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart & Church for ideas on facilitating group planning and learning sessions, and it compliments what you have suggested here. I’ve facilitated many workshops over the years, but this weekend will have the chance to work with a Search and Rescue organization as they develop their Strategic Plan. I will follow much of your advice — thanks again.

Thank you John. This is a rich write-up.

I worked with one of the big 4’s…facilitated a few strategy sessions as a consultant and currently lead the strategy unit of a growing firm. I’m truly excited with all the experience and pointers you shared because they provide better clarity on how to conduct my next strategy session.

I also agree that buy-in is an important benefit of conducting a strategy session and this should never be confused with a simple communication, review and documentation exercise.

Your pre-strategy primers (questionnaires) and use of SWOT also re-enforces my opinions as follows: – Strategy sessions need not be a confounding workshop of complicated frameworks – Best fit approach must be considered based on business size/maturity, practical realities, audience profile etc. – Understanding limits and realities (e.g. using SWOT) helps to keep a strategy practical while leaving leaving enough room for innovation

Thanks again John – your article is indeed priceless.

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How to organise a strategic planning retreat

Companies thrive when they’re guided by clear, mutually agreed-upon strategies. From experience, we know it can be difficult to fit high-level strategic planning around day-to-day activities. Enter, strategic planning retreats.

Strategic planning retreats bring company leaders and employees together to discuss core company themes, identify opportunities and develop a clear roadmap for the future. They allow employees from all levels to take a step back and think about the bigger picture - regaining purpose, clarity and structure to their workflow.

What is a strategic planning retreat?

A strategic planning retreat is an off-site event that gives decision-makers a chance to build new strategies and formulate plans for the future. It's a chance to bring together key members of the organisation and have comprehensive discussions on how to drive company growth and success.

Importantly, strategic planning retreats also aim to strengthen team dynamics while meeting a set of desired outcomes. This way, you’ll have a cohesive team equipped with the right tactics to benefit the organisation long-term.

How can a strategic planning retreat benefit your team?

1. it's an opportunity to evaluate success and direction.

During a strategic planning retreat, team members can take a break from their daily grind and redirect their focus toward the overall performance and direction of the team or company. They can evaluate how well they’re functioning as a unit, determine which areas they’re excelling, and identify areas for improvement.

It’s also a great opportunity to make sure everyone is aligned toward accomplishing individual and administrative goals.

2. Fostering team cohesion

Strategic retreats allow your team to get together in a relaxed and open environment to reconnect and ground themselves. It’s a chance for team members to loosen up and get to know each other beyond their Slack emojis.

Spending time together on a team offsite and engaging in unique, thoughtful team-building activities will undoubtedly strengthen bonds within the team - increasing mutual trust and ability to communicate openly.

3. Develop leadership skills

Strategic retreats are not just for improving team cohesion, they're designed to help team members become people leaders .

Through specific activities and training, individuals can improve their decision-making capabilities and develop their leadership skills - in an environment without consequences.

Things to consider when planning a strategic planning retreat

• Objective(s): Aside from fostering team cohesion and developing leadership skills, think of some team-specific objectives to get the most out of your retreat. This could include organisational matters, such as developing a new strategic plan and reviewing current company performance.
• Facilitator: Assign a facilitator to ensure that the retreat agenda is met and that all attendees can participate comfortably.
• Distance: An ideal distance for your retreat should be no longer than two hours away. Try to avoid tiring out team members on the journey before the retreat has even begun. More on this to follow.
• Accommodation: The accommodation for your offsite must enable a seamless offsite. We're talking about faultless wifi, lots of breakout areas and outdoor space for connecting organically with coworkers.
• Catering: Keeping it healthy and light is best to stop people feeling sluggish. Make sure veggie/vegan options are available, as well as the ability to cater for any allergies and intolerances.
• Team-bonding activities: ditch your escape rooms and engage in unique team-bonding activities such as foraging, cooking classes or intuitive painting.
• Mindful moments:
• Adding breathwork or meditation exercises can work wonders to focus the team before any major discussions.

Best practices for a strategic planning retreat

Pick a location that aligns with your goals.

Location, location, location. To make the most out of a strategic planning retreat, not just any venue will do — it must align with your aims and objectives for the offsite.

Wherever you decide to go, Basejam is a big believer in the value of nature-based retreats. The benefits of being outside are infinite, not least in helping gain mental clarity and shaking off the stresses of city life.

This doesn't mean a four-day, unplugged camping trip - but we know that prioritising connection to nature will pay off both personally and professionally on your retreat.

When searching for your site, start with baseline requirements like your headcount and required facilities. Then think about the kind of vibe you want to curate, and the features that will entail. Such as:

• Proximity to nature
• Unique activities
• Catering options

With Basejam you have access to a curated list of retreat-ready venues along with key, unique information about each one. You can filter your search results based on location, accommodation style, amenities, number of people, and even reason for retreat. This way you’re able to discover an ideal venue for your specific needs.

Retreat centre, nature reserve and regenerative farm stay in rural Somerset surrounded by forests →

Establish clear goals.

What do you want to achieve by the end of your strategic planning retreat? Be specific—a clear goal (or multiple) will give your team and offsite direction and purpose.

Be extremely clear about the goals you have for the occasion. Consider the ideal result and the criteria you will use to evaluate its success. When you have a clear objective in mind, work backwards to create a strategy that will get you there.

Identify who should participate

After defining the objectives and scope for your strategic planning retreat, it's time to identify who should attend the meeting and their roles throughout the event.

Include those who will lead and implement the strategy. Active engagement before, during, and after the meeting increases the likelihood of a successful retreat.

Employee participation is essential at every stage of the planning process, but strategic planning retreats often involve leadership and key decision-makers.

Set an agenda

Make an agenda that addresses all the critical problems identified in your pre-retreat evaluation. Make sure the agenda is open to unexpected debates or new topics. Consider holding break-out seminars to address departmental challenges.

The schedule should also include adequate time to discuss the tasks that emerged from the retreat. Set aside time to create a follow-up strategy to guarantee that the plans discussed during the retreat are effectively implemented.

If you need a helping hand, use this handy agenda-setting template to get started.

Design a structured process

Once you have a clear grasp of the objectives, scope and participants for your strategic planning retreat, it's time to develop a structured process. Plan with specific goals in mind, and decide who will lead each discussion.

While you may be eager to see results, keep in mind that hearing from all voices is critical. Aim for genuine participation from all those involved, and create a safe environment in which team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas. It's important to make sure no individual dominates the discourse.

Move from the macro to the micro (and then back to the purpose)

Begin your retreat by talking about the broad picture—external forces and your organisation's mission. After that, address your objectives and challenges.

Use cue cards to have a private talk about the challenges to increase participation. Solve these problems together.

Review goals and actions to ensure they are in line with the mission of your organisation. This method results in a productive and aligned retreat.

Use data-driven insights

When making strategic planning decisions, rely on facts and relevant insights.

To ensure a strong SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), conduct interviews and surveys wherever possible. This analysis will give the necessary context for strategic decisions.

Create and use pre-work templates after gathering enough feedback to ensure that all meeting participants begin with an idea of the present situation, difficulties, implications, and objectives. This baseline allows everyone to get started on the same page.

Encourage diverse perspectives

In both small and big group conversations, encourage everyone to speak up. When the loudest voice dominates the discourse, valuable viewpoints might be lost, resulting in bruised feelings and at worst, isolation and disengagement.

Allowing everyone to contribute allows you to realise your team's full potential. It results in a strategy plan that is not only visually appealing but also effective in attaining your objectives.

Prioritise actionable items

Make a targeted strategy plan by identifying essential initiatives and ranking them in terms of impact and feasibility. Keep objectives manageable to avoid being overwhelmed. To turn goals into actionable tasks, create a detailed action plan with specific phases, responsibilities, and dates.

Document everything

Keep complete notes of all retreat conversations, decisions, and action plans. These records will be useful references in the future. By documenting everything, you can quickly track progress, revisit ideas, and verify that the retreat's conclusions are applied properly over time.

Feeling ready for your strategic planning retreat?

By taking a break from your daily work routine and dedicating time to a strategic planning retreat, you can form stronger collaborations, well-defined strategies, and a clear roadmap to your business’ success.

Explore a curated list of inspiring company retreat venues with Basejam and start planning your transformational retreat.

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Strategic Planning Best Practices

Nuts and bolts of a strategic planning retreat.

In our fast-paced culture, it’s easy to fall into cruise control and do ministry as usual, year after year. In the Bible, we see Jesus ministering to people in their time and place. When we go through the same motions repeatedly without reflecting or revising, we risk ministering by our own strength and missing opportunities to join the Spirit in addressing present needs. Our triune God is creative and collaborative. In Scripture, Jesus often innovated and overturned the status quo to bring the kingdom near. One practice that has helped my team reflect the innovation and creativity of the Trinity is holding annual strategic retreats.

These retreats give us an opportunity to pause and reflect on key questions:

• Where are we?
• What do we have to work with?
• Where do we discern the Lord is leading us?
• How do we get there?

By taking this time to reflect, we can articulate specific goals, and outline the action steps and resources needed to achieve them. This intentional planning process often leads to a more effective direction than I would have developed on my own. It empowers team members by involving them in the decision-making process, fostering a sense of shared ownership and responsibility for the vision. As a result, the entire team is more invested and motivated to work towards our common goals, ensuring that our ministry remains dynamic and responsive to the needs of those we serve.

To guide your congregation in planning a strategic retreat, consider these best practices:

• Define Your Focus Group/Stakeholders : Begin by prayerfully considering who should be part of the retreat. While your leadership team is essential, including members beyond this core group can bring fresh perspectives. Think about who in your congregation or neighborhood has valuable insights or gifts and invite them to join. Their unique viewpoints can enrich the discussions and outcomes.
• Prepare the Team : Ensure that everyone invited understands the heart and purpose of the retreat. Provide them with any necessary materials or pre-reading to help them come prepared. Setting clear expectations will help everyone contribute meaningfully.
• Begin with Worship or a Devotional : Start with a centering practice such as worship or a devotional to align everyone’s hearts and minds with the purpose of the retreat.
• Incorporate Varied Formats : Include opportunities for small group discussions, movement, and other formats that spark creativity and dreaming. Different formats can help keep the energy high and ensure that everyone is engaged.
• Develop Norms Collectively : Establish clear norms and structures for your activities. This ensures that you stay on track and achieve the answers to your key questions.
• Debrief as a Large Group : Regularly reconvene as a large group to share insights from smaller discussions. This ensures that all voices and roles are heard and considered.
• Include Relational Spaces : Schedule time for relational activities, such as meals together or team-building exercises like axe throwing or an escape room. These activities strengthen team bonds and build trust.

The output of your retreat should be a comprehensive roadmap for the year. This plan should visually outline your goals and strategies, providing clear direction and a sense of purpose for your congregation.

By following these best practices, your strategic planning retreat can become a powerful tool for aligning your team, fostering innovation, and ensuring that your ministry is responsive to the needs of your neighborhood. Remember that as you embark on this strategic planning journey, you are not alone. It is the Spirit who empowers and equips your team for the good work the Father has prepared for you. With faith and unity, allow his guidance to lead you, knowing that he will enable you accomplish all that concerns you today.

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More Like this

When to host a strategic planning offsite retreat.

As many organizations start to ditch the idea of an annual offsite retreat in favor of more agile quarterly strategy refreshes, you might wonder when you need a more traditional strategic planning offsite retreat. Do you still need to hold one annually?

The short answer is no! If you’ve opted for a more agile approach for reviewing and refreshing your plan quarterly ( you can learn more about that here ), you really shouldn’t host the traditional annual planning retreat where you completely overhaul your strategic plan only once a year. Making incremental changes over the course of a year and as you need them is an approach we’d recommend instead.

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But there is still a time and place for an annual retreat. In this article, we’ll cover use cases when these planning sessions are useful, how you might consider hosting these sessions, and what you should cover.

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When Should You Host an Offsite?

Like we mentioned above, there are a few criteria that might compel your organization to host—and when not to host—a strategic planning retreat.

When to Host an Offsite

• You need a big strategic reset. Even if you’re managing and updating your plan quarterly, there may come a time when you need to reset your plan altogether. That’s ok! Use a retreat as the means to reset your strategy.
• You are reacting to major market shifts. Mitigating or capitalizing on major market shifts is an appropriate reason to conduct an offsite planning event.
• You need face time with your team to get re-aligned. Sometimes an offsite planning retreat is a good opportunity to have quality, in-person time with your team to get re-aligned on what will make an impact in your organization.

Tip – Host this retreat before you set your annual budget. Clarity about what you need to achieve with a new strategy may drive you to allocate your budget differently. Conversely, having a set budget for the year may restrain your opportunity and strategy exploration.

When to Avoid an Offsite

• Do not hold a retreat right before or after a significant shift. Major leadership and management changes, ownership changes, and mergers are high-stress events. Don’t add the stress of resetting your organization’s strategy until your organization is more settled and your team can think holistically and strategically about the future.
• You’ve always held an annual retreat. Please don’t host an annual retreat because that’s what you’ve always done! Annual planning is so last decade—we’d recommend a more agile approach to planning with quarterly reviews and refreshes that keep you and your team thinking strategically, all year long.

How to Hold the Retreat? Who Should Go?

The pandemic has changed the way we work. Traditionally, we would recommend a 2-day dedicated offsite retreat with your team. But many great digital collaboration tools are available to make holding virtual retreats as effective as the traditional strategic planning offsite. Here’s a quick breakdown of the two retreat options:

Offsite Retreat

• Hosted over 2 dedicated days.
• Best for teams that need to eliminate the day-to-day distractions to focus on planning.

Virtual Planning Retreat

• Series of 2-hour meetings over several weeks.
• Best for geographically disbursed teams.
• Leverages tools like Zoom and virtual whiteboards ( Miro or Mural ).
• Allows planning to be done in sessions and a-synchronously (yes, we mean homework and group projects, but those can create better outcomes).

Tip – No matter which retreat format you choose, prep, prep, prep! Do the work before your planning retreat to provide participants all the data and insights they’ll need to make informed decisions during the sessions. This can include financial performance and forecasts, market performance, external market data, objective data regarding your competition, and analysis on your customers.

Who Should Attend?

The short answer is that it really depends on your organization. We don’t advocate that every single person in your organization attends the planning retreat; use your discretion when it comes to attendees. Here are a few common profiles of planning session participants:

• Executive team
• Board members (or a representative few)
• Department directors (especially if exec team doesn’t have all the functional area expertise)
• Owners of special initiatives or programs you might cover during planning

Should We Hire a Strategic Planning Facilitator?

Our guidance on hiring a planning facilitator comes with two recommendations. The first is that whoever is facilitating the sessions cannot also participate in the conversation or contribute to the strategy. If you need to contribute, you probably should hire an outside facilitator.

Our second recommendation is that it’s ok to recognize when facilitating strategy is outside of your team’s skillset! Sometimes it’s nice to lean on an experienced facilitator to navigate challenging conversations or keep your team thinking strategically. You know how to run your business, a professional facilitator knows how to run a strategy session.

What Should You Cover?

At a high level, strategic planning retreats should cover these three questions:

Where Are We Now? (Strategy)

In your retreat, review your competitive market, how you’re performing, what’s working, and what isn’t. In planning terms, this is assessing the current state section of your strategy.

Where Are We Going? (Strategy)

You also need to envision what the future looks like, and how it impacts your organization and community.

How Are We Going to Get There? (Execution)

You should also cover how to put your plan to work, which includes creating strategic goals, objectives, key results, and the cadence in which you will review and refresh your strategy.

Need an Offsite Retreat?

Again, the decision is yours! But as we said before, if you’re just doing an offsite retreat because it’s something you’ve always done, we’d say skip it.

But if it can shift the trajectory of your organization and give your team a strategy they can follow, as well as review and refresh with consistency, go for it!

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On Purpose Leadership & Strategic Planning

The CEO’s Guide to Strategic Planning Retreats That Get Results: PART 2

This post is the second in a three-part series on how to hold a successful strategic planning retreat. it outlines how to get the most value from your time during your annual retreat., the other posts in this series discuss the key steps you must take before your strategic planning retreat and how to follow up to ensure your organization’s ongoing success., part ii: 6 ways to maximize your time during a strategic planning retreat..

You’ve likely attended an unproductive strategic planning retreat in the past. You had to leave the office – and maybe even your home – for a few days and travel to a remote destination that promised to make magic happen within your team. But when you got there your team talked about all the same things as last year and didn’t really accomplish anything, and your organization didn’t change for the better.

We feel your pain and, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Your strategic planning retreat should be an inspiring event where your team members work together to achieve great things for your organization. This requires a mix of creativity, collaboration and fun.

Here are six things a leader should do during a strategic planning retreat to inspire your team and align them around a shared vision:

Many leaders are competitive and high in dominance. While these qualities are what makes them powerful leaders, they can also get in the way when building a team game plan.

A leader’s strength of personality can overpower their team during meetings – often without their even knowing it. Controlling the conversation will cause your team to shut down. If you want to craft a strong strategic plan, you need to share the reigns with your team.

The most powerful strategic plans are the ones that teams create in real-time. The more your team members contribute to the plan, the more they will gain a sense of ownership. Then, they will be inspired to take action and help your organization achieve long-term success.

2. Define your “WHY”, “WHAT”, and “HOW”.

To build an on-purpose strategic plan, you must address the following topics:

• WHY you exist. Develop or reaffirm your core philosophy. What is your mission? What are your core values?
• WHAT your goals are for next few years. What will have the biggest impact on your growth, customers and employees?
• HOW you will execute your strategic plan. What are your strategies, tactics, and timelines? Who will be responsible for conducting the work required and by when?

3. Move from the macro to the micro and finally, back to purpose.

Your organization likely has “big picture” people who love to talk about philosophy. You also probably have more “operationally focused” people who are driven by completing tasks and paying attention to details. Many team members won’t want to contribute to the big picture until they have a chance to address, share, or sometimes vent about their challenges. Once they are satisfied that their issues are going to be addressed, only then can they focus on strategy and purpose.

Start the retreat by discussing the macro – what’s going on externally, and give some thought to organizational purpose. Then, evolve the conversation to your organizational goals and the issues you face. We employ a technique where everyone confidentially addresses challenges by writing what’s preventing their success on a cue card that we resolve together. From there, everyone can move back up to refine their actions and goals, as well as confirm the organization’s purpose.

4. Give all of your team members floor time.

Every organization has people who love to take center stage and people who prefer to work quietly behind-the-scenes.

It’s important to give everyone a chance to participate. Ensure you hear from the introverts and analytical types who tend to keep their insights to themselves. This means you need to control the extroverts who are dominating the conversation and incorporate a process that encourages and allows the quieter types to engage.

Your team should also feel like they are in a safe space where they can be honest about their opinions. Moderate the conversation to make sure that no one is embarrassed or ridiculed when they share their thinking.

5. Be an example.

The leader must serve as an example for the team. This means sharing your passions and commitment, as well as demonstrating some vulnerability. Leaders must typify the culture and values of the organization they lead. While business is a game of efficiency, productivity, and results it is also a game that needs heart, passion, and caring. Leaders who live by all of these traits are the ones who inspire followers and lead their venture to greatness.

At a memorable strategic planning retreat, a new leader shared a lot about his background, fears, and challenges. His honesty helped the team relate to him. He led by setting the example and the entire team – which was previously competitive, combative, and at odds with one another – became more honest and collaborative. It also helped the team be more willing to get on board with a common vision.

6. Have fun.

Fun? At a strategic planning retreat? You bet!

Strategic planning is stressful. Big decisions affecting lives and careers take place at these events. However, it’s important to break up your work sessions with some fun. Explore the sites. Take part in outdoor activities. Conduct some activities that you wouldn’t normally do at work. Have a few beverages together. These activities can build morale and help your team get to know each other.

Creating an on-purpose strategic plan is a team process . When your team works together, it crafts a powerful plan that will help your organization grow, drive revenue and blast past your competitors.

Stay tuned for the final blog post in this series, where you will discover how to follow up after the retreat to ensure success. Also, be sure to check out the first post, which offered tips on what to do before your strategic planning retreat.

Related posts:.

• 5 Keys to Building a Strategic Plan That Fuels Growth
• The CEO’s Guide to Strategic Planning Retreats That Get Results: PART 1
• The CEO’s Guide to Strategic Planning Retreats That Get Results: PART 3
• The #1 Mistake That’s Ruining Your Strategic Plan

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Key IETF service outages on 20 June during transition to new infrastructure

The transition of IETF Datatracker and related services to a new cloud infrastructure is now complete and all affected services are available. Affected services were unavailable from 1800 UTC until approximately 2000 UTC on Thursday 20 June 2024.

• Robert Sparks IETF Tools Project Manager

EDHOC - A new lightweight authenticated key exchange protocol provides improved security with less overhead for Internet-of-Things devices

Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman Over COSE (EDHOC) described in the recently-published RFC 9528 and RFC 9529 is a very compact, lightweight authenticated key exchange protocol, providing state-of-the-art security including mutual authentication, forward secrecy and identity protection.

• Mališa Vučinić LAKE Working Group Co-chair
• Stephen Farrell LAKE Working Group Co-chair

A review of a decade of Internet Architecture Board workshops

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• Dhruv Dhody IAB Member

IETF mailing lists delivery issues resolved

During a period from May 6 to May 9, a number of messages intended for IETF, IRTF, IAB, IESG, and RFC-Editor email lists were accepted by email services, but not forwarded to the list members or the list archives. All identified messages have now been processed by intended mailing lists for delivery to current list subscribers, and will appear in list archives.

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Ietf administration llc board of directors succession planning update.

• Jason Livingood IETF Administration LLC Board Chair

25 Jun 2024

As part of its recent annual strategic planning retreat, and anticipating the departure next year of several original members currently serving in the roles of Board Chair and Treasurer, the IETF Administration LLC Board established a formal transition plan to ensure a smooth succession.

In March 2025 we will lose our current Board Chair, myself , and Treasurer, Sean Turner , due to term limitations. Given that I and Sean have served in these roles since the first full LLC Board , the board decided that a more defined transition plan was necessary to ensure sufficient time for knowledge transfer and overall organizational continuity. To that end, and in particular to ensure a smooth succession for the roles of Board Chair and Treasurer, the LLC Board has defined a formal period of transition, and also established the roles of the Vice Chair and Vice Treasurer to support knowledge transfer. 

In the first phase, currently underway and running through December 31, 2024, I will continue as Board Chair and Mirjam Kühne will serve as Board Vice Chair. In addition, Sean Turner will continue as Treasurer and Shauna Turner will serve as Vice Treasurer.  On January 1, 2025 and until IETF 122 in March 2025, the position roles will swap, with Mirjam Kühne becoming Board Chair and me transitioning to Board Vice Chair, and Shauna Turner becoming Treasurer and Sean Turner transitioning to Vice Treasurer.

The Board is confident this plan will ensure an orderly transition as Sean and I conclude our terms of service to the IETF LLC.

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