The 5 Keys to an Effective Executive Retreat: ‘SHARE’ Method

It’s time to take your executive level team members out of the office and discover the next big idea that will change your industry. 

This tantalizing proposition is why executive retreats are growing so much right now. There is an arms race going on between all kinds of companies to reap the benefits of this practice.

While company offsites aren’t necessarily new, there is a wave of innovation in the space going on. And if you want to maximize your potential, cultivate great talent, and attract top prospects, you need to have your offsite game down.

That’s why you need to know about SHARE. It’s a method we’ve developed to create the perfect company offsite, especially for people in leadership positions. A retreat built around the SHARE method ensures that the top of the team is fully aligned and motivated.

The SHARE Method

The SHARE method is all about focusing on the themes of your retreat and the way you go about delivering powerful experiences that really move the needle.

SHARE stands for:

• Shared Struggle

• Humility

• Adventure

• Reason

• Expression

Let’s look into each in depth.

Shared Struggle

All teams work as groups of human beings. Company off-sites need to emphasize that humanity and work with it, not against it.

Shared Struggle is the idea that teams united through similar experiences, goals, and values work together better. 

Basically, retreats give us a way to connect on a more profound level. That connection fuels camaraderie and a better sense of how to work together. This is the heart of the team building element in company off-sites.

Humility

A company offsite has to create the right conditions. And those conditions have to be dramatically different from the day-to-day experience of the office.

Why is that?

Humility gives us opportunities to truly learn new things. But it is almost impossible to get top leadership to open up when they are in a context that reinforces their role — like the office.

When their role, and the way they’ve always done things, is reinforced, there is a sense of standing and importance that gets in the way of innovation. We can’t be open to new ideas and perspectives until we let go of old one.

And this is no one’s fault. It’s how we all work.

But if you peel away the context that’s creating the barrier, you can get through to your team on a deep level.

In this state, everyone can learn from each other and reassess how things got to where they are, how they are going, and where they need to go from here.

Adventure

Adventure pushes you to seek out corporate off-sites that put people in a place they’ve never been before and get them to do things they’ve never done before.

In short, it changes the retreat from a kind of work/vacation hybrid into an exciting chance to see the world from a new perspective.

Traveling this way has major benefits to your creativity. It rewires you to make connections you never saw before. And the possibilities grow exponentially when everyone on your team is going through this same process and having conversations about their great ideas.

And this element of adventure does even more than that. It supercharges the interpersonal bonds inside the team, too. It builds a reservoir of meaningful shared moments that help people learn how to communicate and resonate with one another.

These benefits are the kind that last long after the company offsite is over.

Reason

Everything we’ve discussed so far needs to be tied together with a purpose or reason. An otherwise great company offsite can be derailed because there isn’t a clear goal or intention.

By giving your team a coherent reason for the retreat, you hone in all the new creativity and team building toward solving a problem or making the most out of an opportunity.

Of course, going out with your team to enjoy traveling is nice. And it might be enjoyable enough on its own to make the cost worth it. But when you have a purpose, you unlock fast-paced innovation in a single direction.

To do it right, you need to go above and beyond simple, vague concepts. You need something more specific than “building leadership” or “strengthening communication.” These can, obviously, be elements of what you do, but a clear reason is even better.

You want something like “find our objective for the next year” or “how do we take advantage of this new trend?”

Those kinds of reasons will spark explosive positive movement in your team.

Expression

Expression is all about giving people plenty of space to reflect and drive the conversation in new directions. 

If every minute is tightly scheduled, the exploratory creative process quickly turns into a whirlwind of new concepts. Before you know it, you’ll be back on the plane headed home, not sure what you accomplished.

So you need to give people space. And it’s crucial to cultivate an environment where people feel free to express themselves.

This isn’t easy for everyone. That’s why many people who don’t know how to do this turn to event planners that do.

Getting Practical

The SHARE method gives you the guidance to make a retreat a real turning point for your company. But there are also nuts-and-bolts elements to planning company off-sites that have to be figured out, too.

Even with the best concept, a poorly administered retreat won’t get you where you need to go. If you don’t keep an eye on practical matters, people will show up to a dream destination and realize there’s no food to eat.

So we created the super-practical EAT formula:

• Essentials: This is food, water, lodgings, and WiFi. You know, the basics that everyone needs to survive. It might seem obvious, but they have to be figured out. Food is a big one — what meals are shared, where can people get snacks, what restaurants are near your accommodations, etc. 

• Activities: Going off to an exotic locale is great, but you’ll need to bring activities with you. These are going to be the central feature of the offsite, the times when a lot of SHARE comes together.

• Timeline: You need an itinerary — from getting to and from the airport to a schedule for each day.

EAT and SHARE, the basis for building incredible top-level company off-sites that puts your organization in top gear.

If you merge these high level thoughts with the practical on-the-ground concerns, you’ll be ready to build the perfect executive corporate retreat.