In person time should be spent doing work that you can only do in person. Simple enough. But too often, offsite agendas get filled with content that could have happened over Teams or email. Carolyn Giang and our international comms team did a great job of… more
In person time should be spent doing work that you can only do in person. Simple enough. But too often, offsite agendas get filled with content that could have happened over Teams or email. Carolyn Giang and our international comms team did a great job of this last month in Paris. My favorite session was the prepared brainstorm. Each country lead came in with three ideas ready to pitch to the group (aka a kinder version of Shark Tank). We all did the pre-work and read the materials beforehand, so instead of spending the session getting up to speed, we pressure tested the ideas, built on the thinking, and left with fewer, stronger programs. I also left our time together with the fresh reminder of the incredible expertise our regional teams bring – and how much stronger our work is because of it. Lisa Mudge's employee comms offsite earlier this year took a similar approach, and it reinforced the same lesson: if you're bringing people together, make it count. In person time is limited. Use it for the conversations, debates, and collaboration that don't happen as well over Teams or an email. Planning a team offsite? My advice: cut anything that could have been an email or Teams call.107 reactions · 9 comments · – repostsOpen on LinkedIn