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Off-Sites That Work by Bob Frisch and Logan Chandler (Harvard Business Review, June 2006)

Of all the meetings top executives attend in a year, none is more important than the strategy off-site, where the most essential conversations for the future of the business occur. Yet, it is the rare management team that can say its strategy off-site truly changed the way the business is run. At best, participants do some vague direction setting and work on team-building skills; at worst, they write off the retreat as a waste of time and resources.

It needn't be like that. From their two decades of experience designing and facilitating strategy off-sites in companies large and small around the world, the authors have distilled a set of best practices that businesses can use to make the most of this annual opportunity.

Essentially, the problem with most strategy off-sites is that they're insufficiently structured. People think that if you schedule a meeting, invite top leaders (and, perhaps, an outside expert), and block off units of time to discuss big subjects, the rest will take care of itself. In reality, formlessness leads to aimlessness. Oddly enough, only rigorously designed meetings give rise to truly candid strategy discussions. That rigor starts before the meeting, when the scope of the matters discussed must be limited, the participant list drawn up accordingly, the relevant materials (and only those) sent out and absorbed, and a detailed agenda established. During the meeting, the pace and quality of the conversation can be managed through attention to politics and by using carefully tailored frameworks, decision points, and group exercises. After the meeting, an action plan ensures clear accountability and follow-through.

If you and your executive team spend four days a year rafting down rivers together, you'll eventually get good at rafting down rivers. Spend four days a year having well-designed strategy conversations together, and you will transform your annual off-site from a meaningless junket into a genuine turning point for your business. request a copy

(This article is also available directly from HBR.)

A Refreshing Change: Vision Statements That Make Sense
(Fortune, September 1996)
Visions are Big, Important Stuff that everyone's supposed to subscribe to. Most visions boil down to a predictable and meaningless "Go team, go!" It doesn't have to be that way, according to consultant Bob Frisch. He sees vision as capturing what's happening to the world you compete in and what you want to do about it. It should guide decisions, up, down and across the organization. Frisch's process for vision creation is "orderly, sensible and intellectually engaging." request a copy

Keeping Off-sites on Target
(CFO, April 2007)
Off-site strategy meetings can be expensive, but if done right, they can generate significant returns.  To maximize the ROI of off-site strategy meetings four days of preparation are needed for every day of the meeting. Attendence should be limited to 12 and the agenda should be focused. Keep your company's culture in mind when choosing the activities, but don't be afraid of a little "constructive conflict." read this article online or request a copy

A Pragmatic Approach to Vision
(Journal of Business Strategy, July/August 1998)
The vision thing…it's not as easy as it sounds. Vision should be concrete, not abstract. It should be based on facts, not speculation. And to have any impact it must be widely understood and enthusiastically embraced throughout the organization. But a workable, winning vision doesn't just happen. The process through which vision is developed is critical, difficult, and rarely done well. There are ten principles, many of them counterintuitive, that should act as the starting point for vision development. request a copy

Strategic Planning Finds Its Way Back
(Electric Perspectives, July/August 2007)
Off-site strategy retreats promise enriching collaboration, but they frequently come up short of their potential. Executives who gather in woodsy conference centers to brainstorm on the future direction of their companies typically discuss too many topics, with the wrong people, in the wrong way, with inappropriate data, resulting in no clear conclusion. See page 15 of this article for "Making Off-Sites Work." Visit the Electric Perspectives website to read the PDF article online.

Advisor-Client Perceptions on Strategy Offsites
(Consulting Information Services, LLC)
Companies conduct offsite sessions with senior management to define and refine corporate strategy. Advisors actively participate in these sessions as facilitators and planners to help companies “unlock” management’s strategic thinking. To gain maximum value from these sessions, and align strategic vision with execution of ideas, clients must understand the motivation and capabilities of strategy offsite advisors. download the article PDF

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