The last few years have been a crash course for many of us in virtual team-building. Now after many organizations took COVID-informed hiatus from in-person retreats I’ve been contacted by several groups who are once again planning them. I believe deeply that in-person time to focus on strategy and collaboration is critical to any team’s success. I’ve found that particularly in remote teams, in-person time is uniquely precious. It’s hard to do the deeper, transformative work virtually, particularly to build shared culture or address conflicts. So in the interests of supporting any group or facilitator working to have a successful strategy retreat I’ve listed below some of the specific principles and practices that inform how I approach participatory strategy work with groups.
Build the container: Sure the term “container” is facilitator speak and may sound a little geeky. But in order to hone specific skills it’s helpful to have specific language. Group container is one of those words I think is useful enough that I’m willing to sound a little geeky saying it. The term is a shorthand for all the complex, dynamic factors that define a group’s ability to act collectively. Things like an environment of collective trust, clarity of purpose, the degree of political alignment, a shared culture. These are all preconditions for a group to be powerful together. Collective action – rooted in “power together” can most effectively emerge when there is a strong “group container” that supports the group to do deeper work. Successful agenda design and facilitation requires attention to building and sustaining the container.
Preparation is half the battle: Successful retreats begin long before everyone is in the room together. The design process should identify the priority issues to address as well as which necessary info the entire group already has vs. what needs to be presented. It’s important to level the information playing field and avoid unnecessary knowledge gaps or strategizing based on caricature. Materials should be shared in advance with clear expectations around prep for all staff so precious in-person time can be spent on generative work. I often recommend doing a prep call with all participants to share frameworks or overview critical info before the retreat. Your strategy process should begin well before everyone arrives at the first session.
Culture matters: All groups have culture but usually many aspects of group practice are invisible or unstated so groups often need support to surface default cultural practices. When we create intentional space to assess cultural norms we can distinguish between practices that are useful and should be codified versus ones that are unproductive or are outgrowths of unhealthy power dynamics. I believe when groups intentionally create organizational culture together it can greatly increase collective agency and impact. [For more on this topic see my blog post on Toxic vs Transformative culture.]
Less is more (spaciousness supports clarity). A common mistake is to try and cram in too much content into an agenda, thereby creating an artificially frenetic pace that reduces visionary and strategic thinking. Of course there are times when we have to push and meetings that need to go long. But in general people need spaciousness and time to do deeper work. I believe in frequent breaks,15 minute break every 90-120 minutes of content is my general role. I also believe in 60+ minute meals to allow time for socializing, relationship building and individual recharge.
Design to engage the group’s diversity: Diversity is one of a group’s greatest strengths when harnessed properly, particularly since new insights often come from the margins of a group (just like in society, frontline of the problem = frontline of the solution.) I believe in using activities appealing to different learning styles such as audio, visual and interactive/kinesthetic so I design agendas using a range of modalities: individual reflection, pairs/small group/whole group, creative teams, gamification, generative sprints etc. Additionally, I think it’s important to harness non-meeting time, such as evening and meals (without over-structuring) to support relationship building and different types of processing.
Prime the pump: It is important to get people primed in the appropriate headspace to do strategy work. Good agenda design takes this into account through sequencing, structuring generative exercises and creating the conditions to tap individuals’ experience and power.
Constraints drive creativity: When asking a group to do generative work providing constraints helps drive out-put. It is amazing what smart people can accomplish in short periods of time with the right constraining instructions. Sure you can create a multi-tiered campaign plan but what happens when you try to create one in 15 minutes?
Surface generative conflict: Many groups are held back by unexpressed conflicts that linger, undercutting group unity and morale. Artful leadership and facilitation support the group in effectively surfacing and resolving conflict. Conflict is a great driver of strategy as long as the group has a strong enough container to engage in healthy conflict that is generative. Make sure you understand the deeper forces and play and do unleash past traumas or conflicts the group doesn’t have the capacity to address. A group can make the best strategy in the world but if the process destroys the group then none of it really matters right?
Reality Check: Ensure that as strategies are developed they are incorporating political reality: group capacity, funding, political moment, enthusiasm factor, etc. This is not juxtaposed with visionary and ambitious strategy, but rather a check and balance to make sure the strategy is not a set-up for failure. Groups often have a hard time prioritizing but strategy is not only what we do it is also what we choose not to do. Likewise we need to check the group’s appetite to actually do the things they think need to be done. A smart plan that some other vague somebody is going to do isn’t going to get us far. As we make our plans we need to ensure we are creating the desire to carry them out.
Skills sharing/leadership development: A core orientation of my movement support approach is to Identify leadership development/skill-building opportunities and include them in the process whenever possible. Which staff members can I tap to facilitate different sections? Ideally I’m able to manage my own capacity so I also have some time to coach someone into a new skill area. We should always be developing people’s capacity and leadership.
Define and Test Hypotheses: Evaluation should be baked into everything we do. We should always work to surface our assumptions, hone them into clear hypotheses and ensure they are testable so we can evaluate them in order to build upon success or learn from failure. The point is to be rigorous enough to ensure our evaluation creates positive feedback loops to grow a group’s collective skill and impact.
Success grows upon itself. The facilitator needs to ensure the group is set up with realistic outcomes so the meeting can stay focused on the specific questions that need to be answered in the sequence that allows collective insight to build upon itself. But beyond achieving the tasks at hand it’s important the group FEEL successful. This is why it’s important to set and manage expectations and for facilitators to be reinforcing the group’s spectrum of success. We need participants to have an experience of collective power that creates momentum that will surge into the post-retreat work.
Many of these principles are common sense but by naming them it helps remind us to pay attention to them. They are all means to an end, to catalyze a successful group experience that produces alignment, enthusiasm and momentum. That is what turns ideas on the flip chart into real world change. This is what turns retreats into the key moments of focused dreaming that let the work advance.