Strategy Offsite Agenda Template:

1 🚀 Set up

Start the offsite with some inspiring words on the mission and vision of the company, and the purpose of the offsite.

2 ✔️ Contracting

Establishing ground rules on how to behave, known as ‘contracting’ can help you avoid unproductive behaviours such as interrupting, waffling, or losing focus.

• What behaviours must we commit to so we all get the most from this offsite?
• Do we give each other permission to reinforce these commitments?
• How should we reinforce them?

3 🤝 Connect

Increasing the sense of trust and psychological safety needed for constructive conflict and debate begins early in the offsite by fostering group connectedness. This can be done through different activities, such as icebreakers and emotional check-ins.

• One-question ice-breaker

4 💬 Diverge

The process of coming up with new thoughts and possibilities is known as divergent thinking. Divergent topics might include things like:

• Horizon scanning: looking at new possibilities and opportunities in a particular area of the business.
• Brainstorming: collecting as many ideas as possible on a particular business problem.
• Open discussions: discussing controversial or paradoxical questions that have no right answer.

5 🤔 Converge

Divergent workshops surface new ideas and questions, while convergent workshops are designed to analyze and prioritize those ideas, and to make decisions. Convergent topics might include:

• Analysis: assessing pros and cons, prioritizing ideas, estimating effort (perhaps by using planning poker).
• Decision-making: empowering leaders to make decisions and build consensus.
• Planning: taking decisions and forming action plans.

6 ✅ Commit

You’ve come together as a group, brainstormed fresh ideas, and made some key decisions at this point. It’s now time to commit as a group and lock it down.

7 🎉 Celebrate

Returning to the objective and vision you outlined in the introduction is a fantastic approach to wrap up the offsite. Thank the staff for their time and work, and congratulate them on a job well done.