The corporate off site (stop making sense)

I’m a tail-end baby boomer so I wuz brung up on these corporate off site meetings. But I’d say that for more than a decade they’ve been bothering me more and more. And because they are sort of ingrained in me this is really against type for me – but irresistible now.

There’s quite a formula for these things. The registration, the morning coffee huddle, the plenary with its speeches and videos (used to be slide shows but it’s videos now), the break outs, the group discussions and report backs and so on …

It’s very comforting to know exactly what’s going to happen! It’s so easy to go along with it.

Don’t these people know it’s all over? I think the number one warning sign is the presence of a stage and (ugh) a ‘panel’. But mostly it’s the stage.

For most of the time one is asked to sit and listen to a speech (or speeches (save me!)) or watch little videos that are high on graphic design and wafer-thin on content.A favourite trick is to wow us with big numbers. Data without meaning. If you are not careful this can all lull you into thinking that SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT.  You probably won’t know quite what – but you’re sure going to feel that something happened!

Then you the audience are ‘allowed’ to ask a question (ask, not say, because the clever people on the stage reserve the right to say). Question – answer – that’s all. No discussion. Anything too interesting will get parked or put aside to come back to ‘offline’ ((how I hate that!)).

You might be asked to follow some very structured exercise or to discuss something on your table – for a short time. Then you have to quickly move on.

This is not the knowledge way – or not the only or default knowledge way, I should say. We need to entirely re-think the assumptions here. The off-site could be a rare and valuable chance to review, assess, share perspectives, create new ideas, make connections, make sense. It needs to be peer-to-peer, open. The inputs need preparation – the process needs very skillful facilitation – but the outcomes need to be emergent, not pre-ordained.

If there’s a meaningless video sting – ditch it.

If there are lectures – ditch them.

Substitute Q&A for real discussion.

Get rid of exercises.

Make break times fluid.

Allow groups to be flexible.

And please, please, chuck out the stage!