Team Engagements

Our team offsites enable teams to have the right conversations, make progress on critical issues, and do the work that improves team performance and dynamics.

Why Choose Us for Team Engagements?

Let’s be honest: Team offsites can be huge time wasters. They often include the wrong people, focus on the wrong issues, confuse lengthy discussions with making decisions, avoid sensitive topics, and get little accomplished. Effective team offsites enable teams to have the right conversations, make progress on critical issues, do real work rather than fun and games to improve team dynamics and performance, and incorporate accountability mechanisms to ensure agreements remain in place after offsites.

We use a five-phase approach to design, deliver, and debrief team offsites:

Phase 1

Initial project scoping with team leaders and HR Business Partners to clarify what needs to get accomplished at the offsite, how data will be collected, offsite location and logistics, project timing, team member communications, and the like.

Phase 2

Administration of the Team Assessment Survey and interviews with team leaders and members about team history, context, dynamics, and performance. These two confidential data sources provide quantitative and qualitative feedback about team strengths and areas of improvement.

Phase 3

Team Assessment Survey Feedback Reports and Team Interview Summaries are reviewed with team leaders and HR Business Partners. Team offsite objectives, agendas, and roles are finalized during this phase, and we coach team leaders on what they need to do to prepare, when to lead from the front, and when to lead from behind during the offsite. Customized participant materials are created and shipped during this phase.

Phase 4

To have the right conversations, initial offsites often begin with a review of Team Assessment Survey Feedback Reports and Team Interview Summaries. Teams align on their strengths and weaknesses, and then engage in a combination of taskwork and teamwork activities to improve team dynamics and performance. Decisions are documented, action plans are created, and accountability mechanisms are built during these initial one-to-three-day sessions. We also coach leaders during the offsite to broaden their skills and improve team dynamics.

Phase 5

At a minimum, we do in-depth debriefings with team leaders and HR Business Partners after initial offsites. This phase can also involve the scheduling of follow-on offsites with the team or extended teams and the scheduling of second Team Assessment Surveys to gauge progress.