Winning at Offsites: What’s your Score?
Created by Chris Cushing
For facilitators, meeting planners, and offsite organizers, planning and preparation can be nerve-wracking: there’s no way of knowing whether an offsite will be a hit or a miss.
…or is there?
Here’s a quick and easy scorecard on the fundamentals of good meeting hygiene. These small details don’t necessarily appear in the agenda items but can make or break the experience for the participants. Check the boxes, total your score, and see how you did!
▢ - You’ve designed a thorough facilitator’s guide for the offsite, including time blocks, instructions, prompts, and listed materials. 25 points
▢ - You’ve reviewed the agenda with the client’s key personnel and incorporated their ideas. 15 points
▢ - You have one-to-three written objectives posted and visible in the room at all times (not in PowerPoint). 10 points
▢ - You have a clear agenda with times and breaks posted and visible in the room at all times (not in PowerPoint). 10 points
▢ - You stick to the agenda, starting and stopping on time, and you’ve set clear expectations with all participants that you’ll be adhering to the agenda. 10 points
▢ - You’ve provided the organization’s leader with either guidance or talking points for their welcoming kick-off to set the tone, share the context, and affirm outcomes and desired behaviors. 5 points
▢ - You have written roles posted and visible in the room at all times (not in PowerPoint.) Each participant knows which role is theirs and whether they’ll be making decisions, offering advice and ideas, or gaining understanding. 10 points
▢ - You’ve explicitly stated the process of making any decisions. 10 points
▢ - You have five or fewer clear ground rules posted and visible in the room at all times (not in PowerPoint) that have been carefully selected to create safety and encourage divergent ideas. 10 points
▢ - You’ve asked participants to contribute their ground rules to the list. 5 points
▢ - You’ve introduced the facilitator (who may be yourself!), shared why they’re qualified to lead the meeting, and explicitly stated what their role is. 5 points
▢ - You have a graphic recorder in the room to document the discussions and decisions. 25 points
▢ - You’ve had the participants briefly introduce themselves (to the large group if they are less than 30, at their tables if there are more than 30.) 5 points
▢ - You’ve had the participants share their desired outcomes for the offsite. 5 points
▢ - You’ve had the participants answer a prompt that draws on their past experience to put them in the right mindset for achieving the outcomes of the offsite. 5 points
▢ - You’ve interviewed a sample of participants to understand who they are, their individual agendas and contexts, what power dynamics may be in play, and what advice they have for the offsite’s design. 15 points
▢ - To share information, you’ve kept presentations and PowerPoints to a minimum, instead favoring activities like small group discussions, gallery walks, or silent reading and reflection. 15 points
▢ - You’ve made good use of the room’s layout, favoring many tables for small group discussions and avoiding large boardroom table layouts. 15 points
▢ - You’ve designed the space to support the atmosphere you’re trying to create, and that atmosphere is reflected in your choice of visuals around the room, the music, the food and beverages, and the way you greet and welcome participants. 10 points
▢ - You’ve coordinated with the venue regarding breaks, food and beverages, temperature, layout, materials, WiFi, and any of the participants’ specific needs. 15 points
▢ - You’ve planned activities to bring all voices and ideas into the room, like think-write-shares, 1-2-4-alls, go-around, affinity clusters, and visual templates. 15 points
▢ - You’ve included time for open discussion, and you know what questions and prompts will draw out quiet voices, manage loud voices, make space for unpopular opinions, and avoid groupthink. 15 points
▢ - You’ve designed activities that progressively build on each other, with each discussion informing the next, with clear segues and transitions between each time block on the agenda. 10 points
▢ - You’ve avoided a hybrid meeting, insisting that the meeting be attended by either entirely in-person or online participants, but not both. 25 points
▢ - You’ve designed a process where the group can agree on clear next steps, including the tasks, the person responsible, and when they’ll be completed. 15 points
▢ - You will compile all the ideas and key decision points into a deliverable and distribute it to the participants. 5 points
▢ - You‘ve scheduled an after-action review with the client’s key personnel, reviewing what worked, what didn’t, and what’s next. 10 points
280-320: You are a facilitation superstar! Congratulations! It’ll be a fantastic meeting.
220-280: Your meeting will be a good one. Consider how you might incorporate some of the items above that you didn’t check that will make it even better.
160-220: Your meeting will be fairly average. Expect a few unforeseen snags along the way.
80-160: Your meeting has problems. Carefully consider whether or not you’re holding on to preconceived notions and assumed constraints about the way you think a meeting “should” be.
0-80: Your meeting needs serious help! Hire a professional facilitator.
Just a reminder: the checklist above is all about good meeting hygiene. It’s for all the details that don’t show up on the agenda. You can check every box, but if your speakers are uninteresting, your activities are confusing, or your presentations dull, your meeting won’t be successful.