Guide ยท Offsites
A two-day leadership offsite agenda.
Short answer
A good two-day leadership offsite has one job per day. Day one decides where the business is going: three priorities and what won't get done. Day two decides how the team will behave to get there and what each leader owns. Send a first draft two weeks before, so nobody walks into a blank whiteboard.
Two weeks before
- Collect the current plan, values, last offsite notes, org chart and handbook.
- Ask every attendee the three questions and record the answers.
- Send a first draft of the plan and behaviours one week out.
Day one: where we're going
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 8:30 | Coffee. Read back the three questions answers, anonymous. |
| 9:00 | What's true: performance, customers, people. 10 minutes each leader. |
| 10:30 | Pull the draft apart: what's missing, what's wrong. |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 1:30 | Cut to three things that matter, three priorities under each. |
| 3:30 | What we won't do this year. |
| 4:30 | Read page one aloud. Everyone commits or says why not. |
Day two: how we roll and what's my part
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 8:30 | The behaviours that make page one happen on a busy Tuesday. |
| 10:30 | Test them on real hard calls from the last year. |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 1:30 | One page per leader: what I own this quarter. |
| 3:00 | The 90 day rhythm: who checks what, when. |
| 4:00 | Close: every leader reads their page to the room. |
Demo Sample timings for illustration.
Questions people ask
- What should a leadership offsite agenda include?
- A clear outcome for each day, pre-reads sent two weeks before, time to cut priorities rather than add them, an owner for every priority, and a follow-up rhythm agreed before anyone leaves.
- How long should a strategy offsite be?
- Demo Two days is enough for a team of 5 to 12 to set direction and behaviours, if the preparation is done before. One day usually gets the plan but not the ownership.
- What happens after the offsite?
- Within a week, the outputs should be on one to three pages. Then a monthly check for 90 days, and the three recall questions asked again at day 90.