Introducing: the DIY team away-day

A few companies have asked us recently to handle their team away-day. The August holidays are ending and business leaders want to get things back up to speed. And as Covid restrictions fade, the idea of getting people back into a room together seems possible again.

Hiring a venue, getting a master facilitator in, designing the day, and getting everybody along to it is a big investment. Get it right and you’ll reap the rewards; get it wrong and it will be remembered for all the wrong reasons for a long time.

We’ve been designing and delivering team-building events for more than 20 years, but here’s the thing: all our sessions are now online. During the pandemic we learned how to do it, and clients tell us it works just as well, if not better, than in-person events. It saves money and time for all involved, as well.

But if you’re settled on an in-person away-day and want to tap into our expertise to enable you to do it yourself, we can support you remotely.

DIY away-days with our support will save you 60% (excluding venue costs) of what it would cost if we’d handled it for you.

To give you a flavour of how it works, I list below the considerations we work through with you to design a productive away-day.

What’s the purpose?

This is the first question I ask, because it’s the most important. Most away days have no clearly articulated purpose, other than to have an away-day.

You’re having the away-day because you want the team or organisation to move from where you are now to somewhere different. What does that look like?

The purpose should be a courageous, inspiring goal, and it should be specific, not vague. ‘To get everyone pulling together’ is vague. ‘To secure continuing work with these three clients this year’ is specific.

Once you’re clear on purpose, you can do everything ‘on purpose’ – no daft games or dancing on tables for novelty’s sake. The right purpose makes the right away-day. A lack of purpose or the wrong purpose makes for the wrong away-day.

Set clear objectives

What do you want to achieve in the away-day? What can you achieve in the day? You can’t solve world hunger, so don’t try.

You’re getting everybody together, so what specific outcomes do you want as a result? What sort of conversations do you want these people to be having with those people? What specific commitments do you want people to buy into, and how will you secure that?

How will you know your objectives are being met as the day goes on? What will you see shaping up in front of you? If you don’t know what you’re looking for you won’t find it.

Too often people think that if they get folks together for a day something useful is bound to drop out the bottom of it. That rarely happens.

Focus on relationships

Away days should involve working on the team, which means working on the relationships. It’s something teams and organisations almost never think about, so this is your chance.

Construction people are technically focused, so they want to dive into their technical comfort zone, which means endless detail about the business or the project or the programme or the retaining wall that has slipped, and they will happily engross in that for the day.

Don’t let them. They can do that back in the office, like they do every day. This is a special occasion, and relationships are more important.

Working on relationships doesn’t mean fun and games to create an ephemeral sense of community. People see through that and it’s patronising.

What it does mean is creating a space where people can be real to each other, able to speak candidly about their hopes and concerns in relation to the purpose you’ve set. When people are real and intelligible to each other, they’re more likely to support each other in pursuit of that purpose.

Engage them

Getting everyone intensely involved is tough, but doable. Having a clear purpose and objectives for the day is a good first step. It piques people’s interest if they see you have a plan and know what you want. But you need to do more.

Having the usual faces give PowerPoint presentations is absolutely not the way to go. You want participants, not a passive audience.

What work will they do in the day? What preparation will you ask for? Debates, brainstorming sessions, votes and reports from the front line are some of the ways you can get people participating and energised.

Follow up

With a clear purpose set, the away day is the start of a journey. What outcomes do you want to see in the week after? The month after? The year after?

How will you know your desired outcomes are being met? Who is accountable for what, and how will they be supported?

A friend once told me, ‘Dave, a one off day without proper follow up is just entertainment’ and you and I are not in the entertainment business.

My sessions have three months’ worth of follow up and then we start again. Don’t have an away day if you haven’t worked out the follow-up.

Invite properly

This is your valuable chance to prepare the ground. Most invitations I see just state time, place and ‘required to attend’. What’s the message here? It is: ‘We’re having an away-day for the sake of having an away day and there’s nothing more to be said. It’s going to be dull and you’re right to feel resentful about the interruption.’

State the purpose. Describe the objectives. Say how you want them to come and help. Say why it’ll be interesting, and how you plan to follow up.

They’ll arrive excited, curious and ready to roll up their sleeves.

Check the venue

The venue sets the mood for the day, and if it’s cramped, crummy, stuffy, gloomy and awkward, that’s how your away-day will be remembered.

The venue sales person will tell you the room can take up to fifty people but not how tightly packed they will be.

What equipment do you need? What catering and access provisions? Be a tough customer. Compile a detailed checklist and go through it with the responsible representative on and during the day, making a polite stink if anything’s missing.

Think ahead about Covid precautions.

Good luck

This gives you a flavour of how we can help you hold a good, productive away-day, saving 60% of the cost of us doing it for you.

If you want to save 100% then work through the considerations above, design the day carefully, and turn up with your very best inner condition. You’ll do a good job.