Imagine this all-too-familiar scenario... You've spent a ton of time planning a company event or important meeting only to find it was unproductive or forgotten about soon after.
That stings.
No need for that to ever happen again.
PLAN WITH THE END IN MIND
Whether you're organizing your next team meeting or corporate retreat, ask yourself these three important questions:
- What do you want people to know before they leave?
- What do you want people to feel before they leave?
- What do you want people to get before they leave?
Write down your answers. Knowing what you're working towards gives you the best chance of getting there.
These free worksheets will help you plan your meeting vision, facilitate an unforgettable event, and take action going forward.
BUILD IN TIME FOR CONNECTION
Now it's time to think about your opening act. You don't have to pull a bunny out of a hat or play the guitar to get your audience cheering.
The best way to bring everyone together as a group is to give everyone a shared experience. That means making time in your team meeting agenda for people to get to know each other better.
Try out some of these team meeting ice breakers:
- What does your perfect day look like?
- What are you most grateful for?
- What has been one of your happiest moments?
- Who is your biggest fan?
- What's one thing life is teaching you right now?
- What's keeping you up at night?
- What's getting you up in the morning?
Connecting with teammates on things unrelated to work creates an emotional bond that makes working together more fun – and productive. It's a win-win.
INSPIRE CREATIVE THINKING & COLLABORATION
Looking for exercises that will excite and challenge your team to think in innovative ways?
Exercise: Finding the Right Questions
Spend five to 15 minutes thinking of questions that are not being answered.
One question to prompt the group is as simple as "what are the questions we aren't asking?"
Encourage people to challenge the status quo by thinking of provocative questions.
Often the questions start with:
- Why?
- Why not?
- What if?
- How might we?
Then let the sharing begin!
Exercise: Turn a Pain Point into iWish
Innovations need to solve a problem.
Ask participants to individually think of a problem or hassle they know people face. People will then form teams of 3-5 to discuss each of their ideas and decide on one that can be best solved with a mobile app. The group is then asked to illustrate the app interface and share it with the other groups.
If you're in person, grab a poster-sized post-it note and sketch it out. If you're doing this activity virtually, then you could try Miro's sketching template or Zoom's Whiteboard.
Exercise: 25 Reasons Why
Ask your team "why is this important?" and have everyone run through it 25 times. Digging deep will help you uncover the top reasons why a particular goal is an absolute non-negotiable for you to achieve.
We've posed a variety of different questions for this exercise, but one that was particularly interesting was when we asked our team – "Why does the impact at SHIFT matter to you so much?" It was inspiring to hear how everyone uniquely expressed their connection to SHIFT's mission.
The 25 Reasons Why activity is a long-time fan favorite of SHIFT clients, and it's worth doing with your team as well as individually.
FIND OUT HOW IT LANDED
Most leaders put a ton of work into team events, but they never really know whether it was a success. Leaders ask themselves – Did my people know, feel, and get the things I wanted them to?
In 2021, we hosted a SHIFT team retreat where we gathered everyone for the first time in over 16 months. One of our goals for the event was for the team to be clearer about the path ahead.
After the retreat, we sent out a video message in Latch with a pulse question about the level of clarity the team felt after the event. The results came back... and we got a 6.7 out of 10 rating. While this was an instant ego blow, it was great because it gave us the chance to drive those points of clarity after the session – and co-create the next steps together.
If you don't get a pulse on how an event or meeting landed with your team, you can't learn what can be improved going forward.
LEVEL UP YOUR NEXT TEAM GATHERING
There's a lot that goes on behind-the-scenes to make a team event successful.
For over 20 years, our SHIFT team has helped organize company events of all kinds – team meetings, workshops, company team days and retreats, and more.
Looking for a partner who can save you time and stress from team event planning? We're ready.
