Organizing a Leadership Team Retreat can sometimes be a nerve wracking experience if you are an HR Lead. Most CEOs whom we interact with like to have some overarching theme or story for such meets that aligns with their thinking. And to be fair, that is probably a good idea. However, we see too many of these meets have such corny taglines that flop miserably. So here are 10 ideas that you can try out for the next time.
D.A.R.E to Dream
This is one of our favorites for Leadership teams which are coming together especially to envision the future for the organization. The fun part is that you can customize the DARE as per the organizational priorities. For example, if you are in a hypercompetitive market, you could use (Drive, Agility, Resilience and Execution). Another variant of the same is to use Dream, Dare, Deliver.
A.D.A.P.T to win
This is a great choice if your industry is going through a lot of flux as is the case for many of the executive teams that we interact with. ADAPT is a good choice not only from the literal meaning of the word but also the sub themes that you can use to deliver meaning. One of our favorites is Agile, Disruptive, Ambitious, Pace, Transform. It sets the tone for a discussion around the key tenets needed to succeed in an ever changing business environment.
Play to W.I.N
In addition to being a fantastic book on business strategy, Play to Win also fits really well for leadership team retreats where strategic planning is a key part of the business agenda. W.I.N could also be linked to Will, Innovation and Nurture. It goes nicely if the key messaging is around mindset shift, innovation and talent retention being a part of your strategy. The book Play to Win would also be a great giveaway for your participants in the meet.
FAST-Forward to the Future (Forging a Stronger Tomorrow)
If you are in the middle of an organizational transformation, this could be a great fit as it focuses on looking ahead. The abbreviation can also serve as a metaphor for pausing and recalibrating mid journey as is the case in many such leadership offsites. The FAST also demonstrates a sense of urgency in undergoing the transformational shift.
ACCELERATE for Success
If you are in a high growth industry and rapidly scaling your business and team, this could be a good choice. It strikes a bridge between Speed and Success as is often needed to win in such cases. John Kotter’s book XLR8 could also be a nice participant giveaway for this theme.
RENEW your Focus (Reimagine the Future, Empower, Nurture Innovation, Execution, World Class)
If you are advocating a transformation within the organization, this could be a good option to choose. The sub themes also help to drive home key imperatives that are necessary to make the transformation successful. For such transformations to be successful, an empowered team is a must have. Using empowerment as a factor for the renewed organizational priorities help driving home that message clearly.
Good to GREAT (Growth, Resilience, Execution and Transform)
This one is an evergreen classic. A play on the work done by Jim Collins to identify characteristics of successful organization, it can also serve as a powerful theme for a leadership team looking to do a retreat to improve their leadership acumen and focus on key organizational priorities. The abbreviation also comes in handy to drive separate organizational themes if needed. We have done quite a few executive retreats leveraging the themes needed to be a high performance organization.
There are many times in a leadership team’s journey when it is important to pause and reflect on the skills needed to succeed in the future. THRIVE fits beautifully in such cases. Key skills like Vision and resilience can then be further developed to anchor sessions during the retreat. In one such retreat, we anchored it around using Growth Mindset to transform the way the LT operates to bring about systemic change.
DRIVE Growth:(Develop talent, Rigor, Inspire, Visionary, Engage)
DRIVE has a lot of leadership metaphors that come in handy for a Leadership offsite. Aside from the fact that the LT usually has to drive business strategy, it also lends itself to further exploration of key aspects that Executive teams need to drive org wide - like developing the next generation of leadership, Rigor in execution etc. We have also helped a client design a leadership team retreat around the theme of F1 racing with this tagline.
PACE (Plan, Adapt, Challenge, Execute) your Journey
Leadership is a marathon, not a sprint. In that context, a theme like PACE your journey serves as a good reminder to the group that we will always be work in progress as Leaders and it is important to build our own leadership muscle as we drive organizational growth. While the team may focus on developing inspirational business plans, it also helps us to keep a track of key tenets that will help us in that journey including adapting to the changing business environment, and challenging the status quo to drive breakthrough thinking.
If you are planning to host a Leadership Team Retreat, please do keep in mind that the theme is more like an icing on the cake rather than the main event. We see many folks choosing very fancy sounding themes with very little attention to the actual agenda of the meet. Unfortunately, most senior executives have been around the block and can see through this charade quickly. How to plan a leadership retreat is a topic for another blog, but till then hope you find these useful in your planning.
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