I have been a mid level manager of this team for over 5 years. I have now been promoted to VP last month. (Thanks to the awesome guidance from MT!!) I am looking for some direction on designing my two day staff retreat. I have secured a really great facilitator who knows our department and business well.
I am looking for direction on how to introduce the DISC model to each staff person, (we will take the test prior to the retreat). At the retreat I would like to role out a version of the emails that MTs uses to make our communication more effective. In addition, I would like to have some exercises to build our relationships within the team. I am a high D and hate these, so this is where the facilitator will be really good.
Second day we will be reviewing our annual goals, budgets, roles and strategic plan for 3 years.
What do you suggest?
Kristina
Priorities & Relationships
Congratulations on your promotion! Guidance from MT is truly a blessing.
A staff retreat is a great idea for building relationships and your team. Not every company can afford a two day retreat, so this is really a gem. My experience is two days will go very quickly, and there will be more that you would like to accomplish than you have time to do well. I'd recommend looking carefully at your agenda and give priority to a few things that a retreat venue allows you to do well and do much better than you could around a conference table at work. Those are the things you must do in the retreat setting.
Other things could be covered in a post-retreat follow up meeting in the office. I might put emails in that category, but maybe not depending on your goals. The retreat is definitely where you cast vision and build unity around goals, but probably not where you dig into details.
I think you are right on track for building relationships with your team. As MT says, it's all about relationships. DISC seems like a great place to springboard into that. A fun outing or even cooking out around a campfire helps people get to know each other outside of "work mode" - something that gets people in that "off the clock mood" at the end of the first day and/or perhaps the afternoon of the second day. I think if you err, err on the side of relationships instead of productivity. An an engineer turned manager, it's hard for me to admit this even though I know it's true.
And make sure the food is great.
You will have a wonderful time. I can tell you are putting a lot of thought into this, and your team will recognize that and appreciate it.
All the best, -Chris