When I first posted this page, we took for granted that people would gladly travel to attend multiday retreats with their colleagues in person. The pandemic changed this. Flying to attend a retreat? Only if it's really important. Sitting in an airport hotel meeting room for hours to talk with other people? Thanks, but I think I'll stay home and jump on remotely, since hybrid retreats are almost as good.
Actually, hybrid retreats aren't almost as good for team building, conflict resolution, onboarding new colleagues, or building cross-functional relationships. Teams need to do this kind of work with everyone in the room together, especially those with members who are working remotely. But people are being more discerning about when to meet in person, and, when they do, they have higher expectations for retreat design and facilitation.
Clients have long come to us for carefully designed in-person team-building retreats. We design action-packed agendas that don't waste people's time. We know when to challenge a group, and when to lighten things up for more fun and connection. We also excel at calling attention to what’s happening in the moment, and helping people become more aware of—and able to work with—the interpersonal, group, and power dynamics in the room.
People still want (and need) to come together. They're just getting more selective about when and where. We design and facilitate each retreat so that people will gladly book their plane tickets when they're invited to the next one.
