LEADER’S EDGE: Make retreats magical not bogus

“Oh man, can you believe we’re going to waste a day up in the mountains?!?”

“I could use a meaningless day to sit back and relax by a stream.”

“This retreat will be a total waste of time.”

“Well, at least we’ll get paid for doing nothing but eating a nice lunch.”

“It will just be a bunch of touchy-feely junk.”

News of upcoming group retreats (or off-sites) often leads to responses such as those above. Many employees view a retreat as either boring and worthless or fun and worthless.

As a former corporate manager and employee, I sat through many bogus retreats myself. As…