Our Approach to Team Development (Offsites are Team Development!)
Better teams get better results.
High-performing teams not only deliver on outcomes, but also thrive in how they function together. In addition to helping you design and facilitate offsites, we incorporate foundational team development concepts to help ensure that your team addresses team dynamic and grounded leader dimensions, in addition to the business fundamentals, to become a better team that gets better results.
For any Team Development engagement (offsites are Team Development!), we like to consider three core areas of how a team functions together:
Foundation: Setting in place what a team really needs to succeed. Identifying where it needs to grow and change.
Structure: Intentionally articulating how the team works together, and aligning on why.
Engagement: Building skills and developing individuals to have more effective engagement and interactions.
We collaborate with you to understand your key outcomes, and weave our key concepts to best support your team. Our goal is not to “fix” existing problems for your team – it’s to help your team reset how it functions together, leading to better engagement, better decisions, and better outcomes, now and into the future.
Key Concepts to Weave In
For a Team Offsite, we collaborate with client organizations to design and facilitate impactful meetings and experiences that create space for strategic thinking, connection, and team development. We collaborate with you to understand your key outcomes, and weave in some or all of our key concepts to best support your team.
Co-Create the Relationship (CTR): A structured approach to designing the optimal team relationship. Establishes norms of behavior and expectations for how the team communicates, interacts, and relates to each other, fostering psychological safety and high trust.
Reactive to Creative: This model illustrates the shift from a reactive mindset—where individuals are driven by fear and conditioning - to a creative mindset, where individuals are purpose-driven, self-aware, and empowering, greatly impacting our effectiveness. This shift greatly enhances personal and team effectiveness.
Engagement Skills: Introduce foundational engagement skills and concepts that are grounded in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and research in leadership effectiveness. These skills enable teams to have more productive, collaborative, and insightful interactions.
Values: A shared commitment to what is important to the team about how it works, so the team has their own internal measure of how they are functioning. A team that operates through their Values fosters alignment, trust, and sustainable high performance.
Goals & Measures: Clear markers to provide a clear direction and plan-of-action, and facilitate accountability and motivation. Not just for outcomes, but also for how the team functions together. This provides direction, accountability, and motivation while reinforcing the team’s commitment to continuous improvement.
Individual Assessments & 1-on-1 Coaching: Have each team member complete a 360-leadership assessment and debrief with a certified practitioner to build greater awareness of their traits, tendencies, and impacts on others. This fosters individual growth and enhances team collaboration.
Team Issues List: Collaboratively create with the team a list of issues and challenges facing the team, and how it functions. This living document enables teams to continuously improve how they function, even after the offsite, by fostering ongoing reflection and adaptation.
Expected Outcomes
By addressing business fundamentals, team dynamics, and grounded leader dimensions, an effective Team Offsite fosters lasting improvements in how teams operate. Expected outcomes include:
Stronger Team Cohesion: Improved trust, collaboration, and engagement, leading to a more connected and high-functioning team.
Greater Alignment: Clarity on team values, goals, and behavioral norms, ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction.
Improved Decision-Making: More effective communication and problem-solving, reducing friction and increasing efficiency.
Enhanced Leadership & Self-Awareness: Leaders and team members develop a deeper understanding of their impact on others and their role in fostering a positive team dynamic.
Sustainable Team Growth: A framework for continuous development, with tools and processes in place to maintain momentum beyond the offsite.
By integrating these elements, our Team Offsites help teams function at their best—both now and into the future.