Navigating the Pitfalls of Workshops and Off-Sites in Organizations

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This chapter explores the challenges and unrealistic expectations surrounding workshops and off-sites in organizations, emphasizing the importance of effective design and facilitation to avoid unproductive outcomes. The speakers discuss common anti-patterns, such as information overload and lack of clear purpose, while stressing the need for prioritization, clear agendas, and meaningful interactions. The chapter also touches on navigating tough decisions, fostering input from staff, and the discord between traditional corporate practices and more collaborative, impactful approaches.

Planning a corporate workshop or off-site often feels like making a burrito. So many options—and so many opinions on what should go in it. A presentation rodeo on the next quarter’s objectives? Absolutely. Time for a key initiative to get the spotlight in front of the C-suite? Yes, please. Extra scoops of mandatory team-building to strengthen your culture? Why not. Everyone likes fun, right?

But when it’s time to actually chow down, it quickly becomes clear you’re dealing with an overstuffed, leaky, $20,000 mess. And everything the workshop was supposed to accomplish? Yeah, that didn’t happen—so you’re back at square one come Monday.

In this episode, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why our workshop eyes are often bigger than our workshop stomachs; standard off-site practices we need to offload; and how to design new experiences that are actually meaningful and productive.

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