How do you plan a corporate retreat or team building day?

If you’ve been asked to plan your team’s retreat, you probably want a day that’s useful and that people actually enjoy. A corporate retreat, also called an offsite, is time a team spends away from the office to meet, plan and do something together. For most local teams it’s a single day, with a working meeting in the morning and a team building activity in the afternoon.

This page walks through how to plan that kind of day, from the agenda to the activity to the questions to ask a venue.

What is the purpose of an offsite meeting?

An offsite gives your team room to think without the usual interruptions. Out of the office, people step away from email and back-to-back calls, so it’s easier to focus on bigger questions like planning the next quarter, solving a problem that keeps coming back, or getting a new team on the same page.

The team building part matters just as much. When people do something together, they get to know each other outside their usual roles, and that makes the next meeting, the next project and the next hard conversation easier. The best offsites do both, with real work in the meeting and real connection in the activity.

What does a retreat day with a meeting and an activity look like?

Most teams do best with the meeting first, while everyone is fresh, and the activity after lunch, when energy usually dips. Here’s a sample day you can adjust.

Ending by mid-afternoon helps people with commutes, childcare and evening plans, and it makes it easier for everyone to say yes. If you’d rather keep it shorter, a half day works well with the meeting and the activity back to back.

How long should a team building activity be?

Shorter than most people expect. About 60 to 90 minutes of activity is usually enough, because it’s long enough to do something real together and short enough that nobody is watching the clock.

The meeting is where you need to protect your time. Put the most important topic first and keep it to two or three goals for the day, since more than that usually means nothing gets finished. Send the agenda ahead of time so people come ready to talk instead of reading slides for the first time.

What are good team building activities for adults?

The best activities give everyone a shared goal and a reason to talk to each other. These are some of the most popular kinds:

• A sport where the whole team has to move together. Rowing is a good example, since a boat only goes well when everyone rows in time, so the whole group has to work as one.

• A cooking or food class. Everyone has a job, and you eat what you made at the end, which takes care of lunch.

• An escape room or puzzle challenge. It rewards communication and different ways of thinking more than fitness.

• A volunteer project. Working together on something that helps the community gives the day a purpose beyond the team.

• A hands-on workshop. Art, building or a skills class puts everyone at the same starting line, since most people are beginners.

• Whatever you choose, look for something new to most of the group. When everyone is learning at the same time, job titles matter a lot less.

What are the 5 C’s of team building?

There isn’t one official list, and different sources use different words. One widely cited version comes from Gallup, which describes the 5 C’s as common purpose, connection, communication, collaboration and celebration.

Whichever version you use, the idea is the same. A team works better when people share a goal, know each other, talk openly and work on things together. A good offsite gives your team a chance to practice all of it in one day.

How do you include people with different fitness levels and abilities?

Choose an activity where the starting line is the same for everyone. If someone’s fitness, age or ability decides how much fun they have, the day splits the team into people who enjoy it and people who sit it out.

• Pick something with roles, not just effort. When there are different jobs, like steering, timing or keeping score, everyone can contribute in a way that fits them.

• Make every part optional, but never awkward. Let people join at their own level without having to explain why.

• Ask ahead of time. A short, private question on the invitation about accessibility and dietary needs lets you plan around them quietly.

• Focus on a shared goal. Teams get more out of working toward something together than out of a leaderboard that rewards the most athletic people in the room.

Is indoor or outdoor better for team building in Cleveland?

Cleveland weather can change quickly in any season, so the safest plan is one that works either way. For late fall through early spring, when many teams plan their first-quarter offsites, indoor is usually the easier choice, since nobody has to worry about storms, cold or a last-minute cancellation.

If you book something outdoors in the summer, ask what happens in rain or wind, and whether there’s an indoor backup that fits the whole group.

What should you ask a venue before you book an offsite?

These questions matter most for a day with a meeting and an activity, and the answers are worth getting in writing.

Also ask what happens if your headcount changes, since that’s the thing most likely to shift in the last two weeks.

What’s a good planning timeline?

Work backward from your date. Smaller teams can move faster, and bigger groups may need more time.

The short version

A corporate retreat, or offsite, is a day away from the office to meet and do something together. Put the meeting in the morning with two or three clear goals, have lunch together, and finish with a 60 to 90 minute team building activity that everyone can take part in. Plan for Cleveland weather with an indoor option, and ask every venue about meeting space, AV, the activity, food, parking and accessibility before you book.

If you’re looking for a place to do all of it, the Cleveland Foundry is a 55,000-square-foot waterfront venue on the Cuyahoga River in the Flats, with the meeting, the activity and lunch in one place. Our corporate meeting rooms come with AV equipment, high-speed WiFi and flexible seating, so the working part of the day runs smoothly. The Carriage House seats 80 indoors and opens to the outdoors for lunch or a break between sessions. We don’t cater in-house, but we provide catering options, so you can choose what works for your team.

For the activity, there’s our indoor Tank House, one of the few rowing tank houses in the country, where your team can row together on real water all year, whatever the Cleveland weather is doing. It’s a different way to bond, because rowing is a true team sport. Nobody wins a race by pulling harder than everyone else. The boat only moves well when everyone rows together, in time and at the same pace, and that’s a lesson most teams can take back to the office. You can learn more at clevelandfoundry.org/event-spaces.