Strategy Retreat Don’t Work “Energy and Optimism Drops When You Go Back to Work” – Jeroen Kraaijenbrink

The strategy retreat has become a common ritual for formulating strategy over time, although being widely used, it is ineffective.

According to Jeroen Kraaijenbrink a strategy and leadership consultant, “Once every year, the leaders of a company go to a nice hotel for a day or so. During that day, they do some serious work in the morning, at least including post-it notes, and in the afternoon, or the next day, there is a fun team-building exercise.”

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This, he says, the idea that strategy can be effectively made in this way is attractive. It makes strategy-development a fun and contained activity that doesn’t interfere with business as usual. But it doesn’t work, for these five reasons:

1. It disconnects strategy from everyday business. What is presented as a key strength that they are held off site is actually a weakness. It literally disconnects strategy from normal business and thereby makes strategy something extraordinary, which or shouldn’t be.

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2. Not everyone who should can be there. Strategy retreats create a divide between those who are there (the elite) and those who are not (the rest). There is already a big gap between strategy and execution, and by taking one group of people elsewhere to discuss strategy, this gap is enlarged.
3. It is based on an illusion of knowledge. When you think about it, it is pretty absurd to assume that strategy can be made in one or a few days by a select group of people sitting in a room. Effective strategy-making requires constant interaction with the outside world to listen and see, as well as to experiment and learn.

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4. Good ideas don’t just pop up. Offsite are based on the idea that the best ideas come from short brainstorms and pressure-cooker workshops. While inspiring and fun, the best ideas usually don’t come up like that. They gradually build up over time and with experience.

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5. Strategy is a continuous process, not an event. Offsite suggests that strategy-making is an event, with a clear beginning and end. Making sure that your strategy is up-to-date on an ongoing basis, as well as executed effectively, requires a continuous approach. Retreats don’t provide that.

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