Leadership offsite agenda template
Half a day. Three bets. Then you tell the company.
A leadership offsite agenda is a spine, not a resort itinerary. Four hours, eight to fourteen people who can kill work. If you need a town hall or a slide review, this is the wrong format.
Title. Strategy reset: the next two quarters.
When. 9:00–1:00. Doors at 8:50. Partial attendance kills the format — reset the room if someone cannot take the four hours.
Outcomes. A shared picture of what is actually true. At most three bets, each a sentence with a named owner. A stop-doing list that will die this month. A 48-hour comms plan: who tells the company, by when, with which four sentences.
Materials. Results one-pager (sent 48 hours ahead). Yellow / pink / blue stickies. Sharpies, one each. Three boards: MARKET / US / BETS. Visible timer. Bowl for phones. One scribe laptop. Camera.
The half-day spine
| Clock | Min | Mode | Segment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | 20 | Talk |
Opening Contract: truth, three bets, owners. Phones in the bowl. 15 seconds each: what this room must decide today. |
| 9:20 | 30 | Discussion |
Context Same page. Numbers that still surprise people. Argue only contested facts. Star three load-bearing ones. |
| 9:50 | 45 | Activity |
Mapping Yellow = market. Pink = us. Silent write, cluster, name the five constraints that govern the next two quarters. |
| 10:35 | 15 | Break |
Break Water, air. No hallway strategy. Back in the chairs at 10:50. You will not recap for late people. |
| 10:50 | 50 | Discussion |
Decide At most three bets. Each is a sentence: who, what in market, what you starve. Silence first so the loudest title does not win. |
| 11:40 | 50 | Activity |
Commit One human owner per bet. First-proof date. Stops with killers. Draft the four-sentence all-hands note live. |
| 12:30 | 30 | Talk |
Close Read the boards. 48-hour actions. Photograph. Phones back. End at 1:00. No fourth bet in the parking lot. |
20 + 30 + 45 + 15 + 50 + 50 + 30 = 240. That is the whole morning. Lunch is after, not inside.
How each block earns its minutes
9:00 · Opening · 20
Say. Four hours. You leave with truth, at most three bets, named owners, a stop-doing list, and four sentences the company hears on Friday. Phones in the bowl. Fifteen seconds each: what this room must decide today. Then copy that sentence onto the page.
Do. Phones, TRUE / BETS / OWNERS, purpose (5). Fifteen-second round, scribed, no stacking (10). Workbook copy (5). 5+10+5=20.
On their page. What this room must decide today so I can do my job for two quarters. The thing I will not let us paper over.
9:20 · Context · 30
One-pager on the wall (2). Eighteen minutes for the round — ninety seconds each, sixty if you are 13 or 14. Then eight minutes of argument, only on facts two people contest. Last two: star three load-bearing facts. 2+18+8+2=30. If Context becomes a tour of every function’s dashboard, you will arrive at Decide with no air.
9:50 · Mapping · 45
Eight minutes silent writing. Seven to stand and place. Fifteen to cluster. Last fifteen: name five constraints. Photograph before anyone sits. 8+7+15+15=45. A fact is a number, a lost deal, a slipped date, a competitor move, a resignation, a customer quote. “We need to move faster” is a poster.
10:35 · Break · 15
Write the return time in giant numbers. If the CEO starts a sidebar by the coffee, walk them back: we do that in the next block, with everyone. Reset BETS / NOT NOW so Decide starts clean. No chair page.
10:50 · Decide · 50
Silent write six. Place and cluster six. Authors — or clusters, if more than eight stickies — get sixty seconds, eight minutes total. Debate twenty. Two dots, five minutes; they cannot stack both on their own. Last five: write the three winning sentences, ask if anyone needs to resign from this out loud, sit in the silence. 6+6+8+20+5+5=50.
11:40 · Commit · 50
Table on the wall: BET / OWNER / FIRST PROOF / DATE. Fill it standing, fifteen. Stops: eight silent, ten to keep only those with a killer this month. Fifteen to draft the four-sentence all-hands note, projected. Last two: name Friday’s sender. 15+8+10+15+2=50.
12:30 · Close · 30
Read the boards slowly, eight. Twenty seconds each for 48-hour actions, ten. Photograph every board, eight. Phones back, confirm the Monday 10am objection deadline, out at 1:00. 8+10+8+4=30. No fourth bet in the parking lot.
If Mapping runs long, you still take the break. You steal from Context on the next offsite, not from Decide today. A half day that skips Commit is a conversation with better catering.
What does not belong on this spine
- A round of function updates. That is a staff meeting. Send the one-pager.
- A guest speaker. They will eat Context and Mapping for a quote you already knew.
- A “team building” hour after lunch. This agenda ends at 1:00 on purpose.
- More than fourteen people. The 90-second round dies, and the quiet leads stop writing.
- A deck. One laptop for the scribe. The wall is the record.
Pre-work, in one paragraph
Forty-eight hours ahead: print the results one-pager, circle three numbers that still surprise you, write six facts (three market, three us), and arrive with one thing you believe the company should stop. The letter is in the workshop pre-work email guide.
Places ships this half-day as a kit: timed segments, say-this, do-this, the workbook prompts, the emails. Open it, put your company nouns in, print the paper.
Print this run of show (one page) · Run the offsite kit live · 90-minute run of show · How to time a workshop · All guides