Meetings In General

In his book Death By Meeting, Patrick Lencioni (the table group) prescribes a framework that cures one of the most painful and underestimated problem in business today, bad meetings. Meetings tend to be too long, too boring and too frequent. They also often don’t accomplish the outcomes that they are intended to. The book provides a blueprint for leaders that choose to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams, and create environments of engagement and passion. If meetings are done right, they can save leaders and teams an incredible amount of time.

Patrick states ” Bad meetings are not inevitable. There is nothing inherently boring or unproductive about meetings. They are the activity at the center of every organization, and should therefore be both interesting and relevant in the lives of the participants. If we can just turn everything we know about meetings upside down — replace agendas and decorum with passion and conflict — we can transform drudgery into meaningful advantage.”

The Benefits of Off-site Meetings

Death By Meeting describes four kinds of meetings. The fourth meeting is called the “Quarterly Off-Site Review’ What exactly does that mean? It means that every quarter, four times per year, the leadership team of 5-9 people go to a location away from the distractions and interruptions of the office to do real work that includes a review of strategy, discussion of the competitive landscape, a look at industry trends, review of key personnel and team development.

So why have so many companies stopped having them? Well because in some organizations the accountants discovered that they were money wasting boondoggles where executives were having great fun, eating great food, drinking great wine, skiing or golfing and getting very little, if any, real work done, at great corporate expense. And lastly, not enough of the accountants were being invited to attend the party.

Off-sites are a great idea because something interesting, and often magical, happens when a leadership team gets together at least one hour by car away from the office. The normal day-to-day patterns are interrupted. The distractions and disruptions disappear or are greatly reduced. The levels of creativity and relaxation increase. Executives tend to look at problems and challenges in a different light. Off-sites should be held in picturesque locations that stimulate great work. Fun events can be added, as long as the work objectives are met. It also helps for the leadership time to know that the meetings will happen every quarter. Doing this once, or once a year, isn’t that effective.

So Why Do We Need ExecuFeed?

ExecuFeed is based in the gorgeous high desert community of Bend, Oregon. For organizations based near Portland, Seattle or Silicon Valley it is a very easy location to host off-site meetings. There are many facilities, resorts and meeting rooms in the area that would love to serve your off-site. The weather in the Central Oregon region is often sunny, although it can be cold here in the winter. We don’t have any travel or lodging fees for retreats in this area.

We also do off-sites at locations other than Central Oregon. Oregon is blessed with so many beautiful places to have off-site meetings. The Pacific Ocean is here. The areas around Hood River and Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood are also spectacular. Our Seattle clients may select resort locations a little closer to home.

Imagine a sporting event like a basketball or football game without a referee. Effective leadership meetings are riddled with conflict. Teams that can work through and resolve “respectful” conflict work things out and move forward. Those that don’t stay stuck or slide backwards.

Facilitation

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