Organizing team offsites.

Last week, the team I support had our quarterly offsite. I’ve been running team offsites more and more frequently over the past few years, and have finally been able to nail down an approach that consistently feels like an essential, effective use of time.

My rules for effective offsites are:

Start with trust and safety. A good offsite starts with a group of folks who trust each other and feel safe bringing literal and intellectual honesty into the room. If you’re not bringing that team into...