How to create amazing Group retreats for bonding & connection
This article is about how to create amazing retreats for participants to connect with one another, while having a very fulfilling time.
Who is this article for?
Leaders who plan, facilitate and coach groups. Perhaps you are one of the 611 Vistage chairs planning one of the annual group retreats or perhaps you are one of the 45,000 Vistage members and are a CEO or leader planning your leadership team’s offsites. Or perhaps you are simply a leader who has the opportunity to get your team together to align strategically and you want to do something different that results in more team bonding. If any of the above apply, then this article is for you.
Rather than beating your head against a wall for new ideas or how to create the best experience, you can call upon the experts who design activities specifically for natural serotonin and oxytocin releases, thus optimizing for the bonding that can take place in a memorable shared experience. Not to mention, it takes time to plan: that’s where we come into help.
To start, think about what you want to accomplish. As yourself the following questions:
What’s the problem you want this retreat to solve for?
What is the biggest pain point, cause that’s where we focus.
How do you want the group to be at the end of the offsite?
What is the desired result?
Before all of my experiences and retreats, I have a survey people fill out to signify what they want to accomplish or challenges that they want to have addressed.
In order to create the best bonding experiences, build the following into your retreats:
Design for each person to shine and each person to be humbled
Optimize for serotonin and oxytocin releases
Build in awe-inspiring moments
Create greater self-awareness by discussing and integrating learnings.
Pro Tip: One of the biggest mistakes people make is not building in time for integration: actual discussion about the retreat that just unfolded and how to integrate the learnings back into your daily life. These final integration discussions with prompts like “What are you taking away?” are so key in digestion of these shared group experiences.
Creating a purpose-driven experience is critical for purpose-driven people, so designing the experience with purpose and intention and deliberate choices is key to a heartfelt breakthrough retreat.
Things to think about in planning offsite:
Design for connection
What you want to accomplish
Think about the number of people
Optimize for natural serotonin and dopamine releases
Speaking of optimizing for natural serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin releases, here are some natural ways to do so (that also benefit our brain by reducing anxiety and stress):
Spend time in nature: sunlight!
Real teamwork is not created in a sterile conference room.
Real teamwork is created in vulnerability and the ability to build trust. That’s why offsite retreats can be so impactful.
Nutrition: protein: salmon, turkey
Meditation/Gratitude/Journaling
Exercise
Sharing stories & laughing
Listening to music
Reminiscence bump, which focuses on songs from the ages of 10-20 (peaking around 14), as those songs more than any others release serotonin in the brain. Thus at my retreats, I tend to build these songs in to let the happy feelings fly even further.
Creating a set and setting for a dropped in experience (phones put away for certain activities, a solid container of what to expect, etc.)
Here’s another thing to think about: people know when you invest in them. So invest in them with a beautiful location, something that makes people healthier versions of themselves. Engaging in new activities targeted for the individual participants by knowing a bit about their background always pays off, especially when it is opportunities to grow, as does designing for building trust among the group.
Specific Activities to incorporate:
Games that go deeper:
We Connect Cards
Where Should We Begin?
We’re Not Really Strangers
Ways to enhance communication challenges:
Values & strengths exercises
Listening exercises
Design so that each person a chance to shine & be humbled
Understanding what’s on team members’ plates
Ways to enhance self-awareness:
Communication workshops
Journaling prompts & self-reflection
Facilitator needed for exercises to practice listening and not being reactionary
Spousal things to consider
Relationships with partners and family are vital to one’s happiness, not to mention success in the workplace. Thus, it’s important to have investments in that time. Dan Martell holds couples retreats. When creating couples experiences, bringing in relationship & intimacy coaches can be a terrific learning experience, bringing new fodder to couples who have been together a while.
Extra things to incorporate in your retreat that might surprise you:
Create ritual; ritual adds an element of sacredness to what you are doing. And ritual can be as simple as setting intentions or releasing that which is no longer serving you while gathering around a fire.
Knowledge Shares & Facilitated Workshops have been the biggest hits in my retreats. Knowledge Shares are when each person gets a chance to impart wisdom onto the other participants, and the number one criteria is that it imparts wisdom, but the number one criteria is that it lights the person up to teach about. Facilitated Workshops are prompt-led or learning led with a trained facilitator to get the energy of the group up and fulfill on the needs that people set forth with their intentions.
Activities designed so that each person has a chance to shine & be humbled: honestly, do that alone and watch the magic unfold.
About me:
My name is Kendall Wallace. I’m a corporate offsite designer, curator and facilitator.
Not that it really matters, but I have a History & Global Culture & Commerce Degree from The University of Virginia.
I’ve worked for Big Tech, for Meta, and for smaller start-up tech companies who became unicorns (Reef Technology). I’ve worked for in-person teams and distributed workforces.
Most recently I founded Executive Offsites and through it, I’ve worked with or instructed B2B leaders at companies like Meta, Outside, Turtle Bay Resort, and more.
I have designed retreats for remote professionals, entrepreneurs, couples, and leadership boards, having people reinvigorate their bodies, businesses, relationships, and thriving potential.
I specialize in creating immersive experiences that ignite personal and professional connections, fostering a deeper sense of vitality and harmony with oneself, nature, and others. Recognizing the shortcomings of traditional corporate offsites, I founded Executive Offsites to provide enriching travel experiences that nourish mind, body, and soul, while cultivating workplace safety and honesty.
As a connection expert, I facilitate transformative experiences for groups, emphasizing humanization over everything else. With a proven track record of guiding over 1,000 individuals across 75 groups, I enhance communication, reveal blind spots, and promote work-life balance, resulting in happier, more effective communicators.
My mission is to empower teams to embrace life to the fullest, overcoming barriers to joy and connection in the workplace. Through targeted attention to teamwork and workplace dynamics, I aim to elevate the quality of work life.
In addition to my work, I am an EFT practitioner, leveraging psychological reprogramming to support personal growth. Residing in the North Shore of Oahu, I pursue my passion for surfing while leading monthly dinner clubs and sisterhood circles, and integrate the aloha spirit into all of my retreats.
3 things I deliver:
Incomparable bonding/valued engagement/deep connection
Handling logistics and arranging travel, to take that responsibility off the leader’s plate
Bucket list experience with group or spouse within all budgets
Ways to Work Together:
Consulting on offsites
Teambuilding/Group facilitation in person
Leadership team experience in Hawaii
Leadership team experience in Colorado
Leadership team experience in France
Leadership team experience in Italy
Bespoke leadership team experience worldwide
Consulting on Offsites
Interview & planning offsite
Interview biggest players on biggest challenges
Lead brainstorms to prioritize & align on what biggest challenge to be addressed is
Leg work to do this will vastly improve offsite effectiveness
I work within budgets in order to optimize for the best experience possible and most value per dollar