Dan
People are starved for human connection. This is hardly a revelation. Nevertheless, when you see the parade of research studies attesting to the inexorable rise of loneliness, the issue becomes more concerning. And I believe that this loss of social connectedness is, at least in part, attributable to the changing workplace environment.
Here’s the silver lining: Not only is there something leaders can do about it, but it could also be an opportunity to build stronger connections.
I vividly remember a time when it was normal to go to a physical office five days a week. And for millions of professionals, our relationships were forged in these unremarkable, office routines.
- Making casual conversation while making photocopies
- Sharing workplace “war stories” with co-workers at the coffee machine
- Lunch meetings in conference rooms with people we might not otherwise have gotten to know better
However, the past 20 years has unraveled this culture and steadily ushered in a new era. Workers work in isolation, relying on instant messaging and email to communicate with one another. Workers are more likely to gaze deeply into their laptop screen or scroll endlessly on a smart phone instead of “popping in” to someone’s office unexpectedly. And less and less people are inclined to meander alone into a cafeteria or lift their head up inside an elevator to greet a stranger. The unintended consequence is that millions of workers have never been more isolated and longing for social connectedness.
The Tension Point
I’m not advocating going to back to the workplace of the 1980’s. It’s certainly true that there are countless productivity gains from technology and many positive effects of a more flexible work schedule and improved work-life balance. The truth is that in the wake of the covid pandemic recovery, many employees have outwardly, and quietly, rejected traditional office work schedules.
Herein lies the tension point:
🖐️ On one hand: Employees need, and desire, in-person connection with their peers. Increasingly employees are recognizing that the absence of meaningful, in-person contact erodes our professional relationships
🖐🏼 On the other hand: Workers don’t want to come to the office frequently. And when they.do, they want to maximize their time in the office which minimizes the opportunities for chance meetings and casual social interactions.
The Hothouse Offsite Model: A New Model for Social Interactions
The current model for social connectedness in the workplace doesn’t work well anymore. There needs to be another way to accelerate the amount of human interaction time, while diminishing distractions and getting meaningful work done together. One model that has yielded great success is regular “hothousing” offsites.
A traditional hothouse is used by farmers to provides a safe and ideal environment to nurture fruits and vegetables in an otherwise unstable environment. The ability to control the conditions within a hothouse lead to consistent yields, better-quality and a safe place for ongoing experimentation and improvement.
In a similar way, a corporate hothouse enables employees to interact in a highly focused way, without the usual work-related pressures and distractions. The hothouse experience magnifies the informal social interactions over a compressed period of time. The shared experience of a hothouse can help break down barriers, encourage open communication and increase mutual understanding, which are all essential for building trust. By bringing people together for a shared and intense experience, people feel more connected and tend to be more collaborative. This enhanced sense of trust and relationship-building ultimately translates to improved teamwork, higher morale, and increased productivity when your team returns to their more hybrid work arrangement.
Five Key Principles to Build Your Own Hothouse Offsite
Corporate offsites are not new. But hosting an offsite that applies the principles of hothousing are fewer and far between. So, how do you create a corporate hothouse for your team? Here are five principles to make your offsite successful.
1) Define Your Vision of Success: “Every Battle Is Won Before It Is Ever Fought”
Those words may have been intended for a general on the battlefield, but they are every bit as relevant to a corporate executive planning a leadership offsite. The best way to ensure that you are prepared to win the offsite battle is to always starts with the following question:
“If we are successful with this offsite, what outcomes will we have immediately after the offsite is over AND what outcomes might we expect to see in 6 months?”
The more specific and measurable you are, the clearer your event design and more purpose driven your exercises, the more likely you are to have successful outcomes. Set your objectives to be realistic, measurable and relevant to the entire group. Just remember…the most important thing is that the outcomes should be explicit. And lastly, don’t keep those outcomes a secret! Make it a point to host a participant briefing session, even for 30 minutes, to ensure all attendees understand and are aligned with the expected outcomes – this will make it easier for your participants to hit the ground and drive towards the goal as the offsite unfolds.
2) Model the Behaviors You Want to See
If your goal is to instill a culture of collaboration and creativity, then you need to not only ‘say it’ but also ‘do it’. And it starts with your senior leaders. Your leaders should not just be present but also role model the behaviors you want the rest of the team to exhibit. To make this happen, it’s important to be clear on your team values and behaviors in advance of the session. And it’s also important to discuss and even practice these behaviors in advance of the offsite.
One of the most memorable offsites that I’ve hosted involved the global head of communications at a large pharmaceutical company. The global head wanted to instill a “Can Do” culture and to build deeper bonds amongst team members. Rather than just say it, he made it a point to actively model it. He participated in every exercise, laughed and smiled during activities, encouraged team members and showed vulnerability. The impact of his role modeling was clearly felt by all the team members. The social interactions and connections that were formed during the offsite signaled a change in the organization. Months later, team members reported that they felt a change in the culture and felt more connected to their colleagues.
3) Balancing Purpose and Play
When you’re using a hothousing approach to your offsite, you want to ensure that you have a thoughtfully structured, purpose driven agenda that maximizes your time together. Your agenda should be planned in detail for every exercise, have planned breaks and check-ins. But a well-designed session doesn’t mean boring and tedious or even all work. You need to equally account for purposeful play and deep social engagement. Well-designed energizers and games should be interspersed throughout the day to shift energy and reinforce key principles. Traditional talks and presentations should be replaced with fun, interactive and engaging exercises. Research has found that adult learning and productivity are vastly improved when we smartly balance the science of play and business driven outcomes.
4) Facilitating Deeper Connections
The most effective offsites enable peers to build relationships that go beyond the transactional. That means that the design of your offsite needs to create meaningful moments amongst team members. Some of the ways you can deepen connections are:
- Behavioral Norms: Introduce behaviors and practices that form the foundation of group identity and build a common team language
- Competition: Launch mini-competitions that encourage teamwork and problem-solving together
- Team Values: Use guided exercises that invite team members to reflect and share what they value both inside and outside of work
- Team Building Experiences: Incorporate team-building sessions that promote camaraderie in a more relaxed environment
- Memory Making: Make sure to memorialize the experiences. Go beyond just taking a few photos. Capture the moments and make it a memorable story that team members will look back upon fondly.
5) Change Requires Action
The top complaint about any corporate offsite is: “Nothing was done afterwards. There was no impact.” The design of your offsite MUST MUST MUST culminate with your participants rallying around the successes that you just achieved and committing to the decisions or progress that has been made. That means that your team must be committed to shepherding the outcomes to fruition post-offsite. Be sure that you have a commitment contract and action plans that people know they will be accountable for afterward. Remember, when your people go back to their day-to-day routines, their energy and commitment will inevitably diminish.
One More Tip: If you want to be successful, you need to engage a session leader that will be accountable for the entire event. This person, or team, will be responsible for being the host, lead facilitator, moderator, logistics coordinator and entertainer. Ideally, they’re external to your organization. But most importantly, your session leader should be a trusted expert who is NOT a participant in the content of the offsite and should be a neutral party that has no vested interest. This ensures that they will come in without preconceived notions or a bias to the outcomes that the group is working towards
With these principles in hand, you are ready to start hothousing with your team at your next corporate offsite.
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