Year-end is often time for a business to reflect on the past year's accomplishments and then plan for next year's efforts. Yet, how do you feel about taking your management team, or your whole company, out for a day or more to review past business results and focus on future plans and goals? Do you see it as a big expense in taking everyone away from their jobs, or do you see it as an investment in getting people engaged, aligned and motivated? If you have had business retreats in the past, did participants applaud the great progress that was made during the event, or did they feel un-engaged and un-included, thus wishing they had been somewhere else? Or, did employees possibly have fun and maybe learn some new things at the retreat, yet little real or lasting change was produced afterwards back in the office?

Here are some considerations in creating a powerful and practical retreat that will get everyone applauding at the end of the day.

Off-site retreat planning, facilitation and follow-through are the keys to retreat success. To get started on your retreat, designate a senior person (or small team) to take responsibility in designing and facilitating the event. Having it just on one leader's shoulders may limit participation, creativity and learning; and it may also be a set-up for failure. If you do not have all the right retreat-design capabilities in your organization, then partner with an external retreat designer/facilitator to assist you. However, always make sure that key internal folks are continually involved to ensure relevancy of the retreat design and adequate follow-through after the outside designer/facilitator has departed.

In planning for the event, consider what is important to cover in each of the four design aspects below. Based on these four aspects, you can create a retreat agenda and designate who will be responsible for preparing, presenting and/or facilitating each part of that agenda. This ensures a shared responsibility for the retreat's preparation, success and follow-through.

The four design aspects are:

A. Honoring (acknowledging and learning from) the Past - This is about sharing what participants need to know about the company's previous year performance. Creating a common understanding of both what we are collectively proud about and what we could/should have done differently, helps everyone to celebrate the past as well as to release any lingering tensions. Arranging to have key people report out about the successes and learning in their area of the business, allows employees to get beyond the past and ready to focus on the present and future. Distilling important learning from a valuable conversation about the past can also be very informative in deciding future plans and activities.

B. Taking Stock of the Present - This is about examining the strengths and challenges of the current organization (its operations and management), as well as the opportunities and threats that lie in its marketplace. This conversation can get everyone grounded in where the business currently stands both inside its operations and outside in the marketplace. Getting everyone's thinking out on the table can bring forth enlightened understanding of the company's current state of being. The ultimate goal here is to work to leverage the business's best strengths and opportunities, as well as mitigate any important challenges and threats. Only when this information is well shared and digested can an organization then make good decisions about its future direction and priorities.

C. Focusing (working) on the Future - This is about collectively deciding, based on understanding the company's past and the present, the business's most important marketplace opportunities, operational goals and management priorities for the next one or more years. These decisions also need to be in sync with the company's long-term vision and current mission. That vision and mission may need to be reviewed so that people do not pursue initiatives that do not fit the company's desired direction. By getting people to work in appropriate subgroups, and to agree on the most important business initiatives right at the retreat, solid progress can be made through effectively utilizing everyone's ideas, perspectives and involvement.

D. Building Enthusiasm, Commitment and Skills - This is about getting employees excited and working better together to grease the wheels for improved organization functioning and productivity. Effective communication, coordination and collaboration skills are generally not taught in most schools. Organizations need to fill that gap by giving their employees greater abilities in these areas. Therefore, good retreat design sprinkles in a variety of contrived, participative exercises that get people to talk to each other more effectively, and to commit to important changes and improvements, both individually and collectively. With new relationship and problem-solving skills, attendees can also better engage in conversations about the organizations past, present and future. Then, they will be more successful in addressing and resolving the organizational concerns that need attention. Good skill-building and commitment-generating exercises also get participant's energy and creative juices flowing on behalf of that important work.

The more you are able to get your retreat participants engaged in these four related aspects, the more powerful and practical your retreats will become. However, for each action step identified at the retreat, make sure that you designate a person responsible for moving that action forward after the retreat. Also, set up a reporting structure so that company management stays involved in identifying priorities and guiding change efforts after the retreat. It is not useful when different retreat subgroups go off in independent directions without management being clear with where they are heading and why.

Work to make this coming year your company's best year ever. Design and implement a retreat experience that will get everyone participating to create greater business clarity, focus and impact. Then everyone will stand up and applaud your efforts and feel proud about heading somewhere great together.