You’re in yet another planning retreat, wondering how anything fruitful is going to come out of it. “I’ve heard the same things for the past three years,” you think to yourself, “and nothing has changed at all.” You look around and notice that people are checking their watches, doodling on their notes, fiddling with their phones, reengineering their mechanical pencils… you get the point. Somewhere in the background, Charlie Brown’s teacher is rambling on, “Waah, wah, waah, wah, wah.”

The meeting ends, everyone nods in agreement (“What did we just decide?”), they walk out, check their inboxes, phones, and go back to what they were doing before the meeting. Did anything change? Better yet, WILL anything change as a result of the last eight hours?

With our structured “sticky wall” approach to brainstorming, we have facilitated many productive planning sessions that have led to successful decision-making and implementation.

Here are some tips for making your next planning retreat more meaningful:

• Make sure all of the key players are involved up front. If key people can’t attend, cancel the meeting. Don’t invite anyone who doesn’t need to be there.
• Hand out a sample agenda beforehand. Give people the expectations for the meeting so they have time to think about the discussion topics.
• Start and end the meeting on time. Show respect for those people who show up on time by starting promptly. Be ready to wrap things up on schedule by allowing time for decisions and follow-up actions.
• Review the group objectives, methods, and agenda at the beginning of the retreat. Let people know what to expect.
• Establish “rules of behavior”. While some conflict can be healthy, finger pointing and personal attacks are not. Focus the attention on the ideas and not on individuals.
• Use a structured approach to capture everyone’s input and to document decisions.
• Stay on track. Use a flip chart page designated as the “parking lot” to record miscellaneous or “off-topic” comments.
• Periodically check on the progress toward the desired goals of the meeting.
• Develop consensus on the meeting’s outcomes and ensure that everyone is clear on the decisions made, initiatives, responsibilities, due dates, and monitoring mechanisms.