Location, Location, Location

In his book on project retrospectives, Norm Kerth has observed that onsite locations “may be seen by participants as cheap and therefore unimportant, the site is ‘the same old place,’ the [event] is easily interrupted, and participants may not prepare as well since they can duck out to look for whatever materials they need at the last minute.”^[*]

To avoid interruptions that disrupt the flow of an event, try to hold significant events off site.

You are planning a half- or whole-day seminar or other event.

When you hold an event onsite at the organization, attendees can be easily distracted with their nearby work obligations.

As any real estate agent will tell you, the three most important qualities of any property are: location, location, location. The same can be said of special events in your company.

It is natural to assume that company events will be held onsite. This is normally seen as a good use of resources, and it presents attendees with a comfortable and familiar environment. However, an event that is a half-day or longer inevitably leads to breaks, and people will wander off to look at their e-mail or may be grabbed by their managers or co-workers to just look at “a small problem.” People always seem to spend longer than planned, and “a small problem” is rarely that—so people are late, distracted, or even pulled out of the event for a few hours or the duration of the event.

Such disruptions reduce the impact of the event and, as a result, people tend to believe they must get back to some task that suddenly seems more important (to someone else, if not the attendee in question). Even without actual disruption, there is often the feeling that “real work” is just a knock-on-the-door away.

Training costs money, so don’t squander your investment. That means paying attention to things that may seem trivial but that actually make a big difference. Location is one of these. You could say that the worst place for workplace training is at work!

Therefore:

Hold significant events of a half-day or longer offsite but nearby.

The best place to conduct training is often in your company’s own offsite facility. If this is not available, try a nearby hotel, training center, or retreat facility. The alternative location should not be inconvenient. People still have children to pick up from school, car pools to organize, and so on. A nearby location means that the usual beginning and end of day rituals can continue and that if there is an interruption during the day, it is not a big effort to get back to the office.

Make sure the event is a beneficial one. It will probably take extra effort for people to come to the offsite location, so this puts added responsibility on you to make it worthwhile. A unique, comfortable location can’t overcome a bad agenda.

Remind attendees to turn off mobile phones and pagers. Nothing brings back the daily work pressure more urgently, even if you’re offsite.

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This pattern creates a better environment for an event. It allows participants to be more focused because they are insulated from the worries of work minutiae, as the sources of work minutiae are from them. A new context often makes the event more special, creating a freer environment, less constrained by the expectations back at the office. It allows the opportunity for constructive discussion about the event during the breaks and for more personal contact and bonding. The sense of a company outing makes the event more fun. Some people are more open because the perception is that “this isn’t work.”

Inevitably, offsite venues will cost more than onsite ones. But if you’re going to do it, do it right. However, despite your best efforts, some people will not be able to get their minds off what needs to be done back at the office. Assure them that the genuinely high-priority interrupts will get through. Minor queries and problems will resolve themselves or wait, as will e-mail. Try a variation of the “I’m Too Busy” exercise, as suggested by Norm Kerth, to help people understand that the things they want to do back at the office are not as important as what will transpire during the event.

My company is located in Campinas in Brazil. A partnering organization is located in Curitiba. Meetings were held in one city or the other, which provided an offsite experience for the visiting group. The onsite group suffered all the disadvantages mentioned in this pattern, while the offsite group gained all the benefits. The two organizations decided to have future meetings in a third city, to allow both groups to go offsite.

Kevlin ran a workshop onsite for a company just outside Oslo. Over the three days of the workshop people disappeared and reappeared mysteriously, but it was the interruption and call of work rather than alien abductions that were to blame. Whether it was the lure of e-mail or “just a quick word” from a colleague or boss, it led to an unsettled atmosphere. The next time the workshop was run, the company rented a room offsite less than a five-minute walk away. In spite of the physical proximity, there was just enough separation to reduce interruptions. It turns out that almost everything that was normally “urgent” could wait until the end of the day or after the workshop. The atmosphere was relaxed and less transient, and all the delegates were more focused.