Impactful Retreats
Offsite, onsite or virtual, take the time to work on your business to regroup, align, and kickoff your next phase of growth.
Impactful Leadership Retreats
Build alignment, stronger relationships, and a shared vision to kick off your next phase of growth. And upskill your team with a new shared vocabulary, and tangible outcomes from your time together.
You spend all of your time "in" the business.
It's just as important to spend time "on" it.
• Provides focused time to achieve a specific goal (a new direction, a complex problem solved, etc)
• Builds stronger relationships
• Builds a more cohesive and aligned team
When time or budget are significant constraints, it is possible to put together on-site retreats. (Post-COVID, we no longer recommend virtual retreats.)
Taking time off to participate in a retreat is one thing, but taking the time off to plan the content and logistics for a retreat is another. This is where we can help.
Our approach is flexible, and depends on your needs. There are three ways we can work together:
• Plan the agenda: We'll do the heavy lifting, and plan the activities, workshops, pre-work – even the fun activities. We work collaboratively to ensure that the retreat agenda supports your overall objectives.
• Deliver the presentations: We'll customize our programs, arrange pre-work, present the content, and run the workshops. For workshops that are beyond our direct knowledge, we will tap into our wide network of professional trainers and subject matter experts, and bring them to the retreat.
• Facilitation Support: It's challenging for leaders to participate fully in the sessions when they also try to be the facilitator. We can either directly facilitate the entire event, facilitate key sessions only, or provide "behind the scenes support" if you would prefer to do it all yourself.
Don't spend all of your time "in" the business.
It's just as important to spend time "on" the business.
• Provides focused time to achieve a specific goal (a new direction, solve a complex problem, etc.)
• Upskills the team together with the same messaging, information and a new shared vocabulary
• Builds stronger, trusted relationships
What we do
- Plan and deliver the training content.
- Plan the breakout groups.
- Plan small group work and consolidate the learning.
- Facilitate important conversations to gain alignment.
- Listen to the goals, blockers and dynamics of your team.
- Address as many issues as we can with sensitivity and discretion.
- Motivate, educate, and inspire teams to work productively together.
- Work with the leadership team / CEO to ensure goals are met.
- Plan relevant pre-work, deliver reference notes, and post-event resources.
- Make it a fun experience for everyone. We're serious, but we have fun!
What we don't do
- Event logistics: We don't pick the venue, meals, etc.
- Pre-packaged presentations: Every presentation is unique based on your objectives, attendee interviews, and your feedback.
- Drama: We are easy to work with. There are no surprises.
Our Process
A collaborative planning process has the greatest, lasting impact on your organization.
We work with your senior leadership on an agenda that meets your objectives, driven by insights from interviews from your team.
Design
Depending on the goals, the day (or days) will include a mix of
training modules,
breakout group work,
practical problem solving,
and facilitated conversations. (It will also include relationship-building and social time.)
Our approach also includes
pre-reading (or pre-work),
so everyone can hit the
ground running.
On-site Delivery
Experience facilitation, training and role modeling from a hall of fame speaker who is also an entrepreneur and executive.
We mix learning with small group breakouts; new concepts can be put into practice immediately.
The groups tackle your organizations real-world challenges, surfaced from the interviews.
On-SITE MENTORSHIP
Attendees will typically have many questions and reflections as they go through the day.
Some of the most impactful conversations take place outside the formal schedule: at breaks, the evening before and the evening after. We actively seek out these conversations to help your team more deeply process their learning.
Reinforcements
For any new learning to stick, there needs to be follow up. We will provide visual reference sheets, and provide post-retreat readings.
We will also meet with your senior leadership to share additional insights that surfaced during the
pre-interviews, formal sessions, and our on-site conversations.
PRICING
In the market for retreat leaders, you will find a wide range of fees, ranging from $5K to $100K+. As there are so many variables (and each of our clients is unique), it is impossible for us to provide a definitive quote without a conversation.
While our fees have typically ranged from $15K to $50K, we don't want this to be an impediment – we're more interested in working with great leadership teams who are looking to make a significant impact.
Give us a call – no obligation, just conversation.
– Randall and Ronja
"Our retreats with Randall and Ronja have been a completely new experience for us. Our retreats had previously never had an impact on the organization; the travel and luxury were just considered a job perk. Now our development days and post-retreat support really propel our teams' success. I wish we knew about them sooner."–I. K., COO
What determines pricing?
- Number of attendees
- Number of interviews
- Number of days
- Number of planning and feedback sessions
- Complexity of the overall goal or challenge to be resolved
- Complexity of pre-prep and post-event resources
- Training license fees
- Other services needed
- Location
More about our approach:
Transform Your Leadership Retreats and Development Days
At the Braintrust Professional Institute, we take a fundamentally different approach to leadership gatherings – one you'll notice from the very first planning conversation.
Our Unique Process
We take your overall goals, and then connect directly with your team members to understand the real challenges they face. This ground-level insight shapes every aspect of the program:
• For intimate leadership teams (under 25 attendees), we aim to interview each participant.
• For larger organizational gatherings (100-500+), we work with you to select interviewees across different roles, functions, and demographics.
Through these conversations, we identify the key themes that will drive meaningful change:
• Uncovering and reframing perceptions that may be limiting team effectiveness and work effort
• Identifying specific knowledge gaps and the topics team members want to learn about
• Addressing misalignments that impact culture, and results
Satisfying both overall goals while also providing participants precisely what they say they need vastly increases engagement, and the longer impact.
Ready to Transform Your Next Leadership Session?
Let's schedule an hour to discuss your goals and explore possibilities - no obligation, just conversation. We're passionate about helping leaders succeed and would love to hear about your vision. Either call us at 416-918-5384, or meet us for a Zoom coffee.
Sample Retreat Agenda: Addressing a specific challenge
• Pre-reading specific articles
• Small group assignment
Arrival:
• Kick-off presentation by CEO
• Session 1: Trends, or topics
• Dinner
• Team-building social activity
Day one:
• Early morning: Yoga or other fitness activity
• Breakfast
• Session 2: Presentations of small group assignment
• Session 3: Skill-building session
• Lunch
• Team-building activity
• Session 4: Facilitated brainstorm session
on topic
• Free time
• Dinner
• Small group work on "project" based on earlier sessions
Day two:
• Early morning: Yoga or other fitness activity
• Session 5: Presentations/discussions from evening project work
• Session 6: Next steps planning/Implementation
• Session 7: Motivational presentation
• Lunch, Closing presentation by CEO
• Check-out and departure
One week after the event:
• 1h session to review retreat outcomes
and re-focus
Sample Retreat Agenda: Management Training
Two weeks before the event:
• Pre-reading specific articles
• Attend in-person Critical Thinking workshop "set up" virtual session (30m)
• Small group assignment: Issues and Trends
Arrival:
• Kick-off presentation (by CEO, HR leader, or senior manager)
• Session 1: MBA in a day, part one
• Dinner
• Team-building social activity
Day one:
• Early morning: Yoga or other fitness activity
• Breakfast
• Session 2: MBA in a day, part two
• Session 3: Critical Thinking Workshop (including Issues and Trends assignment)
• Lunch
• Session 4: Management Essentials
• Team-building activity
• Free time
• Dinner
• Small group work on Issues and
Trends report
Day two:
• Issues and Trends report due
• Early morning: Yoga or other fitness activity
• Session 5: Presentation Skills training
• Session 6: Presentation of Issues and Trends
• Session 7: Motivational presentation
• Lunch, Closing presentation (by CEO, HR leader, or senior manager)
• Check-out and departure
One week after the event:
• 1h coaching sessions with each
team member
Learn more about our approach
Listen in on this Q&A session on
leadership retreats.
Listen in on this Q&A session on
leadership retreats.
Curious how we can help level up your organization?
Book a call to discuss possibilities, challenges and how he might help.
Curious? Questions? Interested in exploring the possibilities?