This question gets asked a lot.  Especially when you’re someone who is proposing that your team has a working getaway.  When you are asking your investors, your company or even your individual team members to put up money, the first thing they want to know is, Why?  Why is this necessary?  Why are we doing it?  Why is it so important?

You may wonder about this yourself.  You may start questioning why you ever brought it up.  So, let’s look at some top reasons why a getaway that is well planned can be beneficial:

• You get your team out of their usual cubical/office environment and into a more natural and creative environment.  This will lead to more creative thinking which is really one of the first steps to getting good ideas to happen.  When is the last time you had a good idea while sitting at your desk typing an e-mail.  Most people will tell you their best ideas happened while they were out hiking with  friend or in the shower, or while on vacation.
• You get focused, uninterrupted time that allows the team to charge ahead on a project.  This uninterrupted time can produce more results in a few hours than you may get in a few months! We have become a society of multi-tasking, this does not serve projects well, as there are times that laser focus is required.
• When run by a trained facilitator who knows how to get the ball rolling (and how to keep it rolling), you will be shocked by how efficient and effective a team of smart people can be.  That business plan you’ve been trying to get done, that project plan that you still need to put together, that product you still need to integrate… when facilitated over a few days, a group can get from A-Z without being taken on a tangent that is not only not critical to the project, but not even related.  A facilitator will help keep the focus on the task that is at hand… with deliverables that mean something.

The main benefit to a well organized and plan getaway is that the group will walk away with a completed project that can move business forward.  With new ideas that may not have been found otherwise.  With a team that is stronger because they worked together in a very focused way that allowed each contributor to focus on their strengths and their contributions without constant interruptions.

Because the team will be able to define, work on and complete a project, they will walk away stronger and more motivated.  They will know that, when they put their collective minds to something, they will be able to get to their goal.  Get that product out the door, get that project to the finish line.  There is no greater motivator than this.

This is one reason why a working getaway can be such an important component to the workplace.

Something I love to do, whether it’s for myself or for a group of people, is to plan working getaways.  There is something about getting out of the office and into a a great remote location that can help people get a lot of good work done.  Surrounded by nature, where you can’t be interrupted, work takes on a whole new feel.  You can think about that project that you keep setting to the side, can focus as a group on future plans, or can focus on that new software product and walk away with a prototype (or better yet a bet version that people can start using!).

While a lot of people think (and justifiably so) that group off-site = lots of fluffy stuff that has no real long term impact… when an off-site is limited to a small (3-6 people) group of people with a very focused mission and end goal… the results can be staggering.  You may be shocked by what can be produced over 48-72 hours… entire companies and products can be launched over a focused getaway.

So, the next time you’re trying to figure out how you and/or your team are going to pull of your idea(s)… think about a well planned getaway.  Your business will thank you for it!