Company retreats are a lot like New Year's resolutions.

We fixate one day of the year (or perhaps a couple days) and assess what we want to accomplish in the next 12 months. Then, 365 days later, we pull out our resolutions and realize how little we did to reach our goals. Or worse, we never even glance at our resolutions again.

Have you ever been to a retreat, walked away thinking of all the great ideas discussed only to prop your retreat notebook on the shelf to collect dust as you return to the daily office grind? Most employees have had that experience, whether it happened at their company, a previous employer or with another organization in which they're involved.

Company retreat organizers, though, say that, done properly, these events contribute to the company's success all year long.

"The biggest issue is what you do when you get back to the office," says Rita Keller, a director at Brady Ware, a Leading Edge Alliance firm. "Don't let the retreat's results be something you put in a desk drawer and never pull out again."

She says an action plan should be created at every retreat. Then, each meeting after should include time to review those goals, see how they are being met and what still needs to be done to meet them. "Determining who's going to do what, and when they will do it, assigns accountability," Keller notes.

But where do you start? First, prepare diligently for the retreat to make sure the retreat creates an environment that addresses the reason for the gathering.

Brady Ware's senior management meets annually for a two-day strategic planning retreat. The next level of management may attend for a half day at the start to share in developing the vision and mission of the retreat.

SS&G Financial Services, a Leading Edge Alliance firm, holds partner retreats for strategic development as well as an annual retreat for its entire staff as a once-a-year opportunity to unite all seven offices.

Keller says upfront planning, checklists and preparation all are keys to a successful retreat. "There's nothing worse than you get there and the video equipment doesn't work," she says. "We don't like to wing it."

Laurie Lewton, a human resource associate at SS&G who plans the retreats, arrives at 5 a.m. the day of the event after spending the previous day setting it up.

She says SS&G selects a location central to all its offices and makes a commitment to involving all employees by closing for the day.

Going off site enables all participants to get away from the daily interruptions that the office setting would have, both Lewton and Keller say.

SS&G's Lewton designs each all-employee retreat to have a focus. "We select a motivational theme," she says. CARE (Clients Are Really Everything) was the theme in 2003. Last year, the Light the Fire theme sparked the topic of internal communication.

She says she tries to carry the theme throughout the event, from the decorations on the table to the snacks in the gift bags and the program for the day. "If you've got 270 people sitting in one room all day, you have to keep them entertained," Lewton says.

This past year, she organized a business etiquette fashion show for employees to enjoy during lunch. Complete with a catwalk and the song "Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred playing through the sound system, a dozen SS&G employees strutted office fashions—six in the what-not-to-wear category and six in the what-to-wear category.

"The crowd was going wild," Lewton says.

To kick off the daylong retreat, she asked a senior-level executive to serve as master of ceremonies. He entered, dressed in a Dracula costume to the scary tune of "Thriller." Despite his light (or dark) hearted appearance, an upper management person leading the event signifies to the audience that the retreat is important.

Lewton says retreat planners should never serve as masters of ceremonies or leaders of the sessions as they have to work throughout the day to make sure the next step or program is ready to go.

Brady Ware's Keller says her firm hires an outside facilitator for its strategic retreats. "It allows us all to be participants," she notes.

Outside facilitators bring a fresh perspective to the company as well as a plethora of information cultivated from working with other businesses, Keller says. However, consider mixing up the facilitators at least every two or three years to keep the retreats fresh.

To keep the retreat as relevant as possible, survey the participants as well as others within the company prior to the event to structure the agenda. Leading Edge Alliance firm, Lurie Besikof Lapidus and Company, LLP, recently brought wireless technology into its all-day retreat for staff. Each participant was given a device that looked like a remote control. In the morning, each person keyed in data such as age, gender, area of practice, etc. During the rest of the day, the facilitator asked participants to use the devices to answer questions—the results broken down by demographics appeared immediately on the big screen.

Keller says, ask employees to identify what issues they face, what is the biggest issue facing the firm, etc. Host roundtables in the office before the retreat to generate discussion on a focus and topics.

Think big, she advises. "Give reading materials to prepare participants to get in the right frame of mind. People tend to get caught up in the day to day," Keller notes.

Create ground rules such as no talk about office politics, personnel issues, etc., she continues. If the company has never done a SWOT analysis, identifying your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats is an essential first step. If a SWOT analysis exists, update it annually to keep on track.

If you incorporate these ideas, you increase the opportunity for the retreat to be successful and generate lots of ideas. The key to making the event a success to the company, though, is to take a few more steps to ensure follow through, according to Keller.

• Prioritize ideas and identify a goal list of three or four achievable items.
• Boil down each goal into action steps.
• Don't just say we want to improve the quality of a product or service, break it down into measurable objectives. Identify specifically what you mean by "improve" and detail how you will do it.
• Come back and share the ideas immediately with employees who did not attend the event. Do not make the retreat a secretive event.
• Create a "rah-rah" event to outline the goals and create enthusiasm throughout the office. Perhaps give each employee a gift to remember the day.
• Ask for all employees' help. You cannot generate results on your own.
• Keep your goals visible throughout the year.

Lewton offers one more tip—survey retreat participants after the event so you know what worked, what didn't and how to make next year's retreat even better. e