And then it’s Monday again…

The summer is over and like every year at this time of the year, your company is planning its off-site. The idea is to gather all top leaders of the company and to communicate Change.

Regardless of its purpose whether it’s a radical strategy shift following the arrival of the new CEO or whether it’s about incremental improvements such as unveiling the new tenants of the company’s future success, all top ranking generals are invited and the stakes are high.

And for good reason; the firm has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the event.

Unlike last year (and the years before) though, this year it will be different. This year the firm will execute. This year things will materialize – after all, the firm has been meticulously planning every single detail of the 2,5 days happening for the last 6 months. The communication and the HR departments have been working hand-in-hand to make this happen; the best event-planners have been called-in, the catering firms have been lined-up, etc. The firm has even sourced the best consulting firm in town to facilitate the gathering. There is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind; the outcomes will be inline with the expectations of the business executives namely, alignment throughout the ranks and increased business results.
The offsite was clearly a bash – nothing went particularly wrong and it seems that everyone was happy. The apex of the gathering was when the CEO came on-stage on a energizing tune. Then, all leaders got to commit to ‘one thing’ they would do differently when returning back to their respective offices. It was now their tasks to deploy the new strategy and to engage every single employee into sharing the vision of where the company was heading. And for sure, they were ready, pumped-up and just looking forward to make it happen.
Back in local markets – just a few weeks post event – things were slightly different than our leaders had envisioned. This thing commonly called ‘work’ rapidly caught up with our enthusiastic leaders. Slowly but surely, managing the whirlwind of the daily reality became more important than evangelizing.

For the following year, our leaders will occasionally be reminded of the importance of deploying what was agreed upon and – yes – some sporadic events will make their way in the operations in an attempt to share the vision and to engage the lower levels of the organization into ‘believing’.
But then, guess what… It’s one year down the road and not much different has really happened. ‘Business as usual’ has settled in – again…
Does this sound familiar? Don’t worry you are not alone. In fact, we see this happening every day, year after year. At internalDesk, we know why it is so difficult for a leader to make it happen. We also know what needs to be in place in a company for moving a large number of people at once and towards the same goal – whether it is after an offsite or not. Key to success is an employee-centric approach.

Contact us if you want to know more about how we can help you stop wasting money and time and increase the ROI of your next off-site.

About internalDesk

internalDesk is the leading provider of digital solutions for faster deployment of internal business initiatives. With its easy set-up and user-friendly interface internalDesk motivates employees to participate to the business initiatives that are important to organizations. internalDesk works with globally recognized corporations incl. Fortune100 to execute faster, increase employee engagement and analyze outcomes of internal initiatives in real time.
internalDesk is a Swedish technology company headquartered in Kista, Sweden. For more information, www.internaldesk.com