This section covers:

• an example schedule
• energizer ideas
• 6 thinking hats
• other tips
• conclusion
  • feedback
  • thank yous

Day 1: Analysis of the Situation

Day 2: Retrospective, Ideation, and Setting the Destination

Day 3: Event Strategy & Setting Goals

Day 4: Buffer time & Conclusion

Notes:

• the first intro should cover
  • the current state of the team,
  • the current strategy
  • the schedule for the next days
  • expectations from the team
• while this schedule has some breaks planned in, you could extend those and plan in more buffer time. Alternatively you can keep buffer time on the last day and be flexible with the schedule.

“The energizers helped lighten the mood of the room.” - Anonymous

“As a team building exercise I loved the energizers” - Anonymous

There's a lot of content throughout this planning session. Energizers can help lighten the mood and get everyone ready to continue working. They also offer an opportunity for different team members to get involved. Below are some examples of what you could do.

You'll need plastic cups about 100 per team. The teams try to build the highest stack of cups they can within a minute. The team with the highest stack wins. Watch this video if you want to see an example. You can do this two or three times.

Watch this if you don't know the cups song. It's actually something you can learn within about 5-10 minutes and it's incredibly fun to do as a group. One person will have to learn this beforehand [here's a tutorial and can then lead the group through the steps slowly. Once everyone can follow along, you can practice it as a group and slowly speed up. You'll need hard plastic cups (as many as you have team members).

Ever wanted to make a balloon animal? The basic ones are not too difficult. You can buy a starter set fairly cheaply online and then have the team follow printed out instructions to make a dog.

Edward De Bono's 6 thinking hats, can help your team get through the retrospective parts of the planning much faster. If you're not familiar with the framework, the basic idea is that you ask the team to put on different colored hats (white - facts, yellow - optimism, red - emotions, green - ideas, blue - process, black - criticism) and have everyone think about the topic at hand with one hat on. If you're wearing a white hat, you're all just talking about facts. With green, everyone thinks about ideas, etc. The book is fairly short but a youtube intro video is also enough to get the idea. It does really help get everyone think about topics from all angles and it works a lot faster than discussing general feedback.

When planning the planning session, make sure others are aware of what you are planning, share an outline/schedule early and reach out to each person to get their input on whether they think anything is missing or should be done differently. That way everyone is engaged and can contribute.

It can be useful to mention in the beginning of the planning session how you expect team members to conduct themselves during the planning. Certain parts of the planning may get emotional and you want to ensure that everyone acts professionally and that no one is seeking to blame anyone but that you are all working towards a better future as a team.

“Passing the monkey to indicate whose turn it was to talk seemed like a silly idea, but it was super effective in making sure that everyone had a chance to speak.”

To moderate who is talking and ensure the quieter folks get heard, I recommend using a small plush animal (e.g. a monkey) that can be thrown around to indicate who is currently speaking. Be strict about this rule.

Often people like to rephrase what others have already said to essentially say they agree. Ask in the beginning of the planning that if this is the case, people should knock on the table to express agreement.

Designate one person as a time keeper (you can designate different people over the course of the planning). If you have the budget you can buy that person a small gong :).

At the end of each day you may want to summarize what you've accomplished. If at all possible you should end each day on a good note. If your team feels that, for example, a retrospective brought up a lot of criticism you'll want to make sure they see the good parts and see this state as an opportunity to improve things. At each start of the day you can again recap what has happened so far and outline what the goals for the day are. On the final day you will want to make sure to ask your team for feedback and to thank them for their participation.

At the end of the planning session you should have a feedback form ready (anonymous ideally). These are the open ended questions you may want to ask:

• What do you think could be improved?
• What do you think went well?
• Anything else?

I'd love to hear your feedback. If you are willing to share this feedback, please reach out to me.

During the planning session it is nice to pay attention and note down good things that each person contributed. After the planning session this will allow you to write everyone a personalized thank you note which will be a nice touch.