Why Off-Sites Should Go Virtual: the Virt-Site
By Keith Ferrazzi

Organizations are all trying to do more with less. As the economic downturn drags on, companies have tightened their belts even further. Businesses continue to lay off thousands of workers; holiday parties are being drastically downscaled; executive perks like corporate jets have become history; and the list goes on. As part of that belt-tightening, some companies have begun to rethink their strategic off-sites. Instead of flying executives from around the world to an expensive three-day offsite location, why not just conduct everything virtually? The problem, though, has been that many companies have been trying to use videoconferencing, virtual reality technologies, and other tools to try to replicate physical off-sites. One idea was to encourage spontaneous conversations by simulating a “virtual cocktail hour. ”

Wrong! The use of virtual technologies to replicate traditional physical off-sites misses a huge opportunity. Doing so results in a “poor man’s” version of the real thing, like online training courses that consist of nothing more than a video recording of an instructor followed by a test. Instead, companies need to be much smarter about how they conduct virtual off-sites. They need to leverage online’s unique characteristics to push beyond what’s possible in a physical setting and truly transform the process. Interviews with dozens of experts resulted in the following methodology, dubbed the virt-site, to vastly improve the process and obtain honest feedback, invaluable pushback and, eventually, true buy-in from the entire organization.

To begin, consider why companies have strategic off-sites in the first place. The overall goal is to figure out the best strategy for a business, a process that can be broken into four major steps, each of which can be performed better in a virtual environment:

1. communicate information, 2. engage feedback, 3. fine-tune strategy and build consensus, and 4. cascade information and obtain buy-in.

Communicate information: In a virtual environment, one benefit is communication of information in multiple forms, everything from plain text to video and multimedia. Also, a far greater number of individuals can participate in a virt-site because of the low cost of adding people. In a traditional off-site, a handful of executives must translate and relay important information to the field, and each repetition of that info can easily lose power or accuracy. Think of the classic telephone game in which a message is repeatedly passed along until it bears little resemblance to the original. In a virtual setting, everyone hears the exact same story with the same urgency.

Engage feedback: At a traditional off-site, participants discuss various proposals, but in a public setting with little time for considered feedback. The result is often subdued comments and a polite consensus when none actually exists. By conducting a virt-site in separate sessions spaced out over weeks, each business unit has enough time to evaluate, revise, and improve a proposal with thoughtful, honest feedback. The benefit is that everyone can participate, and top leadership will get a better feel for the real challenges. Also, as good ideas bubble up, management will learn who the innovative employees are, even if they might be buried deep in the organization.

Fine-tune strategy and build consensus: In traditional off-sites, executives might ask for honest feedback but what they really desire is to push through their agendas and get everyone else to march in step. When conducted properly, a virt-site is more inclusive and has greater transparency. Executives receive genuine pushback, and they have to respond with, “We heard you; here’s the feedback that we’re incorporating into our strategy; and here’s the feedback that we’re rejecting and these are the reasons why.” Again, that type of response from top management as the strategy is being fine-tuned can be communicated through various media, and such candor can go a long ways in building consensus for the final strategic initiative.

Cascade information and obtain buy-in: After top management has approved a new strategic directive, that initiative has to be cascaded throughout the organization. To obtain everyone’s buy-in, hold a contest for the business unit with the best plan for implementing the strategy. Turning the execution of the strategy into a competition engages employees and helps ensure their ownership of the new initiative. At the end of the contest, the company could then host a celebratory banquet to recognize the winners with awards such as “Most Innovative” implementation of strategy. Note that this could be the first time that all the participants meet physically instead of virtually.

Make no mistake: a virt-site is an opportunity for a major overhaul of strategic off-sites. The truth is that far too many traditional off-sites simply don’t work; they are well-orchestrated gatherings that are merely for show because important decisions have already been made by a small cadre of executives in backroom deals. It’s no wonder why so many companies end up with “let’s do more of the same” strategies that lack any innovative thinking. To devise strategies that are based on keen insights and breakthrough ideas, companies need to open up the process, bringing in the entire organization. And the best way to do that is through the use of virtual technologies in a virt-site.

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