# Leadership offsite

Offsites fail in a specific way: great conversation, zero follow-through. Built from what the strongest scored agendas do, this template forces a decision architecture: one named problem, structured dissent, and commitments with owners before anyone leaves the room.

Who: Executive or leadership team offsites, 8 to 50 people, one to two days.
Duration: 1 day

## Agenda

- 9:00 | Check-in and stakes: each leader states what must be different in 90 days: Personal stakes beat icebreakers; the answers become the day's success criteria.
- 9:30 | The problem brief: pre-read recap and the single decision the day must produce: An offsite that decides nothing is a expensive dinner; name the decision early.
- 10:00 | Evidence round: data walk of what we actually know, gaps named explicitly: Separates what is known from what is assumed before opinions harden.
- 11:00 | Structured dissent: red team argues against the emerging direction: Disagreement by design, while it is still cheap.
- 12:30 | Walking lunch in pairs, matched across functions: Recovery plus deliberate cross-silo ties.
- 13:30 | Decision session: options on the wall, tradeoffs argued, decision made and written: The core act. The decision is written in the room, with dissent recorded.
- 15:00 | Ownership map: every workstream gets an owner, a date, and a first step: Decisions without owners decay within a week.
- 16:00 | Close: the 30-day check-in is scheduled before leaving, and the write-up owner is named: Follow-through is a calendar artifact, not an intention.

## Design notes

- Name the one decision the offsite must produce, in the invite.
- Schedule the 30-day check-in during the offsite itself, not after.
- Record dissent alongside the decision; it makes the commitment durable.

These are design recommendations informed by published agenda evidence, not measured outcome claims.

Source: https://unitedwetransform.com/leadership-offsite-agenda-template/