Choosing the right date
One of the hardest parts of organizing your ideal retreat is finding the date for it. Unfortunately, you’ll be hard pressed to find a date that works for everyone in your team. Some more bad news – the bigger your team is, the bigger the headache around finding a date that works for all team members.
For smaller teams, this is not such an issue, as you can open a Slack channel (or whichever communication tool you use) and discuss a date that everyone can attend trouble-free.
For bigger teams, it’s best to avoid using group chats to arrange a date for the retreat. Before you know it, it turns into a discussion on whose birthday is happening that weekend and who booked a romantic getaway with their partner months ago.
For a more general tip, do some research in advance and avoid bank holidays and school holidays. This is good practice to keep everyone in mind.
Once you’ve done this, choose a date, sit back and wait as complaints start rolling in. Don’t worry, there will be complaints. Try not to take this too seriously, as you’ll never find a date that works for every single person.
If there aren’t too many people with serious reasons for not being able to attend, stick to this date and start arranging your retreat. Otherwise, if you’re trying to please everyone, you will inevitably fail.
To handle the more practical side of choosing a date, teams such as TimeDoctor use Doodle. This tool allows your team members to mark when they’re available.
Organize your dream retreat today
Do you want a retreat that’s more about enjoying the good things in life than worrying whether Janet from accounting gets a single-bed room as she requested?
At Surf Office, we make organizing retreats a breeze. We do the heavy lifting, while you do the things you love. We can’t promise to pick an ideal date for you, but we can promise you’ll have a great time.