Start from Scratch for Great Firm Retreats

If you begin your law firm retreat planning with last year’s agenda, you’re doing it wrong.

Instead of beginning your planning with the agenda from the year before, why not start with a blank sheet of paper and build a law firm retreat that delivers what your attorneys want and need?

Begin by asking your firm management and a representative group of the firm’s lawyers these three questions:

1. What is a great outcome of the retreat for our attorneys?  What do they want to learn, see, do or accomplish that can only occur when they’re all together?  If collaboration and networking top the list, the retreat will look much different than one designed to deliver information and learning.
2. What is a great outcome of the retreat for our firm?  What three things does the firm need from the retreat?  What does the firm want its lawyers to do, practice or learn?  What does the firm want to learn from its lawyers?
3. What do we do at our retreats that we’ve always done?  Make a list of all the things that have become staples at your firm retreats, and then try to justify the reason those things remain on the agenda.  If there’s a reason, is there a way to make it better?  If there’s no reason, would anyone notice or complain if you eliminated it?  Can some of the things you’ve always done (giving information about firm finances, for example) be delivered better in an email or video-conference than in a speech?

Remember, the most significant cost of a retreat is the time and attention of the attendees.  Building your next retreat “from scratch” is a better way to deliver a more productive experience for your attendees and a better result for your firm.