Leadership Summits That Work

How to stop putting your top people to sleep

by

Bob Frisch

and

Cary Greene

by

Bob Frisch

and

Cary Greene

From the Magazine (March 2015) · Long read

Fredrik Broden

Summary.

When executed well, annual gatherings of an organization’s high-level leaders are worth the effort and expense. But for many companies, the leadership summit is a numbing series of presentations in which information flows only from the top—and not that coherently. By applying the appropriate techniques before, during, and after the summit, C-level leaders can seize this rare opportunity to harness the collective knowledge of frontline executives.

Before the summit, it’s crucial to clarify roles and responsibilities (a director, who oversees planning and owns the agenda; a design team; a content editor; and so on), define a clear set of objectives for the summit, design the event around those objectives, and prepare attendees for productive conversations through reading material and brief webcasts.

During the event, a variety of low- and high-tech approaches, from color-coded 3 x 5 index cards to online polls, can capture the thinking of attendees and communicate it upward. And various exercises can help attendees connect in ways that lay a foundation for sustained collaboration.

After the summit, organizers should track commitments made during the event and equip attendees with talking points and presentations that help them discuss with their employees what happened at the summit and how to turn the results into action.

HBR Reprint R1503F

Idea in Brief

The Situation

Most large and midsize companies bring together their 50 to 500 top executives every year for a leadership summit. When done well, these events are worth the considerable effort and expense.

The Problem

At most such conferences, information flows from the top down in a numbing series of discursive, disconnected PowerPoints, and sessions address topics relevant to only some people in the room. Participants leave slightly better informed than when they arrived.

The Solution

It is possible to have a productive conversation with hundreds of people at once. By carefully coordinating the event planning and applying some high- and low-tech practices during the summit, leaders can direct the conversation without inhibiting creative responses.

Every year, in virtually all large and midsize companies, high-level leaders come together for a leadership summit.

A version of this article appeared in the March 2015 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Bob Frisch is the Founding Partner of the Strategic Offsites Group. His work includes the best-selling Who’s in the Room? How Great Leaders Structure and Manage the Teams Around Them (Wiley), Simple Sabotage (HarperOne), and 25 HBR articles since the seminal “Off-Sites That Work” in 2006. Bob’s articles are featured in 14 HBR collections, including HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams.
Cary Greene is the Managing Partner of the Strategic Offsites Group, a consultancy focused on designing and facilitating strategy conversations for executive teams and boards. He is the coauthor of Simple Sabotage (HarperOne) and 16 HBR articles. Cary’s work is featured in 10 HBR collections.

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Leadership Summits That Work

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