90 min 6 activities PlanningReflectionInsight

Executive Retreat

C-suite, senior leadership teams, executive offsites

A structured offsite experience for senior leadership. Surfaces strategic alignment, reveals where the team diverges, and produces clear priorities.

Workshop Goal

The Problem

A structured offsite experience for senior leadership. Surfaces strategic alignment, reveals where the team diverges, and produces clear priorities.

What You'll Achieve
  • Create space for honest conversation at the senior level
  • Surface where the leadership team is aligned and where it is not
  • Generate strategic options for the next planning horizon
  • Produce a ranked set of priorities the team owns
  • Close with structured reflection on team dynamics
Facilitator Value

Safe For The Office™ handles the technology, timing, and participant experience. You focus on the conversation.

Workshop Timeline

A step-by-step structure for the full 90-minute session.

  1. Icebreaker Experience 10 min
    Establish peer-level safety. Senior leaders need permission to be candid.
    Frame it explicitly: "For the next 90 minutes, titles don't matter. We are here as peers."
  2. Team Polls 15 min
    Surface current leadership team sentiment on strategy, culture, and execution.
    Executive poll results are often more revealing than expected. Name what you see: "This result tells us something."
  3. Would You Rather 12 min
    Reveal strategic and leadership tradeoffs at the senior level.
    Executive WYR questions are designed to be genuinely hard. Disagreement is the point.
  4. Idea Storm 15 min
    Generate strategic options and initiatives for the next horizon.
    Encourage bold ideas. Senior leaders often self-censor. Remind the room: "Nothing is off the table at this stage."
  5. Priority Poker 20 min
    Align the leadership team on the top strategic priorities.
    The output is a ranked list this team owns. After reveal: "This is what we said matters most. Are we prepared to act on it?"
  6. Team Retrospective 15 min
    Close with structured reflection on how this leadership team is working together.
    The retro closes the session. It is not optional. Senior leaders rarely get structured space to reflect on team dynamics — protect this time.

Facilitator Guide

Key Notes

  • Frame the session at the start: titles don't matter here. Peer-level candor is the goal.
  • Executive poll results are often more revealing than expected. Name what you see.
  • Idea Storm before Priority Poker — always. You need options before you can rank them.
  • The retro is not optional. Senior leaders rarely get structured reflection time.
  • The output of this session is a ranked priority list and a retro the team owns.

Discussion Tips

  • Where did this leadership team agree? Where did it not?
  • What is the one thing we are not saying that we need to say?
  • What does this team need more of to execute on our top priority?

Closing Prompts

  • "What is the one commitment you are leaving this retreat with?"
  • "What is the one thing you want this team to know before we close?"
🎓 Facilitator Academy First time facilitating? Browse guides, checklists, and practical advice. Visit the Academy →

Ready to run this workshop?

Safe For The Office™ guides you through every step. No facilitation experience required.