# Running Offsites - All Guest Insights

*5 guests, 5 mentions*

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## Brandon Chu
*Brandon Chu*

> "we've actually instituted with something we call bursts. So bursts at Shopify are the ability for your team generally maybe once a quarter or whatnot, to just come together to do really high velocity creative work together, to hang out together."

**Insight:** Remote-first companies should use short, high-intensity in-person 'bursts' to handle creative work that is difficult to do asynchronously.

**Tactical advice:**
- Schedule quarterly in-person sessions for high-velocity creative work
- Build or use infrastructure to make booking and logistics for these 'bursts' frictionless

*Timestamp: 20:31*


## Claire Hughes Johnson
*Claire Hughes Johnson*

> "When you yank people out of their day-to-day routine, you create space, and also you imprint memory... you're basically activating new parts of their brain, and then you're also having a group experience that cements a belief system usually, or a set of plans."

**Insight:** Offsites are essential for creating mental space and imprinting collective memory that cements team alignment.

**Tactical advice:**
- Remove the team from day-to-day routines like email to focus on brainstorming
- Use offsites to collaboratively form plans rather than presenting pre-made ones

*Timestamp: 01:12:53*


## Donna Lichaw
*Donna Lichaw*

> "They pulled me aside halfway through the offsite, and they were just like, 'Honestly, storytelling is not going to fix our problems. This is silly.' And what they were able to tell me is that their leaders wanted them to be more effective by having greater influence... what was happening on the ground with these executives was that they were all fighting."

**Insight:** Offsites focused on soft skills like storytelling may fail if there are underlying interpersonal conflicts or a lack of genuine influence among leadership.

**Tactical advice:**
- Address team conflict and connection before attempting to implement storytelling or influence workshops.

*Timestamp: 00:06:56*


## John Mark Nickels
*John Mark Nickels*

> "We recently had an all-day Monday thing where eight of us came into the office to talk about future of marketplace, and it was super productive. It was like, laptops down, we're going to spend all day together on a whiteboard. It's like a lost art. People don't use the whiteboards anymore."

**Insight:** Deep strategic work requires 'defragging' the day and removing digital distractions in favor of physical collaboration tools.

**Tactical advice:**
- Enforce a 'laptops down' rule for strategic sessions
- Use physical whiteboards to facilitate co-creation and riffing

*Timestamp: 00:32:10*


## Megan Cook
*Megan Cook*

> "One of the other things we do is we get everyone together just like every six months. So all of the product managers get together in the same place and the idea is to have a bit of an onsite. Now we start off with just doing something fun... And then after that we talk about strategy. We do workshops on different elements of craft boosting that craft together."

**Insight:** Use semi-annual offsites to balance social connection with intensive strategy alignment and skill-building workshops.

**Tactical advice:**
- Gather remote teams in person at least every six months
- Start offsites with social activities to build human connection before diving into work
- Utilize internal experts to teach specific craft skills (e.g., growth hypotheses) to the broader team

*Timestamp: 00:10:29*


