The Value of an Offsite

What do you gain from an offsite?  It depends on the purpose. Establishing this upfront is key to ensuring you feel the impact of a wise investment. Sarah, Kristy and I went on our annual offsite earlier this month, joined by Catherine (our social media guru) for our first day.  

Our 2026 focus was on planning, confirming strategy and unpacking roadblocks or bottlenecks (usually mine!). It’s important to curate the days carefully; we set up a shared agenda two months in advance. It is then up to me to ensure we achieve the key actions and take turns in facilitating topics. We also mapped out our twentieth anniversary celebration in September – very exciting!

I’m always inspired by good conversation, excellent beach views, and the kind of clarity that comes from being out of daily commitments.  

Stimulating Learning

I attended the CEO Summit at UTS hosted by Scaling Up. The standouts for me were Craig Scroggie, CEO and MD of NextDC, and Shuya Gong, Innovation Fellow and Lecturer at Harvard Engineering. 

Learning about AI is an essential leadership accountability and I want to be a part of this change, rather than watching it go by. Their focus was practical: how to use AI to increase productivity without compromising the integrity of our way of working. It was a fascinating insight to AI and I’m already implementing changes. I’m starting by developing my own digital agent to learn more about the mechanics and structure behind our business. You can too!!

​Challenging Conversations

On Friday, I attended the AICD’s annual board simulation — 350 people watching a live board in action.  Working with boards is critical to my work and learning new ways to navigate  “robust conversations” underpins a significant part of my role.  I was reminded how essential the CEO/Chair relationship is to successful meetings. Similarly, the role of the MD/CEO with the leadership team is crucial to successful business through collaboration and effective communication. If this is a challenge for you, drop me a note and I will send you one of our frameworks. 

 We’re approaching EOFY, a good time to review your strategy, check your alignment with your leadership team and adjust the plan where necessary.

 Let me know if you want to discuss the best way to do this, I’m always happy to talk strategy!