I am planning a company retreat. What are some great questions we can work on as a company? cc @RNeivert @robwalling @asmartbear
— James Kennedy (@JamesKennedy) July 15, 2017
I happened to be sitting on the tarmac, delayed. In the confines of six square feet of personal space, I sent a few answers.
As James later said, these are useful exercises even if it’s not a retreat!
Please RT if you like any of them especially.
What could kill the company? Of those 30+ things, are there any worth being a little proactive about? (E.g. Monitor for early signs)
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What's happening at work when you feel happy and energized? When you feel demoralized? How can we do more of the former and mitigate latter?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Tell the CEO. Anonymously, what does the CEO not know, but should? Be constructive but be firm and honest.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
If you had a magic wand, what would you change? Can be a small thing.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Brand exercise. What qualities, feelings, attributes do we want? Which amplify what we are, versus aspire to be? How could we comm that?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
In the past 12 months, where have we wasted a lot of time and energy due to poor or missing internal communication? What can we do instead?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Coupled with he positive version, what's one thing (anonymously) you wish someone would change or start or stop doing. Be constructive!
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Everyone anonymously writes 3 things about each other they admire, enjoy, find helpful, etc.. Then each reads hers aloud to others.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What the single most important metric the consort should be moving for the next 6-12 months? How could we all impact that metric?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What are our customers telling us, that we're not listening to? (Prepare /w/ data from support, social, survey, etc). What should we do?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Suppose that between now and revenue doubling (any timeframe) no new hires are allowed. How would we accomplish that?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Anonymous Q&A, or concerns. Google doc for anonymity. Ok to put name if you want. "Worried competitor X is better than us," for example.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
For next 20 features that could be built: spend 10 "points" total on what would help your job most. Customer-first, but insiders know things
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What's something curious about you that not many people know? (Better: collect ahead of time and everyone guess who's is who's)
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What did you wish you were told in the first week of employment? (Use the result to start an orientation presentation.)
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What would you say to convince someone to work here for 30% less money? Those things should be on "about us" and work to keep constant.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Birds of a feather. List everything you like to talk about, and find out who inside the company you could be talking about that with
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Premortem. A year from now, things are bad. What could have happened to us and why? What should we do soon to prevent some of that?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
When we have our next retreat in one year, what do you want to say you've accomplished? Personal and professional. Can we help each other?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Describe a time you really had to struggle, whether or not you persevered, at work or home.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What role could we hire to make the maximum difference to the success of the company overall? Requires knowing strategic lever. Then, hire!
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What qualities in each other do we admire? What do we dislike? Can we distill that into a core set of values? Then we've codified culture.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What are the top reasons customers love us? Leave us? (Maybe do NPs survey ahead of time). What should we do about that?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
If we had to halve the number of support tickets per customer in six months, but all of us 100% focused, how could we pull it off?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What are the top problems/worries/fears/opportunities facing our customers? How could we address those with features or marketing?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
If all our source code were stolen, would it matter? What should we do differently such that it wouldn't matter?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What are 3-5 important things about us that our customers / the market doesn't know? How could we institutionalize communicating it?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What are top 1-3 things each of us are afraid of? (E.g. Marketer afraid out of ideas for new growth). Brainstorm ideas for others.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Do each other's job for a day. Or just an hour. Or take turns doing it on projector for 1 hour explaining what's going on.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What's one thing you are going to start doing over the next three months to materially help someone else with their priorities?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Tell an embarrassing story. (Surprisingly good bonding exercise)
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Group workshop: create a SWOT analysis on your market position.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
Workshop: learn everyone *else's* too theee current priorities and why. Now you can be more helpful.
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
If a competitor replicated our product and brand exactly, how would we still win? What would we do differently to win? (We should do that!)
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
What if we had to double revenue in the next six months, but 100% of us are allowed to work on *nothing* else. How would we do it?
— Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017
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