The hard part’s already in the box.
Your box is on its way, with the questions, the timing and every word of the script inside it.
When it lands, leave it closed until your team is in the room. Opening it together is part of it. That leaves you three things: pick how it fits your calendar, invite your team with an email we already wrote, and book a room.
Box arrives
Leave it closed.
± 2 weeks before
Pick your format, book the room, send the invite.
± 2 days before
Send the reminder.
On the day
Set the room up. Open the box together.
After
Send round what you agreed.
Pick your format.
Two ways to run it, and both land in exactly the same place. Pick the one your calendar likes and move on.
Email templates.
Six texts, already written: the calendar invite, an invitation for each format, two reminders, and one for the day after. Fill in your details once and they write themselves.
Before you send it
Everyone in the room, or move the date
This doesn’t work hybrid. The cards, the poster and the game are physical, so somebody on a screen ends up watching the rest of you do it. If one person can’t be there, moving the date is the better call.
Your details, filled in once
This stays in your own browser, on this device, and we never see it. Session two and three are only needed if you run it one act at a time.
Send the calendar invite first, so the time is blocked, then the email that explains it.
Calendar invite
Subject or title
Season Recap: our team workshop
Season Recap, our team workshop, in the room. Intention To look back at how this quarter really went for us, and to agree what we focus on next. Outcome A shared picture of the period, a clearer sense of what each of us brought to it, and five commitments we make to each other. Agenda Act one, the moments that defined the period. Act two, how we’ve each grown. Act three, what we take forward and what we leave behind. Breaks in between. Roles Nobody presents. We share the narrator and timekeeper between us, and everyone takes part the same way. Rules Phones away. Honesty over politeness. What we say here stays between us. Everyone in the room, no screens. Time the date, the start time to the end time. Nothing to prepare and nothing to bring.
Anything still highlighted is yours to fill in.
The room does half the work.
Where you sit changes how the conversation goes. Here’s what the session needs, and what makes it better. All of it is a tip, none of it is a rule.
What the session needs
- A table big enough for the box and the materials, with chairs around it.
- Wall space for one A1 poster during the session. If the room is shared, photograph it at the end and take it with you.
- Space to get up and move. Several activities ask people to stand, swap seats and write on the wall.
- Teams of 9 to 16: room to split into two groups, or a breakout space nearby.
- A timer everyone can see. We use the hourglass at livecloud.online, free and no account needed. Open the timer
- Pens for everyone and some blank A4 paper. The only two things the box does not include.
What makes it better
- Daylight, and something green to look at.
- Clear walls and no leftover clutter from the meeting before.
- Water on the table, plus fruit, nuts or dark chocolate.
- Half an hour of buffer before and after, so nobody arrives sprinting.
- Running it as three sessions? Book the same room each time.
Get what you can. A closed door and a team that turns up beats a perfect room.
Daylight opens people up
Daylight makes people more willing to engage. Strip lighting keeps them guarded. Stuck with artificial light? Dim it a notch, because very bright rooms make people defensive.
The same room gets you there faster
If you run it as three sessions, book the same room every time. The brain recognises the space and settles faster. A new room each time costs you roughly ten minutes.
Snacks decide the second half
Sugar crashes about forty-five minutes after eating, which tends to be right in the middle of an act. Protein and fat keep energy level, and visible water helps more than you’d think.
You’re not doing this alone.
Everything you need to run the session is in the box. Everything you might want to ask before it starts is here.
Still have a question?
Most answers live in the FAQ. If yours doesn’t, mail us and you’ll hear back within a working day.
Rather talk it through?
You get thirty minutes with one of us, included with your box. Useful if you’re unsure about the format or about a tricky team situation.