Do your homework to make the next leadership event a success.

Leadership off-sites can be an opportune time for L&D professionals to learn more about their industry, their organizations' strategic goals and mission, and the team they're working with in planning the off-site. It also can elevate the estimation of L&D's worth in the eyes of leaders if learning practitioners come to discussions with business leaders with carefully researched data.

To make the most of the off-site, both for themselves and for the organization, L&D team members needs to prepare well. In "L&D's Role in Leading Off-Sites," Preethi Anand provides guidance.

Make sure that participants hear about the event and receive its agenda from the L&D team, Anand explains. Providing this information will allay apprehension that participants may have and will help them understand the why of the event. If participants do not believe in its value, it will be nearly impossible for the event to be a success, Anand warns.

You also may want to assign prework to participants, similar to a flipped classroom. That can reduce time spent on information sharing, engage participants in advance of the event, and reinforce the message of the off-site to come.

Anand also provides tips on managing the event, including that the facilitator needs to be much more agile than in a regular training program. One idea is to think of the off-site as an improv session.

These tips were adapted from the June 2019 issue ofTD at Work.