What are your explicit session room rules regarding laptops, smartphones, and handling operational emergencies during our offsite days?

To get maximum value from an offsite day, the session room must be insulated from daily operational noise. For that reason, I enforce three non-negotiable rules regarding technology and presence.

First, laptops and tablets stay closed and in bags. The only exception is the designated person maintaining your software portal or logging To-Dos and Rock updates. When executives have open screens, they check email, answer Slack pings, and disengage from critical debates. If you are looking at a screen, you are not participating.

Second, smartphones stay on silent and placed face down on a side table or in pockets. They do not sit next to your notebook on the table. Checking notifications during an active IDS discussion destroys team momentum and signals to your peers that your inbox is more important than solving company-wide bottlenecks.

Third, we schedule designated breaks every ninety minutes. You will have ten to fifteen minutes mid-morning, a full lunch break, and an afternoon break to return urgent phone calls, respond to clients, and check in with your direct reports. Everything else can wait ninety minutes.

If a catastrophic operational crisis occurs, such as a major server outage or severe legal incident, we pause the room collectively or excuse the affected executive to handle it. However, routine client emergencies and operational fires must be handled by your second-tier managers. If your company cannot survive eight hours without your leadership team answering messages instantly, that operational vulnerability becomes the first issue we solve.

Category: Working With Tyler