Course: Kabir PT
POT F2F TEAM RETREAT 2025 AGENDA AND SESSION PLANS The Programme Operations Team Face-to-Face Retreat 2025 in London (Canary Wharf) is designed as a compact, retreat-style week that balances strategic reflection, operational deep-dives and peer-to-peer learning with social and wellbeing activities to strengthen cohesion across POT and with Regional Programme Managers. Participants will include all POT members plus RPMs as full contributors to the POT Leadership Team, enabling direct inputs from country-facing colleagues on priorities and pain points. The agenda deliberately sequences “looking out”, “looking in” and “looking forward” days so we first align on strategy and context, then examine team performance and ways of working, and finally agree actions, measures of success and personal commitments. Each day is curated by designated day-leads responsible for designing sessions, framing critical questions, facilitating discussion and harvesting outcomes, supported by a steering group and a social committee. Sessions mix plenary, sub-team reflections, cross-team problem-solving and hands-on deep dives (for example WAPS, mWater and GPAC engagement) to ensure relevance to programme staff. Interactive methods—post-its, flipcharts, Mentimeter quizzes, stakeholder mapping and design sprints—are embedded to surface candid reflection and co-created solutions. The retreat prioritises creative facilitation, inclusive participation (food and accommodation provided) and explicit time for bilateral or sub-team work so participants can both reflect and operationalise. Wellbeing and recognition are intentionally scheduled, including a dedicated session and an awards ceremony, to foster psychological safety and celebrate achievements. The final day focuses on reconfirming vision, revising team design and translating insights into an action plan owned by SMT with clear success measures. Practical logistics are communicated (hotel, per diems, travel, WhatsApp group) to reduce friction so colleagues can engage fully. The LIFO-informed “About me” inputs (e.g., Kaysar’s profile) and energisers aim to surface interpersonal dynamics and build mutual understanding. Overall, the retreat is explicitly purpose-driven: to strengthen why we exist, refine what we do to make country teams’ lives easier, and improve how we work together across sub-teams to deliver measurable improvements for programme staff.Lecture Sheet: POT F2F Team Retreat 2025 — Agenda & Session Plans
Compact overview for facilitators, participants and evaluators.
Lesson
Topic: POT F2F Team Retreat 2025 — Purpose, structure, facilitation and expected outcomes
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the retreat purpose: strengthen why, what and how POT works.
- Be able to explain the daily themes, facilitation roles and expected outputs.
- Apply LIFO-informed interpersonal insights to improve team collaboration.
- Create concrete, timebound action commitments and success measures by week end.
- Demonstrate awareness of logistics and participation expectations for full engagement.
Conceptual Explanation
The POT retreat combines strategic alignment, operational problem-solving and team development across five curated days. Each day has a lead pair responsible for design, facilitation and capturing outcomes; a steering group agrees agenda shape; a social committee organises evening activities. Sessions include: big-picture alignment; performance review (sub-team & POT-wide); ways of working and stakeholder mapping; wellbeing and awards; and collaborative problem-solving to produce an action plan with ownership and success measures.
High-level Agenda Overview (compact)| Day | Theme | Core Morning Focus | Core Afternoon Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Arrival | Check-in / informal networking | Optional pre-meetings |
| Tuesday | Looking out | Big picture — WA strategy & CP needs | Deep dive: WA Influencing & GPAC |
| Wednesday | Looking in (Part 1) | Performance assessment & sub-team reflections | Team-building activity |
| Thursday | Looking in (Part 2) | Stakeholder mapping & wellbeing | POT Awards & synthesise priorities |
| Friday | Looking forward | Problem-solving / action planning | Vision reconfirmation & commitments |
Key roles
- Day leads — design, frame questions, facilitate, harvest daily outcomes.
- Steering group — agree agenda shape, commission sessions, involve members in delivery.
- Social committee — co-design evening and wellbeing activities in line with agenda.
- SMT — final owners for action plan and success measures.
Bilingual (EN → বাংলা)
| English | বাংলা |
|---|---|
| Retreat purpose: Strengthen why, what and how POT operates. | রিট্রিটের উদ্দেশ্য: POT কীভাবে কাজ করে তার কারণ, বিষয় এবং পদ্ধতি শক্তিশালী করা। |
| Participants: All POT members + Regional Programme Managers. | অংশগ্রহণকারীরা: সমস্ত POT সদস্য + আঞ্চলিক প্রোগ্রাম ম্যানেজাররা। |
| Core methods: Plenary, sub-team reflection, design sprints, LIFO learning. | কোর পদ্ধতি: সমাবেশ, সাব-টিম প্রতিফলন, ডিজাইন স্প্রিন্ট, LIFO শেখা। |
Important Notes
- Food & accommodation provided to ensure full participation; per diems for international colleagues arranged on Monday.
- Bring LIFO report reflections (personal slide: collage + 4 prompts) for the "About me" session; confidentiality respected.
- Use interactive capture (post-its, flipcharts, Mentimeter) to create an auditable harvest for the action plan.
- SMT will finalise the revised POT objectives and success measures after the retreat; participants are expected to propose concrete actions.
- Always ask: "How does this make country programme staff's lives easier?" — this is the decision-filter.
Exercises
True / False
- WAPS is only available to WaterAid Australia users.
Answer
False — WAPS is a joint WA UK / WA Australia system; rollout covers both federations. - The retreat sets aside time for wellbeing reflection and team awards.
Answer
True — wellbeing at work and POT awards are scheduled on Thursday.
Fill in the Blanks
- The three retreat purposes are: Strengthen ‘____’, ‘____’ and ‘____’ we do it.
Answer
why, what, how - Primary data-collection tool referenced for inventory and baselines is ____.
Answer
mWater
Multiple Choice (MCQ)
- Who curates each day’s session plan?
- A. SMT alone
- B. Design agency
- C. Day leads
- D. Participants on arrival
Answer
C. Day leads — they design, frame questions, facilitate and harvest outcomes. - Which tool is highlighted for live polling and quizzes?
- A. Kahoot
- B. Mentimeter
- C. Zoom poll
- D. Slido
Answer
B. Mentimeter — used for energiser quizzes and day reflections.
Matching
Match the day with its core activity:
| Day | Core activity |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Looking out — strategy & external stakeholders |
| Wednesday | Performance review & sub-team reflections |
| Friday | Problem solving and action planning |
Answer
Tuesday → Deep dives with WA Influencing & GPAC; Wednesday → Sub-team reflections (PMER, PMDT, PIST, RPMs) and knowledge checks; Friday → Unlocking our potential & final action plan and commitments.Descriptive
Describe the expected output of the "Unlocking our potential" session.
Answer
The session should produce pragmatic solutions to the top 3 issues identified during earlier days, consolidate group-generated action plans with clear owners and deadlines, and agree follow-up governance (SMT ownership, monitoring cadence). Outputs: 3 group action plans, a short plenary report-back, and commitments recorded on flipcharts and in the retreat harvest document.Creative
Design a quick energiser suitable for after lunch to reset the group.
Answer
"Emoji Mood Check-in": each person posts a physical emoji card or uses Mentimeter to select an emoji describing their current energy; 30 seconds each to explain; facilitator groups similar themes and links to afternoon priorities. Time: 5–8 minutes. Purpose: rapid emotional temperature check and re-engagement.Activities, Vocabulary, Homework, Practice Task
Activities
- Sub-team reflections: prepare top 2 successes, top 2 challenges, and 3 proposed actions (use flipchart templates).
- Stakeholder mapping: physically position teams around POT to visualise relationship strength and direction.
- Problem-solving design sprint: 3 mixed sub-team groups to design solutions using a programme design approach.
Answer
Preparation: each sub-team brings flipchart outputs from prior sessions; participants pre-read the QMR/WAPS summary sent in advance. Materials: flipcharts, markers, post-its, projector, Mentimeter-ready devices, and room set-up for movement.Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| WAPS | WaterAid Programme System — joint WA UK/Aus programme & funding system (built on Salesforce/Amp Impact). |
| mWater | Mobile data collection and analysis tool for inventory, baseline and monitoring surveys. |
| RPM | Regional Programme Manager — represents regional/country perspectives in POT Leadership Team. |
| LIFO | Life Orientations — behavioural strengths tool used for team development and communication. |
Homework
- Review your LIFO report and prepare 1 slide: collage + answers to 4 prompts (best way to communicate with me; ideal work day; stress cues; motivation).
- Sub-teams: draft a 1-page summary of top 3 performance gaps & proposed fixes to present on Wednesday.
- All attendees: read the pre-brief on WAPS and mWater (sent prior) to enable deep-dive participation.
Answer
Deadlines: LIFO slide — bring to in-person "About me" session; sub-team summary — prepared for Wednesday morning; pre-reads — completed before Tuesday arrival. Purpose: ensure informed, efficient sessions and meaningful outputs.Practice Task
Run a 10-minute stakeholder mapping mini-exercise in pairs and document one insight that would change how POT interacts with that stakeholder.
Answer
Example insight: "RPMs need earlier involvement in TOR design for projects — include RPM representation in project initiation to reduce rework." Capture: who, when, how. Share back in Thursday synthesis.Retreat Harvest & Next Steps
At close-out: group photo, retreat evaluation via Mentimeter, action register with owners and timelines, SMT finalises revised POT objectives and success measures. All outputs to be consolidated into a retreat brief circulated within two working weeks.
Appendix: Short LIFO Summary (MD. Kaysar Kabir)
Key LIFO highlights to inform facilitation and interpersonal dynamics:
- Primary strengths: Supporting (high) & Conserving (moderate) — values teamwork, quality and systematic work.
- Preferred under stress: Maintain quality, collaborative problem solving; may slow decision-making due to analysis.
- Development focus: Practice assertive direction-setting, prioritisation and timely decision initiation when needed.