An offsite has failed if its conclusions go back to the office as good intentions with no owner.
Most retreats end well. The team debates strategy for two days, agrees on principles and shares a good closing dinner. By Wednesday, client escalations, investor questions and the functional backlog have taken that energy. Nobody was named as the owner of each decision and nothing came off the list, so the organisation slides back into its old habits.
The 90-day compact exists to stop that slide. It is one page, drafted and argued over in the room and signed before anyone leaves.
Why does follow-up usually collapse?
In our experience there are three causes, and most teams have more than one.
- Ownership is shared. An initiative goes to a committee or is split between two co-founders. When a resource conflict appears, nobody defends it.
- Nothing is removed. New priorities go on top of existing work, and the team returns home with more than it can carry.
- Reviews are left open. Without dates agreed in advance, accountability gives way to whatever is urgent that week.
| Dimension | A typical retreat | The 90-day compact |
|---|---|---|
| Document | A 40-slide deck or a long Notion page | One signed page |
| Ownership | Goals shared across departments | One named owner for each bet |
| Capacity | New priorities on top of existing work | A written list of what stops |
| Follow-up | Self-reporting in regular staff meetings | Review dates fixed before the team leaves |
What goes on the page?
The compact fits on one sheet on purpose. A team that cannot state its quarter on one page has usually not finished deciding.
It has four parts.
- The objective for the quarter: one measurable commercial or organisational outcome.
- The ownership table: three to five strategic bets, each with exactly one accountable person.
- The stop list: the projects, customer segments or internal routines the company agrees to drop. This is the part that protects leadership capacity, and the part teams most want to skip.
- The review dates: fixed calendar dates at day 30, day 60 and day 90.
What happens at day 30 and day 60?
Signing is the start. On our Deep Intervention track, a Kuma partner rejoins the leadership team at day 30 and day 60.
Each review looks at variance: which commitments held, which slipped and where a dependency between teams broke. Having someone from outside the hierarchy ask those questions makes it easier for people to say what is true.
On our other tracks, the team runs the same reviews itself on the dates it signed.
See a sample compact
A one-page example with the fields and layout is linked from step 03 of how we work. For planning the offsite itself, read our Barcelona planning guide.
See how it works →