亲爱的安妮：我觉得“好人难做”的说法真的有道理。我曾经花六周时间筹备办公室的节日派对，结果深受大家好评，所以这次老板让我接着负责安排明年2月中旬为期三天的管理层集体外出休假计划。休假地点已经预定，是在加勒比海岛的一个度假村。但是日程安排还是白纸一张，需要我来确定。

    我从来没有负责过类似的事情，完全不知道如何着手。但是我希望把这次休假办得与众不同，给与会者留下深刻的印象。您和您的读者可以给我提供些建议吗？——斯密提

    亲爱的斯密提：里奇•莫兰一定可以给帮到你。里奇•莫兰曾担任埃森哲咨询公司（Accenture）顾问，同时也是硅谷的风险投资老手，现任咨询与招聘公司Accretive Solutions（总部位于芝加歌）CEO。

    此外，莫兰还曾写过一系列指南，帮助读者以聪明、随性的方式在职场上获得成功，其中包括《备忘录≠现实》（Never Confuse a Memo With Reality）和《不要惧怕黄色便签》（Fear No Yellow Stickies）。莫兰的新书《罪恶与CEO：高管成败启示录改变你的职业生涯》（Sins and CEOs: Lessons from Leaders and Losers That Will Change Your Career）中有一章内容你可能会感兴趣。这章的标题是“罗马火光熊熊，但我们并不在场”。

    “与人们普遍的观点相反，集体外出休假实际上是一件累人的工作，”莫兰指出。“首先，你无处藏身。独霸发言时间，人们会觉得你处心积虑想往上爬。置身事外又会让人觉得你已经有了外心。”

    努力实现两者之间的平衡，同时还得完成工作，这会让人倍感压力。莫兰参加很多次度假式的团队活动，有些美妙无比，有些效果平平，所以她建议，一定要在日程安排中加入真正的休息时间，让每个人都有机会减压。

    “别把窗户关上，”他说。“如果完全没空游泳、打高尔夫，成天关在黑乎乎的房间里，还有什么必要跑到风景宜人的地方去？”他发现，完全没有休闲时间会滋生怨恨情绪，彻底毁掉整个集体活动。

    莫兰认识一家位于旧金山的金融公司，他们在一个高级滑雪胜地召开了一次重要的年度长期规划大会，但是与会者根本没有滑雪的时间。“公司告知与会者，他们可以在上午七点到九点之间，或下午五点之后滑雪，”莫兰说。“不幸的是，滑雪缆车的开放时间是上午九点到下午五点。”这使得与会者“整个会议期间都闷闷不乐，导致会议无果而终”。一定要避免这种情况。

    以下是莫兰提供的几点建议，可能会对你有所帮助：

    • “人们都希望能从会议中学到些东西，要么是了解如何制订有效的方案，要么是了解市场的变化趋势，”莫兰指出。所以“要邀请能够寓教于乐的发言人参加会议，并尽量使会议时间缩短。”

    Dear Annie: I guess it is true that no good deed goes unpunished, because our office holiday party -- which took me six weeks to organize -- was such a hit that now my boss has put me in charge of a three-day management retreat scheduled for mid-February. The location, a resort on a Caribbean island, has been booked, but so far the agenda is a blank sheet of paper, which is up to me to fill.

    I've never been responsible for planning one of these before, so I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'd like this meeting to be unique and memorable, and as productive as possible. Can you and your readers give me any pointers? — Smitty

    Dear Smitty: Richard Moran sure can. A former Accenture (ACN) consultant and longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Moran is CEO of Accretive Solutions, a Chicago-based consulting and recruiting firm.

    He's also the author of a string of smart and irreverent guides to success in business, including Never Confuse a Memo With Reality and Fear No Yellow Stickies. His new book, Sins and CEOs: Lessons from Leaders and Losers That Will Change Your Career, contains a chapter that might interest you. It's entitled "Rome Is Burning and We're Off-site."

    "Contrary to popular belief, retreats are really hard work for all who attend," Moran says. "Foremost, there's nowhere to hide. Anyone who monopolizes the airtime is assumed to be jockeying for a promotion. Anyone who doesn't participate is assumed to have checked out."

    Trying to strike the right balance and still get some work done tends to stress people out, so Moran -- a veteran of many great and not-so-great off-sites -- recommends giving everyone a chance to decompress by building some genuine downtime into the schedule.

    "Don't close the windows," he says. "Why go someplace beautiful if there is no time for the pool or golf, and people are locked in dark rooms from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.?" A total lack of leisure breeds resentment, he observes, and that can torpedo the whole event.

    One San Francisco financial company he knows of held a crucial annual long-range planning meeting at an exclusive ski resort, and then gave people no chance to ski. "The attendees were instructed that they could ski between 7 and 9 a.m. or after 5," Moran says. "Unfortunately, the ski lifts opened at 9 and stopped running at 5." That made people "so grouchy the entire time that nothing was accomplished." Avoid that.

    Some more of Moran's tips you might find useful:

    • "People want to learn at meetings, whether it's how to construct an effective plan or understand market dynamics," Moran says. So "bring in speakers who can teach and entertain at the same time, and keep the sessions short."