166 Hubbard Street
Concord, MA 01742
(978) 371-3134
(978) 287-5431 fax
We have facilitated hundreds of retreats over the last twenty years - large and small, short and long, adventurous and business-like. Every one was custom designed for the organization with the involvement of participants based on their outcomes and needs at the time.
We take very seriously the responsibility to use well the valuable time of so many people who come together for a retreat, often with great expectations. Our style is best expressed by the letter sent by a client after our first board retreat together (we are still working together several years later) and an article about our design process.
Here's the letter a client sent after our first board retreat together. We went on to work together for several years....
Dear Jay:
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Organic Trade Association I want to thank you for your excellent facilitation work you provided at our most recent board meeting. Your skills far exceeded our expectations. As you know, we were most reluctant to hire a facilitator due to two previous years of bad experience. You have renewed our faith in professional facilitators and trainers.
I must commend you on how well-organized and prepared you were for this meeting and how well you understood our needs. Our agenda was an ambitious and important one. Our expectations were to cover both routine board reports and discussions as well as accomplish some organizational analysis and review. Although we were loath to call this a strategic planning session, our discussions covered this ground also. Without thorough preparation on your part, this meeting would have fallen far short of our expectations. We appreciate the time that you spent in pre-meeting telephone conferences with myself, the board president and vice-president, and the marketing committee. The tactics and exercises you used during the meeting were key to the successful completion of our agenda.
You were respectful, warm, firm, entertaining and effective. Your comfort level with our industry was helpful and supportive but you remained objective and never indulged in your own agenda or interests. Please include OTA in your list of references and feel free to share this letter with prospective clients.
Thank you again for bringing order and cooperation to a group of people who are head-strong entrepreneurs and leaders. As Mark would say, "It's like herding cats." Several board members have noted that they were invigorated by this meeting and have new enthusiasm for their position as directors of the Organic Trade Association. I am sure that OTA will be seeking your professional services again in the near future.
Best Wishes,
Katherine T. DiMatteo
Executive Director, Organic Trade Association
Go Away!
I've always remembered a sign on a monastery wall which read, "If you are too busy to go on retreat, you are too busy." With its simple economy of words, it reminded me that some things may be very important without also being urgent. It seems they can always wait another day, but this delay may be running up a terrible bill that will eventually come due.
Why Go on Retreat?
We in business use the same word as the monastery - "retreat" - to describe what happens when a work group, management team, or whole organization closes up shop and heads for the woods, or at least a hotel away from the phones. The reasons may vary: a group may wish to regain its focus, or settle some simmering conflicts, or connect as a team, or break through an obstacle, or clarify its mission and goals. Yet somehow these things, important as they are, just don't seem to happen back at the office. So in a supportive space, with uninterrupted time, and often with the aid of a professional facilitator, work groups can blast through a daunting agenda.
How Does a Facilitator Help?
When a client asks me to help plan a retreat, I always ask: "What has to happen by the event's end for you to feel it was a great success?" Together we clarify the overall purpose (toward which the retreat may be just one step) and the desired outcomes (the tangible deliverables in hand when every one walks out the door).
The more diverse the input for this discussion, the better. Often clients have ideas about activities which may help achieve these outcomes and I weave them into a draft agenda to be reviewed by all stakeholders. Typically the more prepared people are, the better. I suggest tasks to be done in advance, so the participants hit the ground running and never stop.
What Makes for the Best Retreats?
The best retreats happen in a place which truly supports the work that must get done, in a way which fits the values of the people who come. For some this means rustic and casual, for others convenient and functional, and for still others nothing less than gracious and elegant will do. The best retreats mix work with play. Breaking the office routine creates a great opening to get to know your colleagues better, and playful team building activities can help. The best retreats use planning and skilled leadership to make optimal use of everyone's investment. After all, gathering so many folks together represents an extraordinary commitment of the organization's time and talent. Lastly, the best retreats anticipate the need for lots of follow up action. Effective retreats create an opening in which positive change can happen with widespread support, if you act fast and truly.
So remember, if you are too busy to go on retreat.