Planning a Productive Retreat
What value is there in leadership or team-building retreats? Just consider the following.
An executive committee of an association, deliberating on strategic planning issues, identified "who we are" in terms of their membership. By focusing on the challenges and opportunities represented by certain membership segments, the committee created specific strategic initiatives for the upcoming year.
A 17 person CPA firm structured their most recent annual meeting to encourage greater teamwork by addressing the issues of 1) misinformation between management and staff and 2) lack of clarity around the firm's goals, direction, and image. The results included improved productivity, enhanced esprit-de-corps, and most important, the understanding by every person of his or her role in supporting the firm's strategic business objectives.
Encouraged by the informal setting of a retreat, a team, behind schedule on an important project, finally brought out into the open its concerns about the leader's way of handling disagreements. By examining the different methods of managing conflicts, the team came up with a process that would encourage divergent thinking and, at the same time, focus on how to make well-thought out decisions regarding the project.
Leadership or team-building retreats for an executive committee, a board of directors or a project team can provide substantial return on investment for an organization or business, especially during times of change. Here's how to plan a productive retreat that ensures meaningful interaction, as well as, lasting results. Create a special environment.
Participants need to feel relaxed and comfortable. The informal atmosphere lets them be themselves and interact in a more natural way. Don't just think meeting room. Think meeting place. It can be a resort, a historic inn, a conference center...in reality, any setting that allows for time out and getting away from the everyday routine. Determine success indicators.
If a company doesn't have specific written objectives, it is wasting its money. In fact, Meeting Professionals International recently surveyed companies who had held retreats or off-site meetings within the past year. The survey found that more than half of these companies measured the results of the retreat against specific objectives to track their return on investment. Build in structure.
The key to the structure of any retreat is a well thought -out agenda. Preparation before the meeting will enhance the 'buy-in' and eventual commitment to the results of the retreat. Provide an external influence.
This person might be an expert in group facilitation, an expert in a particular area or technical specialty, or perhaps a futurist or strategic planner. This is not an area to skimp on. A professional can take your retreat from just another meeting to a winning endeavor. As the popularity of team-building and leadership retreats grows, businesses and organizations that take the time to plan their retreats properly will be way ahead of the game. As one participant of a recent retreat said, "We reached new heights in terms of where we're going, the kinds of goals and objectives we need, and the leadership direction we need to be headed in." That is the sign of a productive retreat. Marcia Zidle, the 'people smarts' coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management. Subscribe by going to
http://leadershiphooks.com/ and get the bonus report "61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers". Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
10 Steps When You Need Help in Your Business
If you think ahead and plan, many nightmare panic and chaos situations can be overcome.
By ensuring that you have a great group of people around you, there will be more
to fall back on when the going gets tough - because that, as they say, when the
tough really do get going. Big challenges can be very difficult to face -
and they can be fascinating and exhilarating. So here's some thoughts on how to
make the best of these times, by getting ready in advance and making it work.
Motor Vehicle Policy and Your Employee Risks
It is becoming more common for employers to require employees to use their personnel motor vehicles for business use. Reimbursement for business use is commonly by way of a kilometre/mileage allowance or a general motor vehicle allowance for the year.
Better Management Performance - The Easy 3-Step Way
Managers make three mistakes when they try to run businesses. They do too much,
they don't trust their people and they don't have enough skills. Here we
explore an easy 3-step process to get your business back on track and get a life.
Successful Managing Through Delegation
Managers should avoid the tendency to constantly delegate to the same one or two capable individuals. This practice only overloads the best personnel while slighting all others.
Nine Steps to Help You Develop Your Potential
Go into any bookstore and you will find a big selection of self-help and personal improvement products. Most everyone (and I'll bet everyone reading this) wants to improve. We know we need to get better, and we want to get better. We may want to improve our personal relationships, our business capabilities, our ability to be disciplined, our desire to juggle four chain saws, or any of hundreds of other things. In that book store you can find books to help you do any of those things!
Delegating Responsibility
Too many managers waste both time and energy performing tasks an employee could perform just as well, thereby lowering productivity while raising operating costs. The answer to the problem is easy-delegation. However, many managers still limit their own effectiveness, create imbalances in the organization, waste their department's time and energies, and fail to develop their subordinates by either ignoring or mismanaging the techniques of delegation.
Running Successful Meetings - The Key Steps To Getting It Right
We all complain about meetings which are a waste of our time and the truth of the matter is that so many are exactly that. We've also seen the "corridor" meeting that takes place afterwards where it seems the real decisions are taken, or the agreed decisions are overturned.
Satisfied Employees, A Powerful Marketing Strategy
Even in today's still uncertain economic times, there are companies who are doing extraordinarily well. Why is it that some companies are thriving while others are barely making it? You can always blame the economy, but is that the only reason? The answer could be as simple as how respected and appreciated your staff feels.
Success at Work : People Skills : Dealing with New Ideas
Re-organizing, re-engineering, re-training, down-sizing, outsourcing, changing-changing-changing. Organizations today think they need to be constantly changing or they will perish. Corporate leaders worship at the alter of new ideas where the motto is, "Any new idea is a good idea".
Business Innovation ? Organizational Structure
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
5 Questions Great Managers Ask (and they arent hard!)
However hard we try, we seem to make life more difficult for ourselves; more challenging; more complex. Yet it needn't be so. try out these five questions with a regularity; a discipline and you will reap rewards. You will certainly reap rewards.
Dialogue: the Four Dialogic Principles For Successful Communication
"But you don't understand!" exclaimed the manager, "this new initiative is vital for our team. If it doesn't work we could all be out of a job!"
What Every HR Manager Should Know About Hiring Productive Employees
The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on whether or not they get hired. Their characteristics also indicate the level of their productivity. If you are about to hire employees, consider the characteristics listed below in checklist form. The candidates who possess them are probably the ones who will be readily accepted by your staff. This acceptance plays an important role in the team-building process and the productivity of the staff.
Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips (Part 1 of 2)
Does your business need the services of a computer consulting firm? Before you rush out and hire the first techie or slick-salesperson that knocks on your door, be sure to consider these favorite Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips for screening and interviewing local computer consulting firms. In this first in a two-part series, we'll look the root of the problem, as well as the four most basic criteria that you'll need to ask about when searching for computer consulting vendors.
How to Help Your Company Become a World Class Company
Most people think real change in an organization occurs as a result of top-level leadership. This isn't always the case.
Planning Your Recruiting Efforts Can Help You Find Great Employees
Today, companies have an ever-expanding list of options available to them when it comes to sourcing new employees, from advertising in newspapers and trade journals to powerful, cost-effective recruiting options available through the Internet. Unfortunately, the growth in the number of recruiting options available has made the competition for top candidates even more fierce.
Whatever it Takes!
I have a sign on my office door. It pretty much summarizes my philosophy of life.
Management & Leadership - Doing it right in the 21st Century
The Old Way ? Command and Control
The Narcissist in the Workplace
To a narcissist-employer, the members of his "staff" are Secondary Sources of Narcissistic Supply. Their role is to accumulate the supply (in human speak, remember events that support the grandiose self-image of the narcissist) and to regulate the Narcissistic Supply of the narcissist during dry spells (simply put, to adulate, adore, admire, agree, provide attention and approval and so on or, in other words, be an audience). The staff (or should we say "stuff"?) is supposed to remain passive. The narcissist is not interested in anything but the simplest function of mirroring. When the mirror acquires a personality and a life of its own, the narcissist is incensed. When independent minded, an employee might be in danger of being sacked by his employer (an act which demonstrates the employer's omnipotence).
25 Super-Practical Steps to Build Your Business!
For the past several weeks, we have focused on some wonderful but (to my way of thinking) rather fancy ideas about life. I wrote about motivation (I don't believe in it). I wrote about sorting out priorities (I do believe in that!). And I wrote about the 4 traits of highly successful people. I love that stuff! But I believe most of you subscribe to TIP's for help in actually running your office from day to day. Most of you have told me you're professionals in private practice, or owners of small businesses, or a manager. And that means you must attract clients or customers, serve them very well, and earn their return business - and do it every single day.
|
