“Your business is your BEST client.” Gala GormanThere are so many challenges facing business these days that it seems virtually impossible to slow down long enough to plan for future.
Months go by and you have held your own. You might pause momentarily to celebrate a success never taking time to reflect on what happened in order to replicate what went right. Problems are treated with a band-aid approach so that everyone involved can just get on to pressing issues at hand. You can count on problem reoccurring – possibly with a different face and in a different place – because there was no time made to get to root cause that made environment ripe for problem to surface originally.
There is a different way of managing your business…a way to capture what works making it available for future benefit and a way to mine opportunity available when problems occur to maximize your return on investment (the involuntary investment you’ve already made through experiencing problem or mistake). The retreat is a great way to prioritize, and intentionally manage, your business.
The retreat creates stage for working on your business in contrast to your day to day efforts working in your business. Retreats can be as short as an afternoon or extend for several days. They can focus on a single issue or be structured to address many concerns. Certainly, whether retreat takes place in company conference room or at a resort far from office, it can be an experience that forever alters way you approach your business.
One of primary issues of concern in any organization is ensuring that every area or department is working in alignment with vision, mission and values. Goals and objectives are more easily reached when there is a synergy amongst organization’s leadership. Participating in a well-planned retreat can help to create that synergy.
I have shared what I believe are Top 10 reasons to schedule your retreat sooner rather than later. If you’re still wondering if a retreat is worth investment, consider following reasons (and feel free to add some of your own).
1.Define your vision. Most leaders have a vision for their organization. In many cases though, its pretty fuzzy. In order to effectively communicate your vision and get “buy-in” necessary to realize it, you need to bring it into clear focus. Just scheduling retreat will guarantee that vision becomes mechanism to align activities of organization.
2.Commit to goals. With a clear vision and purpose, goals can be established that provide road map to be used when implementing plans. The organization’s goals won’t mean much unless responsibility for achieving them is filtered through to individual(s) that will be tasked with taking action. Commitment to a goal requires taking ownership and retreat provides a place for that to happen. 3.Manage your reputation. Your reputation is one of your organization’s most valuable assets. Effectively managing that reputation requires an understanding of how reputation was built and how it is best maintained or enhanced. The organization that isn’t prepared to deal with a challenging situation can have their good reputation tarnished beyond repair literally overnight.
4.Replicate your best practices. Every organization can site experiences where everything seemed to go right. All planning and training paid off and things fell into place. It is important to capture those moments of brilliance and dissect them so that they can be replicated. Successful organizations know what they do best and focus their efforts where they know they shine.