ZPXFW Blog

“Your business is your BEST client.” Gala Gorman

There are so many challenges facing business these days that it
seems virtually impossible to slow down long enough to plan for
the future.

Months go by and you have held your own. You might pause
momentarily to celebrate a success never taking the 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 the pressing issues at hand. You can
count on the problem reoccurring - possibly with a different
face and in a different place - because there was no time made
to get to the root cause that made the environment ripe for the
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 the opportunity available when problems occur to
maximize your return on investment (the involuntary investment
you’ve already made through experiencing the problem or
mistake). The retreat is a great way to prioritize, and
intentionally manage, your business.

The retreat creates the 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 the retreat takes
place in the company conference room or at a resort far from the
office, it can be an experience that forever alters the way you
approach your business.

One of the primary issues of concern in any organization is
ensuring that every area or department is working in alignment
with the vision, mission and values. Goals and objectives are
more easily reached when there is a synergy amongst the
organization’s leadership. Participating in a well-planned
retreat can help to create that synergy.

I have shared what I believe are the Top 10 reasons to schedule
your retreat sooner rather than later. If you’re still wondering
if a retreat is worth the investment, consider the 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 the “buy-in”
necessary to realize it, you need to bring it into clear focus.
Just scheduling the retreat will guarantee that the vision
becomes the mechanism to align the activities of the
organization.

2.Commit to goals. With a clear vision and purpose, goals can be
established that provide the road map to be used when
implementing plans. The organization’s goals won’t mean much
unless the responsibility for achieving them is filtered through
to the individual(s) that will be tasked with taking action.
Commitment to a goal requires taking ownership and the 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 the 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 the
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.

5.Showcase your disciplines of leadership. In order to fully
benefit from the synergy that can be created when everyone is
working on the same game plan, the players must know the talents
available to the team and how to use them for maximum results.
The retreat provides an opportunity to highlight individuals and
share their contributions in a way that promotes solidarity.
6.Demonstrate collaborative management. The master-mind
experience can be very powerful. The process of collaboration
transcends the concept of “two heads are better than one”. When
an organization’s leadership begins to employ the ideas of
people outside of the traditional decision-making track,
innovation becomes commonplace.

7.Grow managers into leaders. An organization’s managers can get
bogged down in daily activities and inhibit the growth of the
organization. When managers are challenged to become leaders,
there is a change in their thought process. It is no longer
enough to just get the job done. The leader considers
consequential implications of decisions made focusing on what is
best for all stakeholders.

8.Recognize individual contributions. Just receiving an
invitation to participate in the organization’s retreat is
recognition of an individual’s contribution to past successes.
Having their work recognized is cited time and again as the
major factor related to satisfaction with a person’s work. When
planning the retreat, it is important to consider the
recognition factor in venue selection.

9.Inspire independent thinking. An organization is only as good
as the people it employs to deliver its goods and services.
Those people must be creative problem-solvers while constantly
keeping the vision and goals in focus. In an environment of
trust and openness independent thinking is worth the risk.
During the retreat, participants increase their knowledge and,
consequently, power to think. 10.Realize the full potential of
participants. In every organization there are untapped
resources. Those resources exist in human potential more than
any other area. There is an invisible “force”, if you will, that
is created by bringing the participants together in the retreat
experience. Everyone involved wants to be their best and give
their all. There are resources that are made available which
would otherwise be beyond reach.

YES…a carefully crafted retreat can accomplish all of the above
and more. So, what does it take to have a successful retreat?

>From the outset you need to view the retreat as an investment in
your business. At a minimum, there will be a significant
contribution of time in planning and in taking your leadership
out of operations on the day of the retreat. You might decide
that it makes sense to hire a professional facilitator or to use
a facility that is well-suited to a retreat experience.

To ensure that you reap all the rewards possible from the
retreat, there are many things to consider. From the invitation
list to the venue and everything in between, the success of the
retreat will be a direct reflection of what went into its
planning.

What are you waiting for? Start planning your retreat TODAY!