Retreats, like Inns and Hotels, come in all shapes, sizes and configurations. Regardless of small or large, pleasure or business, it’s important to know the goals and objectives of your escape to ensure your chosen venue really hits the mark. All retreats seek a setting for enjoyment and realization of the key goals – for example if you’re opting for a romantic retreat, selecting a business-style hotel on a major highway with breakfast from 6 to 7.30 am may not be wise, given a usual goal of such getaways is to relax and enjoy leisurely time together!
Business retreats typically have many objectives from team-building to stimulating out-of-the box creativity which can rarely be achieved in the normal workplace environment. Finding a venue that allows this to happen and motivates attendees to really look forward to their time away cannot be over emphasized. Venues that offer interesting recreational opportunities as well as relaxing and functional meeting facilities are key and in the ideal world such venues should bear little resemblance to the attendees’ typical day to day lifestyle. For example if your company operates from a modern office block in the city “retreating” to a nearby similar modern, purpose built hotel is unlikely to be very motivating or thought provoking for getting those creative juices flowing.
Another factor to consider in a business retreat is the involvement of partners. Several years ago, I attended the last couple of days of a corporate retreat in the beautiful town of Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. My husband had already been there for 3 days and partners were invited for the last two days to share in the experience. Our common bond of being partners was the only link we had. Over the weekend we not only got to know each other through group hikes, a little retail therapy and some great local food but we too became a team with a better understanding of the company’s future goals and what that would mean to our significant others. Bottom line through this short getaway we all bought into the company’s growth plan and felt a part of its future. We in turn were motivated to support our partners in any way we could. A priceless benefit for a very small investment.
We all make the best choices (decisions) available to us at the time given the possibilities and the capabilities that we perceive are available to us from our model of the world (perception of reality).
A decision is a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration – weighing up the options available to us. We can make more informed decisions by having more choices available for consideration. We can always get more data or input to help us decide. The important thing is that as a leader you need to make a choice. You need to make choices all the time.
The first step is to decide. Decide what culture you want and need for achieving the goals of your change initiative. Decide on the boundaries that need to be in place or changed. Decide on the values, principles and beliefs the organization needs to achieve the vision. Decide who you are as a leader and what you need to do, say and believe to become the leader you want to be.
There is such a thing as thinking too much. We can get caught up in the need to have more and more data and to analyze until we believe there is a 99% probability of success. And while I appreciate there maybe some instances where this is required, in most cases it is not.
It’s been said that 20% of our activity delivers 80% of the results. If that is true then consider how you should spend your time and effort when making decisions because if you are clear on your values, principles and believes it makes it that much easier and means you can deliver better results faster.
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