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Retreat Facilitation Retreat Survey Sample | Retreat Lodging Bill spends a significant amount of his consulting time facilitating and conducting company retreats or organization-specific goal setting/brainstorming sessions. Considered an expert in this field, he also teaches executives how retreats should be conducted and managed (as an example, his latest book on consulting includes a chapter teaching other CPAs and consultants how to deliver planning services). As a retreat facilitator, Bill has done work with for-profit and non-profit organizations, helping them update their Visions, Missions and Values, and then establish goals/objectives that are realistic, accountable, measurable, monitorable and assignable. Because of Bill's background in public practice as a CPA, a significant amount of his time is also spent helping other CPA firms navigate the ever-changing landscape within his profession. As a normal part of delivering this service, he often pre-surveys the management that will be involved in the retreat, as well as another layer of key personnel. This not only accelerates the productiveness of managements' planning time, but promotes a more open and constructive dialog between the planning participants. As an example, you can review a group of typical CPA firm survey questions by selecting the Retreat Survey Sample link at the top of this page. The survey results are confidential, as the only ones that see the actual survey responses are those people within Bill's organization. The responses are summarized, combined, and where required, sanitized to preserve anonymity. However, the issues raised, regardless of how confrontive or challenging, are presented without being watered-down. The survey responses are reviewed during the retreat before breakout groups begin various assignments.
As a facilitator, Bill's roles are to raise, mediate and attempt to arrive at a consensus for whatever issues the shareholders/managers deem relevant. While it is his responsibility to prepare and manage the agenda, each client guides their content and approves the schedule/focus of that agenda. Typical issues for planning retreats are:
Within the strategic planning retreat, the objective is to arrive at the make-up of the organization's future, usually in a 3-5 year time-frame. That make-up has to consider:
In order to arrive at these strategic goals and objectives, the retreat participants typically start by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in order to determine the best approaches for arriving at the stated targets. Next, the operating environment is discussed. With many organizations, while management's view of the organization's direction is consistent, the operating systems, incentives and procedures often directly contradict and discourage the actual attainment of those objectives. The bottom line is ... the sessions Bill facilitates are, at a minimum, dynamic. And while they tend to follow a specific format, he keeps foremost in his mind that it is far more important to come away from the retreat with something valuable, rather than just a bunch of superficially agreed-to issues. Triggered by his experience, when he sees/hears a group have a shallow discussion of sensitive or critical topics, he knows to change the format of the session to ensure that real issues are confronted and addressed. Regarding the retreat timetable, if management feels a survey is in order, preparing the survey and launching it is the first step in the critical path. The survey needs to be delivered about one month from the date of the retreat. After the surveys have been received and compiled (about 2 weeks out), Bill suggests a refined format for the retreat based on the:
Retreat Time-table and Organization Typically, strategic planning retreats are 2 to 3 days in length; the more time allocated, the more in-depth and detailed the action plan becomes. While a one-day retreat can serve a positive purpose (especially for one or two organization-specific pre-identified topics), often times, companies merely get to the point of broadly identifying organizational focuses. With a two-day retreat, the second day is spent developing and refining the top 3-5 goals. With a three day retreat, the participants typically walk away with clear direction as to what has to be done, by whom, by when, and what outcome is expected for each tactical plan. Bill uses breakout groups, and other techniques, to maintain open conversations and minimize the impact a "power executive" has on the retreat results. This is not to say that key executives are limited in any way from articulating their ideas. However, Bill's techniques elicit a more complete perspective of managements' views as a "power executive" can only influence the conclusions of his/her breakout group. This expands the overall creativity of the consolidated group outcomes and develops more synergy around the solutions chosen. It is important to have the retreats in a location where people are not constantly being interrupted. Therefore, Bill usually recommends an outside-the-office setting. And because planning and being creative is very taxing, meetings days are suggested to be no longer than 8 hours -- 6-7 is even more preferable. Organizations have kept after planning far longer, but what typically happens is people stop working to identify and achieve the optimum ideas and solutions and start focusing on expediency, so that the meeting can end. This is rarely in the best interest of the organization. However, if the focus of the meeting is superficial consensus on hotly contested issues, you would be surprised how easy it is to get people to agree in the 11th hour of one of these sessions. Why Bill? All of this is being covered to reinforce the idea that there are a great many different issues, techniques, obstacles, personalities, and more, that can either positively or negatively impact the value of a planning session. Some of these issues can create significant conflict and hard-feelings when brought to the forefront. Effective strategic planning must explore both the personal and professional agendas of the individuals involved if real consensus and an attainable plan are to evolve. And while most organizations have more than enough skills to facilitate their own retreat using internal personnel, Bill's involvement offers several advantages:
So, when you consider all the resources expended to bring management together to participate in a retreat (lost productivity of those involved in day-to-day activities while at the retreat, the salaries of the participants, expenses incurred for travel, meals and lodging, etc.), hiring an outside facilitator is often the second best investment a company can make. The first best investment is understanding that all facilitators are not alike and that you want to find the right facilitator for your group given the outcomes you are expecting. A simple phone interview with Bill will quickly help you determine whether he is the right person for your organization's next planning retreat. |
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Winters and Reeb, PLLC 2603 Pearce Road, Austin, TX 78730 :: phone (512) 338-1006 :: fax (512) 338-1023 :: Contact Bill |
