Yes, you can…run your own retreat.  As budgets tighten and despair spreads, it may be difficult to allocate funds for a professional meeting facilitator.  However, this does not mean you can’t have extended or special purpose meetings the old fashioned way by yourselves.  I was recently asked if I could give advice on having a wonderful planning session without my services as a professional meeting facilitator.  I stood up taller (mentally anyway, since this was over the phone) and said that the most important thing is for board members to spend time talking about what was most important for the organization, not have somebody prod them through a process.  I would like to provide a few suggestions to that client and others about how to improve the chances of a useful outcome to a self-guided discussion.

1)  Set an agenda.  Since you have limited time, maybe only three hours, don’t try to cover too many issues.  Don’t let the discussion go more than 90 minutes without a break unless you are on the verge of a breakthrough or need completion that the group agrees should occur.

2)  Be flexible.  If a major topic arises out of a discussion that seems strategic and there is a willingness by the group to deal with that, get permission to deviate from the agenda and cover that spontaneously emerging issue.  You should feel honored if one of “the elephants in the room” reveals itself during your session.

3)  Encourage honesty, frankness, directness while maintaining respect for all participants and those organization members, such as staff or absent board members, who are not in attendance.  Your time is short, so you need to strive toward breakthroughs in understanding and confidence in decisions but not at the expense of trust and adequate morale to maintain a united team.

4)  Encourage all to contribute.  Don’t let major decisions occur without insuring that all voices are heard and all points of view are surfaced.  All perspectives are valid and sometimes the minority or quietly held opinion is the one that the whole group will wan to embrace to move forward.  Silence does not equal acquiescence.

5)  Ensure follow-through.  Take the best notes possible about what was decided and valued in the discussion.  Attain agreement on who is responsible to take the next steps.  Make sure that the difficult work you have gone through has real consequences for the organization.  Build confidence in the value of these rare extended discussions.

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3.22 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."