One of the most rewarding self-affirming experiences of being a special meeting (“retreat”) facilitator is witnessing the emergence of deep engagement and the sense of renewal within a board. I had the privilege this last weekend of participating in such an event. 

This is a group that has been trying to establish an effective connection of a distributed national board to a centrally operated program for several years, with only one in-person meeting per year and two to four teleconferenced meetings per year.

While I am a biased participant observer at best, I believe that there were several elements critical to the sense of unity, motivation to succeed and the resulting sense of ownership and commitment to follow through that emerged from this activity. First, there was an interval of informal unstructured communication between individuals for 24-36 hours on the way to and at the meeting site. Second, the meeting was opened by creating the space for success...in this case, "spiritual space" invoking Native American concepts of calling upon ancestors and their wisdom in the four directions, Father Sky above and Mother Earth below.

Third, the agenda was adjusted just before and twice during the actual formal meeting to reflect the needs and values of participants...actual topics were allowed to vary greatly from published agenda. Third, the meeting was held in a comfortable room in a place of natural beauty with accompanying informality of behavior and recreation that resulted in relaxation and energy from the surroundings. Fourth, the perception of disconnection of individuals and the group from organization operations and staff resulted perhaps in a sense of frustration and urgent desire for improvement or abandonment. Sixth, the quality of the input was superior, resulting from the variety of perspectives, strategic insight and commitment that board members…a lot is possible with even a small dream team of board members. 

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