What comes to mind when someone says the word “retreat”? In the dictionary, “retreat” has a few different meanings:
- An act of moving back or withdrawing.
- A quiet or secluded place in which one can rest and relax.
- An act of changing one’s decisions, plans, or attitude, especially due to criticism from others.
Suppose we apply these definitions to a “planning retreat.” In that case, we can conclude that it is a meeting where a group can step back from regular daily activities to discuss decisions, plans, and goals to help inform a strategic plan and future decisions. This means you don’t need to leave town to have an effective planning retreat!
Whether you are leading a planning retreat or participating in one, what makes an effective planning retreat? The facilitator can ensure the group has a plan and accomplishes their goals. A participant can help keep the conversation on topic, as it is common for a group to want to jump into the solutions of a plan before determining the focus areas.
Earlier this year, we discussed the 4 Steps of Strategic Planning. Step 3 is to “facilitate consensus”, which usually occurs at a planning retreat. The main purpose of this step is for the planning team to start to reach consensus about the organization’s future direction, including goals and strategies. We follow three key steps to lead an effective planning retreat.
1. Provide Summarized Materials
Create a pre-read packet of summarized materials from the first two steps of the strategic planning process. This helps equip the planning team with rich feedback from the key stakeholders (step 1: collaborate) and understand the context (step 2: analyze). You also want to give your planning team enough time to review and process the information before the day of the retreat so they can make thoughtful recommendations. There are several ways to present a pre-read packet: A narrative report, a presentation, or an interactive online dashboard.
During a project with the Wabash County Early Childhood Education Committee, we created a Tableau Public file titled “Impact of Early Childhood Education in Wabash County.” This included five tabs summarizing key community demographic data, program information, and stakeholder feedback from employers and parents. The titles for visuals were worded as questions to help the audience pull out key messages from the information. Retreat participants saw and reviewed the dashboard information before the meeting, and then TCG reviewed key information and highlights in a presentation during the retreat. This process allowed us to start having meaningful conversations at the retreat and work towards identifying goals.
2. Identify “What” You Want to Accomplish
After leading the team through a review of the information, the majority of time is spent making meaning with the data and identifying goals and strategies for the future. Having some great discussion questions is really helpful to focus the conversation with participants and help them use the information presented.
Many participants at planning retreats want to jump right into strategies or solutions. We work really hard to help steer the conversation to first, reach agreement on the “what” we want to accomplish with the strategic plan. Help the group to narrow the focus to 3-5 key focus areas or goals to help carry the strategic plan forward. As we have mentioned earlier, buy-in from the team is crucial to reach consensus and keep momentum towards the strategic plan.
This discussion time can be done as a full team, split into small groups or partners depending on the size of the planning team. If you break into small groups, make sure you come back together as a large group and collectively reach a consensus about the goals/ focus areas. We like stickers to help participants “vote” or prioritize their top choices.
3. Determine “How” You Will Accomplish It
After the “what” is determined, transition the team to discuss the development of key strategies and solutions that address the identified goals. This is the “how” we will accomplish the goals of the strategic plan. Similar to the previous step, discussion can be done as a group or broken into teams.
The timeline of the strategic plan will help determine how many strategies are appropriate for each goal/ focus area. Again, we encourage participants to narrow the focus to 5-7 key strategies. If you have 5 goals and 5-7 strategies per goal, then there could be upwards of 35 strategies that your organization will be working to implement. We want to see the organizations we support strive for aspirational strategic plans, while also having the plans be realistic and achievable.
Some different tools and activities can be used during the facilitation step of the strategic planning process. Depending on what works best, the main thing to remember is to engage, focus, and prioritize.
Once you have your top goals and strategies identified, then you can “workshop” them into a more detailed operations or implementation plan that explains the who, what, and when in much more detail. This is what sets apart a strategic plan from sitting on the shelf and not being implemented, to a strategic plan that truly moves the organization or community forward.
Now that you have hosted an effective planning retreat you are ready for the final step of the strategic planning process – create the strategic plan. If you need assistance with facilitating an effective planning retreat, or with any step of the planning process, Transform Consulting Group is here to help. Contact us today!
