Manage your Work and Retreat to Progress

Louise Carnachan, Orcas Island management consultant, writes in her latest newsletter about stepping back to consider your activities and your goals, your daily habits and your plans. A regular “retreat” to evaluate and plan can be the secret to realizing dreams, ambitions and deadlines.

Everyone, from individuals to families, small businesses, sports teams, non-profits and large corporations can benefit from considering her advice:

If you’re scrambling to meet payroll or worried about what programs and services to cut just to stay solvent, it’s almost impossible to stop and consider, “What do I want to have happen in the next 12 to 36 months?” However, by not taking time to consider the future and make concrete plans to achieve it, you will be at the mercy of outside forces. You will miss opportunities that present themselves because you haven’t created a vision or made a plan and begun to execute it.

Now is the time to meet with your Board, your leadership and your staff to take stock of the present and envision the future you want- not the future you’ll be stuck with if left to fate.

Building a Retreat Agenda

When you are unclear about the retreat goals and the agenda, time is wasted. Below is a sample agenda for a planning retreat:

• “State of the Organization” Report- Accomplishments and Challenges

• Three Year Vision for the Organization- Our Preferred Future

• Gap Analysis Between the Current State and the Preferred Future

• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)

• Action Ideas and Prioritization

• Action Planning 1-3 Years

• Measures — How Will We Know We Are Succeeding?

• Evaluation of the Retreat Process

Do keep in mind that a plan with no responsible party and no timeline isn’t complete. Make sure someone’s name is associated with each action as the person who will do the next step, bring other parties to the table and be responsible to report back on progress by the due date established.

Carnachan can offer further help by going to her website link on this site — look to the left and scroll down (or up) for “Links that I Love.”
Many island organizations are planning retreat workshops or strategy sessions to envision and plan. The Eastsound Planning Review Committee (EPRC) will hold its retreat on Monday, Jan. 26.
The Orcas Island School District Board strategic plan review will be held Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. at the school library, one week after the regular board meeting this Thursday, beginning at 3 p.m. with a discussion of the proposed bond, and reconvening at 5:30 for the regular meeting.
It would be well worthwhile to attend these meetings for a beginning or overall view of the sense of these boards and build upon their strengths in planning for your own organization.
And if your organization is planning a retreat or giving an annual report, post it on Bullwings so that the public can save the date.