As a strategic planning consultant, I’ve long desired to be a participant in a facilitated strategic planning retreat. I’m happy to report that my desires have finally been realized! Here are some reflections I’ve had to keep in mind for clients.

1.     Give your retreat time. Consider who is in the room, how long they have been with the organization, and what is their general understanding of the current state of the organization to be able to make decisions about what comes next. Let this be a guide to how long you spend in the retreat. If the board lacks deep knowledge, make time for them to ask questions and get caught up. I can’t decide how we can be more inclusive if I don’t know what efforts have been made. Set people up for success

2.     Values in the board room. People show up with their values, which undoubtedly influence how people make decisions or decide what is important. I had no doubt that everyone in the room was passionate about our organization's work and deeply understood its importance. When faced with the realities of running a business, our values also guided how we believed we could achieve sustainability.

3.     Ask hard questions. It’s not uncommon to have big strategic questions. One thing that was new to me in this retreat was explicitly asking the questions and having the board respond. Typically, I put out hard questions and try to facilitate the response from my clients. While I don’t think we had the time to answer these questions together, having the opportunity to discuss them can be just as fruitful -- it can show you where the board is strategically (i.e., are we ready to make a decision or do we need more information/conversation). Some of those hard questions can become areas of further exploration through strategic planning, giving permission to the board and staff to dedicate time and attention to the hard question and its potential answers

4.     Listening to understand is a must. Giving consideration to my previous point, asking “Why?” is a great question to continuously ask in a strategic planning retreat (and as a board member in general). “Why is this important to you?” “Why do you think this is the best next step?” I have to admit I struggled with this. I don’t think I asked “why?” enough; I think I was afraid of the answer or, worse, believed I knew why people believed what they did. As the retreat continued and, inevitably, the thoughts of others were shared, I saw ways to align what I felt was important with the things others thought were important – but only once I was “forced” to listen through group sharing.

5.     Without a clear impact, it’s hard to make decisions. If you don’t know what change you want to make in the world, it’s pretty hard to decide what the next best step is or how to focus your resources. Sometimes, this vision or impact is so deeply ingrained in the bones that it no longer has to be mentioned; however, if you go too long without mentioning it – you can become lost. When we can articulate the change and put it at the forefront as a guiding star, we can find a home, physically and culturally, for our work.

Consider incorporating some of my takeaways at your next board retreat. Or better yet, reach out to me or my team at The Spark Mill – we’d love to work with your board to figure out your next best step.