Stepping Back

Published on
October 1, 2012
Author
Chris Taylor
"Ideas are only valuable when applied."
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A good friend of mine recently organized a three-day offsite for his executive team. First one they’ve ever had as a company and, apparently, it blew their minds. Re-energized and centered the group around an aligned purpose; got them working on the right stuff, and with a renewed vigor. Everything you want to have happen from such an event. I asked my friend what was so ground breaking about their weekend that it would have such a powerful impact. The way he tells it, it was nothing more complicated than answering three questions:

  1. Where do we want to go as a company?
  2. Where are we now?
  3. What’s the gap, and how do we fill it? aka – what do we need to do differently?

I wonder how much of the impact came from the fact that they simply had a retreat at all. Sometimes setting aside the time to have the conversation is as important as coming up with the right questions.