Leading a school is extraordinarily stressful without a cohesive team that has clarity, communicates expertly, and consistently executes day-to-day.
Motivated by the joys of working with such a productive team, schools have asked us to help them gain advantage through a leadership retreat--one that is designed to increase leadership capacity, organizational health, and continuous improvement.
The format of a leadership retreat is designed to maximize engagement for each person and the group as a whole. For our clients we customize the experience based on the situation of each team, recognizing the changes and cycles of growth that inevitably occur.
One school had 50% turnover in a large administrative team because of various personal and career factors that all happened in the same year.
Another had been through a few years of internal turmoil and needed to bring harmony to their culture.
Another group was responsible for over 100 schools and they needed to rethink their value proposition and relationships.
A smaller school needed to increase engagement between the administrator and the board, creating a shared vision to overcome mounting competition.
Through a pre-retreat planning session, we collaboratively created an agenda and logistics plan for the one or two day program. Each retreat included learning, planning, and relationship building to:
- Establish Expectations & Goals
- Accurately Assess Past Performance
- Determine the Health of the Organization
- Training on Communication Habits to Build Trust and Engagement
- Develop an Action Plan to Build Momentum
During this time away from the normal routine, we addressed the critical issues facing the team and the entire organization. This helped inject fresh energy and direction to achieve higher levels of student growth and school growth.
Interestingly, we haven't found a bad time of year to schedule a retreat. We've led them in nearly every month of the year, with retreats already on the schedule for April, May, June, July, August, and October 2018.
The timing for a retreat depends on the priorities of the leadership and their commitment to finding a path forward through the obstacles that are limiting growth and the pursuit of excellence.
A few books provide valuable content for our retreat programs:
- Building Engaged Schools, by Gary Gordon
- The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni
- The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge
- The Lean StartUp, by Eric Ries
- Great by Choice, by Jim Collins
We combine our own research with some of these great books to create a powerful experience that consistenly exceeds expectations.
Have you planned your next leadership retreat to gain advantage for your school?
