Expect a fully guided, personalized and positive experience.
Your in-person or virtual retreat needs to have a concrete payoff, a tangible result that will benefit your business. Mark Lefko makes sure that happens, working hands-on with you from start to finish.
› Preparation
Select Participants: Once you’re clear about your goals, you’ll discuss who should attend. We primarily work with the executive team, because they have the most leverage in the organization.
Discuss Logistics: Should the retreat by held in-person or virtually? We’ll assist with the venue selection or technology setup. We discuss how long the retreat should be, how to invite the people who need to be there, transportation logistics, what the setup should look like, and what food to serve for maximum energy.
Establish Benchmarks: A couple of weeks before the retreat, Mark will meet with all the participants. These meetings can happen in-person or through conference calls. He’ll talk about your objectives, what to expect, and how to prepare. Everyone gets homework as well as an anonymous online survey which acts as a benchmark to measure progress. Once Mark receives the completed surveys and homework, he works with you and any other chosen leaders to finalize the agenda items.
› The Retreat and Takeaways
The retreat itself is highly interactive. Everyone participates and no one escapes. You review the survey results and do exercises. Discussions get going. There are breakout groups and brainstorming sessions. People analyze business models. They talk about their accomplishments, challenges, and their goals for the company.
Assumptions are uncovered. There’s music, color, and toys. There’s friendly competition among groups. A Lefko Group associate takes full notes, documenting the entire experience so that nothing is lost.
All the while, Mark is asking people for takeaways. What are they learning? Why is that important? How can they use newfound knowledge to benefit themselves and the company? Over and over again, he gets participants to come up with their own meaning and use for what’s being created.
At the retreat’s end, he leads a debriefing session so the participants can hit the ground running. What have you each agreed to? What decisions were made? Who will champion each project? How will you make things work? What measures will you use? What issues remain open, to be addressed at a future meeting?
Once you’ve tied down all the accountabilities, the retreat is over. If that’s all the help you needed from us, we’re honored to have helped.
› Event Follow-Up
If you’d like our continued guidance, we can arrange for monthly or quarterly follow-up meetings, during which we’ll help you make course corrections or tackle new initiatives. We’re equipped to provide whatever hands-on or transparent services you may need.