Matchstic Retreat
If I had to define the best decision we ever made, the first would obviously be the people we have, but second would be the discipline to take retreats. It's our time to take the company apart and put it back together again.
Without a doubt we have always made the most advances as a company during this time. When we're in the normal flow of work, it's nearly impossible to back away and look at it all with an objective eye.
We never know exactly what we're going to take away from it, but that's part of the beauty. Lock up a group of smart, innovative, and fun people for a few days and just get out of the way and let the magic happen.
Do you have any advice for us or things for us to consider during this time? If so, please comment on this blog and we'll use it as a part of our process.
Thanks!
6 Comments
"Zack retweeted this one. Just stay professional. Keep the leadership Atlanta gig in mind. Think about what worked with pat and Dan and what didn't. Also, always looking to improve yourself is a positive thing to do. Without some constuctive criticism we will never grow as creatives."
- Withheld upon request
"The following K-Land equation is true: "awesome" + "more awesome" = SUPER AWESOME. In other words - sometimes what's working, or the bright spot can be improved upon with amazing results. And...didn't you get enough ideas from Catalyst to last 2 retreats?!"
- Jay
"Invite one client - your most open-minded one..."
- Felix
"Lay out ideas for growth in staff or scale of projects, and then narrow the focus, if that's the direction you're going. Ask everyone why they do what they do, how they daily improve themselves.
Also, agreeing with Felix, inviting a creative client for an outside perspective would be valuable."
- Alex
"I agree with Felix. For years we have dedicated time to improvement. The year we started inviting clients to come and help us process what works well and what could be better, a switch flipped. Incremental improvement transitioned to incredible improvement.
Clients don't have to be there the whole time. Invite them to come early and leave after a robust discussion, leaving time for the team to dig in further. Or have clients come to the office to kick things off with a discussion before you head to the mountains. Use that as a spark to fuel the rest of the retreat. That organic development of agenda could be really powerful.
Of course, it's probably a little too late to incoporate that this year. Instead, I leave you with a powerful question once positioned to me at a retreat: "What one thing (change/ability/etc), no matter how seemingly impossible, would revolutionize the way you served clients? It seems that the more impossible the idea, the more creative teams get. Even if you can't achieve exactly what was originally stated, I think you'll be surprised at how revolutionary the change is that you end up with."
- parker
"No Risk = No Reward. Take on some risk, and deliver big-time. You guys always do!"
- Charles Brian Quinn