The Power of Coming Together: How We Guide Organizational Retreats
Over the last few months, we’ve had the incredible opportunity to head out on the road and gather with our clients to facilitate in-depth retreats. Enduring COVID taught us that virtual meetings can also be powerful and effective. But sometimes there’s something truly special and energizing from spending time face-to-face.
In Northern California, we came together for a retreat with the Alliance for Felix Cove, an organization advocating for the restoration of the ancestral homelands and traditional lifeways of the Coast Miwok/Támal-ko people. We led members of the Alliance’s Strawberry Leadership Circle–a group of powerful Indigenous women who serve as close partners and advisors–through a two-and-a-half day retreat. Together we reflected on all the Alliance has accomplished in the 18 months since its launch–and then worked through intensive sessions to determine how to catalyze and operationalize the Alliance’s growth in the coming years.
In Minnesota, we facilitated a strategic planning session for Dakota Wicohan, which is helping to lead the movement to protect endangered Indigenous languages. After 20 years, the organization is still grounded in its mission of revitalizing Dakota as a living language. But leading up the retreat, the team agreed they needed new fuel to support innovation in their work. Our day-and-a-half retreat opened with a session that included a group of nearly 40 community members, who all expressed their gratitude and strong support for Dakota Wicohan’s unwavering commitment to sustaining Dakota lifeways. Internalizing that community support helped reenergize the team–and the retreat helped them refocus and find new inspiration for the work ahead.
At both meetings, we were struck at the power of what can happen when a committed group of team members comes together. Even with just a brief window of time, retreats can help your organization uncover pivotal moments of transformation and practical knowledge for realizing strategic goals. These are just a few ways we support organizations during retreats.
Engaging in intensive conversations that are grounded in an organization’s core values–so that team members find new ways to collaborate, support transparency and confront challenges together
Defining organizational pathways that clarify both longer-term goals and day-to-day operations–and how they can intersect in ways that consistently move you toward realizing your mission
Identifying new ways to build your human capacity by leveraging the core strengths of your team, board, and partners, while developing advancement and fundraising strategies that are community, rather than donor, driven.
We saw the energy that came out of these recent retreats for both groups–and it’s already refueling our own commitment to helping community-based organizations realize the changes they strive for. Let us know if you need support in designing your own retreat!