The Purpose-Driven Retreat

Source: Partner Insights

Following are excerpts from an article by August Aquila, reproduced with permission.

It's been said that “one cannot discover new oceans unless one has the courage to lose sight of the current shore.” That's the purpose of the “impact retreat” — to take the firm away from the familiar to explore new potentials.

The retreat should provide you with a structured approach for understanding critical issues and problems and then developing strategic solutions. Merely discussing the issues and rehashing old ideas and points of view does not add value to your retreat.

For your retreat to be productive, you must:

• Define the purpose of the retreat
• Determine agenda items
• Decide on a course of action at the retreat
• Conduct a series of post-retreat activities

In determining the purpose of the retreat, avoid issues that are more appropriately addressed at monthly or quarterly owners' meetings, such as partner compensation allocation, recruiting, marketing, or collections. Circulate a pre-retreat questionnaire to help you identify the most important topics. Questions might include:

• What is the number one threat to the firm's long-term survival? How must we change to overcome this threat?
• Which business-critical processes should we improve? How?
• How can we remain a growth and learning organization?
• How can we change our work product to improve client satisfaction?
• What is the number one reason for our success? Will it hold true in the future?
• What concerns or questions do you have about the firm's succession plan?
• For senior partners: What are your primary concerns? (Funding retirement or selling the firm, for example.)
• For junior partners: What are your primary concerns? For example, how large would you like to see the firm become? What should the future ownership of the firm look like? How will the firm pay retirement benefits?
• What are your views on mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations?

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From Partner Insights, Aquila Global Advisors, LLC, August 25, 2009, www.aquilaadvisors.com.