Partner Retreats: A Recipe for Success
Source: The Marc Rosenberg Blog
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Marc Rosenberg.
A partner retreat is NOT…
- Just another partner meeting. A retreat is for contemplation, communicating, brainstorming, going boldly where the partners have never gone before.
- A firm-wide event where lots of staff are invited. The presence of non-partners can stifle fruitful discussion.
- An excuse for the partners to go to a resort on the firm's dime. A conference room at a local hotel is more than adequate.
- A forum for beating up or ambushing your partners. The retreat is about the firm, not the individual partners.
- An event that ends when the retreat is over. A good retreat is one where the partners have great conversations AND execute retreat ideas.
A partner retreat IS…
- An occasion to assess the firm. A time for the partners to ask: How satisfied are we? What do we want the firm to look like five to 10 years from now? What will it take?
- An opportunity to get sensitive issues onto the table. Do we have partner accountability? Are we willing to voice long-hidden opinions that risk offending some partners?
- A place for strengthening partner relationships. A retreat should create an environment in which partners can think, leisurely communicate, and share feelings and opinions.
- A learning experience. Learning best practices in areas in which the firm is weak.
- Discovering feelings and opinions of other partners.
- A problem solver. How can we grow faster? How can we develop young partners to avoid merging up as our succession plan?
- A game changer. Everyone attending a retreat should go into it with the goal of making it a game changer for the firm.
For the complete entry, read “What a Partner Retreat Is – and Is Not.”
From The Marc Rosenberg Blog, July 20, 2015, blog.rosenbergassoc.com.