Retreat Facilitation Services

RM Klein Consulting provides retreat facilitation services to design firms, academic institutions and non-profit organizations. Retreats provide an opportunity for the leaders of an organization to gather together with each other, or with the staff as a whole. Retreats work best when they are held annually and become an integral part of the management process. The usual reason that retreats are held is for strategic planning and/or the development of strategic action plans.

Effective Firm Retreats

In architectural firms, retreats that include all firm members can leverage the creativity of staff and increase organizational self knowledge. Outcomes of effective retreats include development of strategic initiatives, activation of process improvement, and enhancement of morale. Effective retreats engage participants and encourage shared leadership. Chances of retreat success will be increased by using an innovative method known as Open Space Technology.

Developed by consultant Harrison Owen in 1985, Open Space Technology (OST) is a non-proprietary method in use by organizations of every type and size throughout the world. OST is known worldwide as an effective group process for identifying critical issues, sharing knowledge, voicing concerns, and working collaboratively to find solutions. While other methods might be used to achieve these ends, many of them are proprietary and require the services of a facilitator certified in the system. OST has a do-it-yourself simplicity and is freely available to all comers.

For architectural firms, staff input is critical to organizational assessment, vision alignment, strategic planning, and process improvement. A retreat using OST will give firm leaders access to the intelligence, experience, and enthusiasm of their staff. Because the method requires shared leadership and collaboration, an OST retreat builds strong connections between principals, administrators, and professional staff. The method is most effective when used by firms of 15 to 50 members, but can also be adapted for use with very small groups.

Best Uses for Open Space Technology

Open Space sessions allow an organization to know itself more fully. Organizational self-knowledge allows strategic decisions to be made that are more likely to lead to accomplishing desired goals. This is especially true when this organizational understanding is widespread. We have all heard of organizational change initiatives that are met with apathy or active resistance. This does not happen with change initiated by Open Space because everyone understands its foundation and intent.

Use in Assessment

Open Space meetings are extremely useful as a component of organizational assessment. This is because underlying dynamics are brought to the surface and hidden systems and cultural aspects are revealed.

CASE STUDY
During a firm retreat at CD Architects, it came out that staff members felt competitive toward one another. They talked about feeling pressure to perform and to always look busy, which somehow transferred into a need to appear better than the person sitting next to them. This revelation shocked the Principal who prided himself in creating what he thought was a friendly, collaborative feeling at the firm. It gave the Principal the opportunity to say that he believed that excellent performance was best achieved through collaboration not competition. He also had the opportunity to consider what messages he was giving that made his staff think otherwise. Just the awareness that the issue existed, plus the chance for honest communication about it, was enough to initiate change.

Use in Knowledge Creation and Sharing

Open Space is also an effective method of enabling shared learning and knowledge creation within a community of practice.

CASE STUDY
AIA Seattle uses Open Space methods at its Annual Board retreats, known as Mossroots. This method allows all participants to tackle the issues and opportunities of the organization in a highly democratic and transparent manner. The in-coming and out-going Directors, along with AIA Seattle staff, discuss the topics that are the most interesting and important to them. The outcome has been an annual strategic plan with innovative ideas and priorities set in each of the four mission areas, and a sense of engagement by all involved.

Use in Strategic Action Planning

CASE STUDY
After 15 years in business, the partners at TM Architects felt that is was time to become more intentional, to focus on creating a business plan that would achieve personal and professional goals. They could see that they were in danger of losing valuable staff if they could not provide opportunity for professional advancement, including elevation to principal or associate level. They initiated a strategic planning initiative that included a full firm retreat. Results of the retreat, and the decisions on how to implement them made by the partners, allowed employees to make valuable contributions to the development of the firm.

As explained by Harrison Owen, originator of Open Space Technology:

“Open Space Technology is effective in situations where a diverse group of people must deal with complex and potentially conflicting material in innovative and productive ways. It is particularly powerful when nobody knows the answer and the ongoing participation of a number of people is required to deal with the questions. Conversely, Open Space Technology will not work in any situation where the answer is already known, where someone at a high level thinks he or she knows the answer…”

Open Space Technology Method

The first step in planning an OST meeting is to determine and articulate a theme for the meeting or retreat. Usually this is done by the firm leaders, sometimes with the help of a consultant. Often it is wise to craft an open-ended calling question such as, “What are the issues and opportunities involved in achieving excellence in design and project delivery?” or “How can we better satisfy our clients and make this the best possible place to work?” A targeted issue can also be used effectively as a meeting theme. An example of a pragmatic retreat topic might be, “How can we improve quality control and quality assurance in our project delivery?”

Although OST methods are non-proprietary and easily learned, it is often advisable to retain a skilled OST facilitator to run the meeting or retreat. This will free firm leaders to participate fully without having to pay attention to anything other than the conversations in which they are engaged. In addition, a skilled OST facilitator can determine an appropriate length for the retreat; can usually recommend suitable venues; can help organize the retreat schedule and can teach the OST method to participants.

In architectural firms, retreats conducted using Open Space Technology require a special role for firm leadership. Firm leaders must empower their staff to be honest and straightforward in the agenda formation and the small group dialogues. They must reassure those in their employ that there will be no negative consequences for things said or opinions held, and they must mean it. Morale and enthusiasm can be seriously damaged if the trust so requested is betrayed. For an OST retreat to be successful, firm leaders must be open to the perceptions of others, care about their feelings, and be willing to empower them to act on the ideas they generate. OST retreats can do more harm than good without sincere openness on the part of firm leadership.

With a theme determined in advance, participants create an agenda for the meeting during the first hour of the get-together. Any participant is empowered to suggest a topic for the agenda and to convene a small group meeting on that topic. Through simple organizational tools, a schedule of these meetings, including topic, time, and location, will be generated and displayed. Although a theme may be very broad, this process guarantees that all aspects of the topic that are important to those present will be discussed. Small group conversations on the agenda topics take place in 45- to 60-minute sessions that are held in designated places and during distinct time slots. Each participant’s time is their own to schedule, meaning that each person decides what conversation to attend, when to take a break, or when to talk to another person in a spontaneous interaction.

Participants are also free to move from conversation to conversation (“Law of Two Feet”), insuring that they will always be involved in dialogue that is meaningful and interesting to them. Those moving from group to group provide the cross-pollination of ideas critical to creative outcomes. At the concluding circle, each participant is invited to make remarks about their experience of the retreat. Because everyone has had the opportunity to spend the time in dialogue about ideas that are important to them, themes will begin to emerge and related issues will start to converge. These concluding remarks are often insightful, creative, energetic, and sometimes articulate specific action plans.

Outcomes of Effective Retreats

Typically, results from an Open Space Technology retreat fall into two categories. The first kinds of outcome are action items that can be accomplished immediately. These actions arise from the many good and practical ideas that are always generated when people converse about topics they really care about. An example of this might be a small change to a work process that makes it more efficient or a decision to implement a carpooling program. Because the process of OST identifies those who have passion for these kinds of ideas, it is simple to find the right person to facilitate their implementation. The second kind of results are ideas, insights, and creative imaginings that require more thought or research before action can be taken. These outcomes sometimes will cause a taskforce of interested persons to be formed. Firm leaders will certainly be involved in these work groups if ideas surface that suggest a reconsideration of basic procedures or existing structures.

Another common outcome of an OST retreat is a significant increase in familiarity, enthusiasm, and commitment among participants. In architectural firms, these outcomes translate into improved productivity and collaborative processes. Sometimes, issues that involve the deeply embedded culture of an organization will unexpectedly surface, causing widespread surprise and transformative insight among participants. While it is common for organizational change to be met with apathy or active resistance, when change is initiated as the result of an OST meeting, this is less likely to happen. The method allows all stakeholders to understand the intent of the change initiative and to contribute to its formation.

Open Space Technology is a tool that allows firm leaders to do more with less when planning and executing a firm retreat. Facilitation and planning costs are low in both time and money because OST is based on the principles of self-organizing by the participants. Because it engages both the enthusiasm and initiative of the participants, using Open Space Technology yields reliably positive, often inspired results.

The Open Circle Company: http://www.opencirclecompany.com/
Open Space World: http://openspaceworld.org/

Description of Facilitation Services:

Facilitation of a retreat involves several steps:

  1. One or two pre-retreat meetings with leadership—we will determine the purpose, the desired outcomes, and the “calling question” of the retreat.
  2. A pre-retreat meeting with all retreat participants—2-hr meeting to introduce the theme of retreat and to “prime the pump” of engagement in the event.
  3. 4 or 5 hr retreat, off-site, followed by dinner or happy hour—the exact time may depend on the size of the organization.
  4. Post-retreat meeting/report to leadership on outcomes of the retreat and potential next steps—what actions to implement, what ideas to consider, what strategic change is needed, how many indirect hours will it take?
  5. Post-retreat meeting/report to all retreat participants—conversation on action plans being considered by leadership and how these actions can be implemented.
  6. Post-retreat written report.
  7. Ongoing consultation during implementation of action plans.

With this process as an outline, each retreat is customized to the needs of the client organization. Please contact Rena for more information.