What is a Retreat?
It is a situation where an individual or team pull back to delve deeper mentally into future plans in order to gain clear understanding and chart roadmaps to overcome the foreseen and unforseen obstacles.
The word “Retreat” is a verb form in Latin which means “to pull back.”
So, retreat, or a retreat, is a situation where you “pull back” from the world to refocus mentally.
At retreats, each individual have a clear mental picture of what they need to do to drive the project to success and write it down as a working document.
What is the point of a retreat?
Retreats are treats in a way when you consider that most companies now have a fun component infused in retreat programs.
But the highpoint objective is that you are away from your usual routine and familiar work space to pull back from routine official work, wind down,get inspired, become refreshed, detox, and find new rhythm with yourself and/or your team members.
What do you do in a retreat?
Typically, an effective retreat must rejuvenate the mind, body and soul so the choice of activities must combine at least two of physical, mental and spiritual exercises.
-Spiritual Retreat Activities can include mindfulness meditation and yoga,
-physical activities such as tug of war, swimming, running, physical fitness exercises etc.
-arts and crafts sessions where you create physical works of art from your mental visualisation, deep reflections and inner voices.
-mental exercises can involve presentations by facilitators, unit heads, management members and strategy sessions etc
-music class or performance is one of the fun part as team members get to wind down through singing and dance performances.
To send your team members on a retreat is a great way to identify their likes, interests and potential so it can be noted as part of the human resources asset of the organisation.
What is a team retreat?
A team retreat is a gathering of selected members of a team with common objective to create innovative solutions.
They are usually assembled for a certain period of time to be away from all forms of distraction to enable them live, work and play, in an inspiring environment and eventually create the much needed solution.
What makes a retreat successful?
A great Retreat is that one that makes the participants leave the retreat much significantly better than they came into the Retreat- better motivated, refreshed, re-energised and raring to go!
The activities at the retreat seals the mind of the team members that the success of the team depends on their personal and collective inputs and the shared work is important enough for the investment of significant time and energy.
It deepens the personal connections team members have as invisible walls of communication barriers are lowered or completely eliminated as team members invest their time to play together and find allignment in their shared work.
It is also a good ground to celebrate intimate corporate successes away from the prying eyes of competitors, the media establishments and investment speculators trading in the shares of the company.
Why do companies have retreats?
A company retreat is an opportunity to bring your group members closer together in a relaxed and inspiring atmosphere and location.
It is particularly important for companies with much diversity and members do not regularly interact with those outside of their units or branches.
This event is essentially aimed to forge strong bonds that improve communication and teamwork in the workplace.
Are retreats worth it?
Do retreats work? Some may ask.
Absolutely! Retreat works.
Memories from great retreats linger for ever in the minds of the participants and makes it a life long experience for them even after retirement or relocation of their employment elsewhere.
For example, a week-long retreat for team members with a blend of educational, therapeutic, leisure activities and served a mostly plant-based nutritional diet significantly improved the physical and mental health of participants as revealed in a study.
While many team retreats are meant to boost morale and for team-building, work retreats are more strategic and relates to how to make the organisation can become more profitable and position itself for future opportunities to make more money.
So the main objective of a work retreat is therefore to spend time brainstorming, working on a company project, or coming up with a company roadmap and effective solutions.
Why are Team retreats important?
One reason for team retreats is because within teams are sub units with clear tasks and measurables that must be in alignment with the rest of what the overall team delivers.
So when team gather for retreat, each subunit will have opportunity to gather in their category and brainstorm then fuse the understanding it gains with the rest of the team.
Another reason to hold a retreat is to affirm the importance of Team-building by strengthen your team and make them cohesive — orientation session for new staff members, reinforcing the company mandates and goals, and reenergizing your current employees .
What is business annual retreat?
This is a once in year gathering of members of business group to boost the morale of employees and reinforce the corporate culture of the organisation.
What is a leadership retreat?
“Leadership Retreat” is an executive retreat where leaders of an organisation take a break from the day to day management tasks and take time to bond with other leaders in the company and focus on discussing specific problems, goals, and strategy to elevate the company’s credentials and profitability.
What is a silent retreat?
Silent retreat is the type of retreat where no word is spoken by participants for a certain time to reflect and meditate.
It helps them identify those things that help them grab and refocus their attention in an honest manner that connects their realities with their deepest being in total surrender.
At silent retreats, participation is preceded by a vow that no participant will talk and interrupt meditation sessions,at mealtimes,yoga, reading, and other retreat activities.
What are the benefits of a silent retreat?
There are little known but amazing benefits of going on a silent retreat.
These benefits include:
-the benefit of listening to your inner voice and self,
-attentive, careful chewing, and mindful eating at meals,
– rest for the vocal cords and ears,
– opportinuty to practice tone down and steady pacing of speech,
-gain deeper understanding of issues, ideas and projects.
How do you do retreat?
For personal retreat, you must be willing to decide to have a “pull back” and follow through on each of these 4 step that combine to help you find your way back to the center of your soul.
Pause: Stop your routine activities
Withdraw and Relax: Stay away from your work or routine activity situations, dress down and relax.
Rejuvenate. Once you’ve relaxed, rejuvenation is possible,
Reconnect: This is when you insulate your mind from all distractions and channel your mental and spiritual energy to the priority issues you need clarity on.
What does a group retreat include?
A group retreat is a type of group get-away gathering of the group members to bonds with one another, contemplate their purpose and motives, and work on one or more specific goals.
Even for group retreat, some time can be allotted time for group members to do their own thing, think, and relax.
Are retreats profitable?
Yes. It is a win-win for the retreat organizers(service providers) and their clients who pick up the bill the retreat organizers charge them on lodging, food, transportation, facilitators fee, and other costs including the profit margin factored in by the service providers.
How do you plan a work retreat?
You can survey and collate retreat ideas from your team members then plan a work retreat using your internal team and outsource some of the activity you lack the capacity to deliver or hire a professional retreat organizer that have the experience of putting together and executing great retreats to save time and enjoy their expertise and professionalism.
How do you plan a leadership retreat?
The next time you need to plan a leadership team retreat, consider hiring a professional retreat planner.
Alternatively, you can plan it and incorporate the following tips:
Create a survey for members to suggest activities
Evaluate based on the priority and available resources of the company
Plan with purpose and assign roles
Carefully consider the venue for the retreat
Identify tasks to be outsourced,
Hire professional retreat planner help.
What makes a retreat successful?
When you compare the result and feedback from companies that organize their retreats using in-house resources to those planned and organized with the professional services of retreat organizers, then what makes a retreat successful depend on the planners of the retreat.
The ultimate goal is to improve productivity and get maximum value from the resources invested in having a retreat.
The memories from a great retreat must linger in the mind , body and soul of the participants.
Best companies that organize retreats
Anthrop Management,
Ausso Leadership Academy(ALA), Lagos.
How To Get Retreat Planning Service For Free
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