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Board Mission Retreat - One-Day
Building on the base of the Shared Vision Retreat, this full day allows time for more exploration and in-depth reflection on the life of the organization.
Using the 'LifeFrame', a tool for in-depth organizational awareness, the afternoon invites board members to look together at the board, the organization, the communities it serves, and its collective history in a way that often produces powerful insights.
This is done not from an 'analytical' or 'problem-solving' stance, but rather with a contemplative approach. This Contemplative modeling increases a group's ability to 'look long and compassionately' at various layers of its living organization. This contemplative look inevitably reveals surprising strengths, possibilities, and often an opportunity to heal old organizational wounds.
This process models simple dialogical practices that improve communication and group decision-making. Without becoming a 'workshop' this process introduces and practices learning organization tools such as the Ladder of Inference, Polarity Management, and Argyris' Organizational Learning Stance.
Board members speak of ending the day with an enriched awareness of the 'whole' organization and its life. They recount ways that this experience improves their interactions and decision-making on behalf of the organization and its mission. And perhaps best of all, they speak glowingly of feeling personally renewed.
