Oct. 4, 2007
A good share of my life is about going somewhere. Going by car or by plane, but going somewhere. (This blog is written at 39,000 feet and I am looking down at St. Louis.) Last weekend I didn’t go anywhere. It felt great! But it wasn’t a ‘do nothing’ weekend. Some of my favorite people came to spend time with me and my wife at our home. We hosted a leadership retreat. Two terrific CEO’s from MI were among the group – Vickie Schmitzer and Karen Church.
We spent the weekend looking at creative approaches to insure that we have a dynamic, engaged, world class work culture. It is so easy to be absorbed in daily routines and schedules, that vital issues like this one sometimes get left on the back burner. Voice mails, emails, meetings, deadlines, and an endless list of pressing items seem to keep important issues like our ‘culture’ far from the forefront.
Here is the way I prefer to do my learning:
- Creative people sitting in a living room looking at the falling autumn leaves
- Sipping apple cider and sharing stories of successes and concerns
- Break-times spent outside playing horseshoes
- Afternoon sessions on the pontoon – discussing Joe Callaway’s excellent book (Indispensable)
What came out of it? Great new friendships were formed. Each left with creative new insights. A CEO from Texas was inspired by Karen’s approach to celebrating company successes and decided he was going to put a lot more into the idea of celebrating – not just always pushing to reach a new goal. A CEO from Kentucky wants to fly to Frankenmuth to observe some of the things that are working very well for Vickie.
3000 years ago, Solomon wrote “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. Is there time in your life for ‘iron sharpening’? Would you benefit by getting away for a few days? Don’t let your busyness keep you from connecting with people who really inspire you. There never seems to be time for such things – you have to schedule the time.
Comments
Hi Rick! This is great. Opening with thoughts about "going places" is absolutely appropriate, I think. How are we ever going to get anywhere without taking some time to rejuvenate and create... or recreate, a term which makes better sense, suddenly. It's amazing that we forget how important retreat (another loaded word!) can be in trying to move forward.
I envy those who are able to take such time with you; I can only imagine the positive changes these lucky folks are bringing back to their credit unions.
I hope all is well.