Benefits of Off-Site Retreat - Essay Example

Benefits of off-site retreat Off-site retreat for the leaders has several advantages because they need a break away from the work place but most often it is not properly utilized. It is an excellent idea but it is rendered useless if people return refreshed but repeat the same process as last year. The concentration in such retreats is on food and enjoyment and the focus is away from the purpose of the retreat – the strategic planning for the company. Off-site retreats are an excellent opportunity for the senior leaders to identify, address and achieve a break through to bring about transformation in the organization. It is an opportunity to come up with development plans, address conflicts, leading to corporate improvement. The retreat itself requires the right planning in the first place (Vantage, n.d.). The right people should be present and not just any number of people and the agenda should be tightly focused on what is the expected outcome of the retreat. This requires that each participant has done the basic ground work before going for the retreat. They should be well equipped with data for the proceedings of the meeting. They should also be in a position to have data that would help to review the achievements over the previous year. Then, the participants should not be involved in the organizational aspects of the retreat so that they are free to concentrate on the proceedings and the purpose of the retreat. Critique of Second National Bank Problem faced by the organization Second National Bank (SNB) is spending lot of time in preparing organizational mission statement, vision and aspirations but makes on effort to align the organizations with the values ad visions already in place. They have a vision, they create a vision but they have not become a “truly visionary organization” (Collins, n.d.). Creating alignment itself is a two-part process – the first is to identify and correct misalignments and the second is to create new alignments. At SNB they have been able to recognize that they have not been able to implement their visions of the previous year but there are no efforts to correct them. At the same time, they have not created any new vision or alignment but have just decided to follow what they had decided the previous year. The top management including the VPs has not taken any initiative to follow up or align their goals and visions. Evaluation SNB does not have the strategic planning process in place which should include assessing the current situation, creating a vision, analyzing the gap between the current state and the vision, planning and setting priorities using the right tools, engaging the right people who would be willing to take the responsibility in the planning process, setting targets for each team leader and at the end of the period the outcome has to be evaluated (Drenkard, 2001). The executives have not even carried last year’s plan for the meeting and none could provide definite evidence of the extent to which the previous plans had been implemented. Recommendation and rationale There is no empowerment, no motivation, no participation ad no involvement of the employees in the organization. They do not have any strategy at all. The top management hold meetings, decide upon a plan and it ends there. The employees who have direct interactions with the customers have to be trained and motivated to implement the corporate goals. Empowerment develops a sense of personal efficacy in employees. It leads to a sense of responsibility and performance improvement. It also encourages the employees to enhance their own skills and put to use their latent talents. This leads to enhanced services and in turn satisfied customers (Lashley, 2000). The employees should be motivated to reach their full potential because “motivation produces” (Ryan & Deci (2000). The executives and the employees at SNB lack intrinsic motivation which requires a sense of autonomy. The senior leaders shirk their responsibility by saying, “…I met with our tellers and clerks and reminded them to smile more when dealing with our customers.” Implementation SNB should have a strategic planning process to improve its standards of service and align its strategy with the corporate vision, mission and goals. The senior leaders lack leadership skills and the communication system within the company is lacking as well. There is no accountability within the Bank. The entire system needs to be changed. Hence, the first step is to take a gap analysis which is the active process to understand how large is the leap to be taken to meet the vision and what should be the action taken. Then priorities would have to be set and resources allocated to developing communication and leadership skills. People at all levels should be involved in the decision making because the ones that interact with the customers are in the best position to suggest methods of improvement. When people from different levels are involved, it could bring about a change in the vision of the company. Each of the teams or divisions should have strategic action plans. Targets would have to be set and if necessary, they may even have to bring in fresh talent into the bank. Before the next annual off-site retreat the results should be evaluated at the team level so that the leaders can present their teams results at the retreat. Conclusion If the CEO asked for my opinion, I would suggest that periodic internal monitoring of outcomes of the strategies that have been developed should be undertaken. Without strategic planning the Bank lacks vision, mission and even purpose. The CEO needs to be involved round the year and not take stock annually. The involvement of the top management serves as a motivator to the others down the line. The core values need to be communicated through action and not in mere words. The leaders need to be exemplary; the leadership traits should be easily recognizable. The employees should have intrinsic motivation to follow the leader and fulfill their responsibility. The organization lacks culture and there are no shared values. Core values and cultural norms cannot change but strategies may have to be redefined to suit the changed business environment. Each leader has to be made accountable otherwise change the leaders! References: Collins, J. (n.d.). Aligning Action and Values. [Online] Available at: http://www.markeight.com/admin/pdf/Good%20to%20great/Aligning%20Action%20and%20Values.pdf [accessed 11 September 2008] Drenkard, K. (2001). Look to Strategy for Shortage Solutions. [Online] Available at: http://www2.nursingspectrum.com/articles/article.cfm?aid=5491 [accessed 11 September 2008] Lashley, C. (2000). Empowerment through involvement: a case study of TGI Fridays restaurants. Personnel Review. Vol. 29 No. 6, pp. 791-815. Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being, American Psychological Association, Vol. 55, No. 1, 68-78 Vantage (n.d.). Strategic Planning Retreats -- How to get the most out of them. [Online] Available at: http://www.vantagegroupinc.com/Meeting%20Tips.pdf [accessed 11 September 2008] Read More