[soliloquy id=”6774″]
In a service-based business like ours, you spend your time hustling and making amazing things happen for the clients you serve. In turn, focusing on your own vision as a company – your processes, roles, challenges, and opportunities – is easy to lose sight of.
That’s why last week I gathered up the team, rented an old Victorian house in Chattanooga, TN, and led us in our first ever “Vision Quest” (think company retreat sans trust-falls and dizzy-bat races). For 2 1/2 days we closed our inboxes, put away our phones, and focused on nothing but ourselves. Together, we reflected on the past, collaborated on the present, planned for the future, and drank plenty of bourbon along the way.
Our time together was incredibly valuable – and that value was grounded in honesty and the desire from everyone on the team to push each other to do the best work possible. We thought in ways that don’t happen when we’re focused on answering emails. We had deep conversations that can’t take place when we’re scheduling around meetings. I realized – and we realized – how incredibly valuable real, dedicated, focused time together can be.
And through it all, we got to the heart of not only why we do what we do – and why it matters, but how we can do it so much better. Together, we defined how we can – and will – do our absolute best work.
Perhaps my colleague Brett said it best: “Without wholesale buy-in, collaboration is a destination to be reached rather than something intrinsically tied to the purpose and vision that defines your brand.”
Here’s to Vision Quest 2013 – and to many more to come!