Board and Staff Retreats

Overview

Vantage Point’s half to full-day retreats can offer a much-needed opportunity for your board and/or staff to develop and re-engage as a team.  

Individually Customized

Our development and delivery model is nimble, flexible, and in tune with your organizational culture and context. Based on your unique goals and situation, we will create a session that delivers relevant and collaborative learning that is engaging, cost-effective, accessible, and inclusive. Our staff and volunteer facilitators, or “knowledge philanthropists”, are proven experts in their fields and can address various topics. 

Planning and Facilitation 

Engage Vantage Point to support the planning and facilitation of your retreat, incorporating strengths-based team development, trust and relationship building, and opportunities to discuss and clarify roles and responsibilities. Retreat objectives we have recently facilitated include:

• Identify board and staff shared priorities for the coming years. 
• Build trust and relationship amongst board and staff, building the foundation for a strong team to take the organization forward to organizational renewal and greater impact. 
• Craft a 12-month operational plan.
• Reconnect to the organization’s purpose and vision for the future, building a shared sense of purpose.
• Reveal and define team or organizational culture, including the values and identify the unique behaviours that drive organizational success.
• Identify what our values mean for us, including what living or not living these values looks like.
• Identify our team objectives and/or define success: what outcomes will drive performance?

Team Development

Effective teams are critical to organizational success. Understanding your leadership skills and personal attributes will positively impact the effectiveness of your team. Our team building processes may begin with a strengths-based assessment, which provides specific information about the current mix of skills and strengths on your team. From this our facilitator will lead you though team-building activities focused on improving communications, strengthening relationships, and nurturing team performance. For additional information, check out our content from our Team Collaboration workshop. 

Board Self-Assessment  

For board retreats specifically, consider kicking off the process with an opportunity for each board member to reflect on their board experience and share their perspective on the board’s functioning and impact. Vantage Point will customize the online board self-assessment, disseminate the survey, collect results, and provide a summary of responses. The survey will provide key insights into priority areas for board development.