Great Work For Clients

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 Selwyn House School  In mid-November I was invited by Mike Downey, Head of School at Selwyn House, to work with him and his Senior Leadership Team at their annual retreat in early December. The retreat was one specifically crafted to meet Mike and his team’s needs in the context of their 2023 reality. I began my work with a dialogue with Mike on his goals for the retreat, and he provided me the landscape for Selwyn House, both in the province, and with his relatively newly created Leadership Team. Following our discussion, I sent a formal survey to every one of his Senior Leadership Team members and inquired as to their priorities for the retreat and what a successful retreat would look like. Once I had all this data, I started creating the retreat itself based on the needs communicated by the team. The first was to create a Team Dynamics Survey which everyone filled out the weeks leading into the retreat. This provided specific Team Dynamic data that we would work with based on their responses. The other elements of the retreat were based on other very specifically identified priorities by the team. The first was building rapport in a new team, the second was defining a new understanding about how they would ideally like to work together, and finally we did some strategic thinking about the future of the school. Weaving through that schedule were some wonderful meals, some yoga, drinks, and some fun ice-breaker games. According to the feedback from the LT the retreat was a tremendous success. The weeks following the retreat I worked on collating all the data. I am a strong believer that if you don’t provide very detailed takeaways, then a retreat is simply a few days away. The richness of the data delivered back to the team provides them a road map for more effective working relationships, a more robust understanding about how they can support Mike and be supported by him, and finally some strategy vision that could be used in goal setting and “future” considerations. As a result of our engagement and the collective work accomplished and documented, our relationship is now ongoing with other priorities that need get done for Selwyn in the context of a busy period of growth for the institution.