Lumen Impact Group
Lumen Impact Group

Practicing What we Preach: A Case for In-Person Retreats 

Published: December 5, 2023

By: Cori Egan, Junior Partner 

You have heard nightmare stories of work retreats: failed trust falls; emotionally charged coal walks (any Office fans out there?); catastrophic personality clashes. Fortunately, at Lumen Impact Group, these problems have never been a part of our annual retreats, which take place in-person in the Fall each year. But, despite having had “just fine” work retreats in the past, this year’s retreat was different for us. We came out feeling like we had grown together as an organization and were able to move beyond some of the foundational “who are we?” and “what do we do?” retreats that we have had in the past.  

Turning the Mirror Around 

As a company whose employees work mostly from home, it is easy to stay our bubbles, put our heads down in the work, and put organizational health aside. This year, our retreat allowed us to practice what we preach: we were able to turn the mirror around on ourselves to assess our progress and map out our shared vision and strategy for our work ahead. Long gone are the days of deciding and debating who we are and what we stand for, like other more foundational retreats; this year, we were able to look back at where we have come from and where we dream to be in a year. At this retreat we honestly examined ourselves, planned how we want to help our clients, and created a shared ownership of the year ahead.  

We also rediscovered the importance of being together in the same room in an increasingly virtual world. Even if you are in an office, it is important to physically step away from those everyday routines, tasks, and inboxes to think about the big picture and forward-thinking questions. We were able to break apart into many small groups to tackle various aspects of our strategic plan, allowing those who rarely work together and think together to do so. Building this kind of synergy “IRL” and getting away from Zoom helped us focus, bond, brainstorm, and think about our impact in ways that virtual work sometimes seems to prohibit.   

Celebrating the Connection with an Understanding of Differences 

Additionally, this retreat allowed us to celebrate that we enjoy each other while also celebrating our differences. The structure of this retreat gave us built in flex time to do what we need to do individually during frequent built in breaks.  Unlike past retreats, we had fully autonomous personal lunch breaks, and stopped working in the late afternoon with enough time to let folks rest, recharge, talk, or play games. Understanding that some of us were excited for more social time and others excited for some personal space, and encouraging everyone to do what they needed in that moment was a game changer. This not only allowed us to start the next day with clear heads, but also encouraged us to focus during the day knowing we had a hard stop at 5 PM. 

Equipped for Real Impact 

All this said, one thing about this retreat remained the same as the others: what we do at the retreat must be translated into our real work world, making a real impact for our clients. It cannot just be one and done—strategic plans and commitments made at the retreat and then forgotten. We are modeling what we teach other organizations to do: turning the mirror around on ourselves to be better, improve our own plans and systems, and develop processes that will in turn help us create more impact for our clients all year long. This year, we are all stepping out of the retreat with a strategic plan in hand and an understanding of our individual roles to make that plan a reality. Thanks to this retreat, we all feel ready and equipped to do just that.  

Testimonials

"“They don’t tell you what you want to hear. They tell you what you need to hear. That makes a huge difference. We needed to understand our weaknesses in order to make the organization work right, and I was overwhelmed by how they really got it and they helped us to get it too. They were able to do it in a way that really made me want to understand the goals we needed to focus on. I believe Lumen was absolutely the best we could have found.”"
Barbara Sellinger
Cresthaven Academy
"“I’ve been in nonprofits for 30+ years and have used the services of many consultants, but I have never been so comfortable with their commitment to helping us. It was as if the Lumen team shared our need to have a successful outcome and they were committed to the notion that they would indeed bring value to what we were doing.“ "
Caroline Novak
Alabama School Readiness Alliance
"“The Lumen team did a really good job sharing the hard truths with us. Their findings were different from what we were expecting, but they used the information to push us farther than we originally planned. They were candid and didn’t hide anything from us. We’re now on the path to developing products that are very different from what we’ve done before but are hopefully much more useful for the people we serve.” "
Drew Jacobs
National Alliance of Public Charter Schools
"“The management of a federal CSP grant is a really niche area that requires a tremendous depth of expertise and technical know-how. You need to have a microscopic attention to detail when it comes to compliance and reporting timeliness. The Lumen team is excellent at all of the above." "
Tyler Barnett
New Schools for Alabama
"“In my coaching, we make really strong, specific plans for next steps and then we follow up on them in our next conversation. We try to keep those next steps really manageable. When I’m busy, I can’t layer a ton of personal growth on top of my other responsibilities, so we make plans for growth that are baked into the work I’m already doing. That has been really helpful for me.” "
Kristen Forbriger
City Fund