Guest Blog by Nicolle Germain, MBA
As summer comes to a close and the leaves begin to change colour, we slowly begin to settle back into the work groove. Soon will be gone the days of warm weather, and dare I mention our old friend “Winter” will return. As we move indoors, we begin to look at our projects or plans that may have been pushedPlanning Ahead for a Successful Tomorrow aside for vacations or golf games in the summer months. The season of Fall really is a great opportunity for a renewed sense of focus. Perhaps it is an opportunity to ask yourself: “Now what?” and set a plan into motion.
At X5, we’re encountering just that as well right now. Next week, we’ve set aside a weekend trip to the mountains to plan for the remaining months in 2013 and the year ahead. Our team has found great success in focused planning, as earlier this year we visited Canmore and spent a few days preparing for 2013 and squeezing in some quality team bonding. We referred to our event in January as a ‘retreat’, as we invested dedicated time to not work IN our business, but ON our business. Our discussions were on many topics, but included: “How will we serve customers better?”, “How will we strengthen and grow our business?”, “How will we remain competitive?” These questions should be asked by every business, but how many businesses actually spend the time to create action plans around achieving these goals? From our experience, not many do. Where’s the time? There’s always something higher on the To-Do List. Do you know where you and your team are headed?
Planning Ahead for a Successful TomorrowFrom our own experience holding our own X5 company retreat, one of our service offerings was born: ‘The X5 Retreat’. We found great value in working on our business (we do practice what we preach!) and have seen numerous businesses reap the rewards as well. The people we have worked with have really enjoyed the ability to let us take care of the event logistics and facilitation (near and far away from Edmonton), while their key team members show up on the retreat day to roll up their sleeves and spend focused time on short and long-term strategic planning, succession planning and other important topics. A comment that we’ve heard from retreat participants is the added bonus of building rapport amongst their team members. At X5, we always look to incorporate fun into our facilitated events, as team building is a priority – every time!
As Fall sets in, we encourage you to set aside time to plan for the year ahead. Long-term planning is a necessity for successful business growth, an opportunity to refine your service offerings and align corporate structures, as well as set goals and targets for your company. If you’re interested in learning more about X5 Retreats and how we can simplify your focused planning day, please visit our webpage: X5 Retreat. We look forward to helping your business create plans for a successful tomorrow.
Pictures Above: The X5 Team with our mentor Arnold, participating in a dog sledding team activity in January 2013.
