This
past week was the proximate cause of my trip to the US. On Tuesday and
Wednesday all the campus directors and deans plus the leadership from
University Administration. Over the course of my professional life, I have been
to oh, about a million of these. It’s hard to do it right, actually. First of
all success is based on mutual trust and respect that is astonishingly rare.
Without that, more energy is spent on organizational politics than on the
business at hand. Second, it is important to strike a balance between having
fun and working on the business of the retreat. Again far too often one or the
other takes over and the balance is destroyed.
This
was actually one of the better management retreats I’ve been to. For one thing
the venue was beautiful. It was a remodelled and updated series of fifties era bungalows.
We were literally across the road from the beach and there were docks right at
the venue. For dinner on Tuesday, we took a water taxi across the Bay. We had
Maryland blue crabs. Lots of them. I got a good tutorial from one of the deans
on how to easily disassemble them and get to what little meat there is. They
were good but a lot of work for very little meat. Give me Alaska king crab any
day.
As
for the business of the retreat we broke up into four groups and each of us
tackled tone the major issues we are facing. This was called a FedEx activity
because we absolutely, positively, had to deliver a solution overnight. My group
came up with a gant chart for the activities we need to complete by December to
apply for accreditation under Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Quite an interesting couple of days.
Here are some pictures:
Here are some pictures:
Namaste
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