The Situation

A small professional services firm had grown quickly, hiring staff who joined a team in motion, running at top speed. The CEO recognized that the team hadn’t stopped to have the conversations that really matter to the success of the organization: Why are we here? What do we stand for? Who do we want to serve? How are we going to work together? What does success look like? While the answers to those questions were obvious to the CEO, the team needed a common understanding and to be able to articulate the answers as well. Paravis Partners was asked to design and facilitate a leadership retreat to help the team gain alignment on these important questions.

Our Approach

We met with the CEO to understand the current situation and the desired outcome of the retreat. We also interviewed the new and longer term team members to understand what they were wondering about or struggling with as they were learning how to work together. Paravis designed a two-day retreat that would provide the environment and encouragement for the team to have the conversations to create that alignment.

They selected a venue with a cozy seating area, a fireplace that provided warmth in the midst of a snowstorm, and sat down to have a purposeful conversation together. They were guided by their Paravis facilitator to share more about themselves as discovered through the Myers-Briggs Type Instrument, creating a greater appreciation of their colleagues’ work styles. They each wrote a vision statement of where they saw the company going, and discussed the commonalities and differences. The team walked away with a set of common goals and a concrete list of actions to support their vision for the next year.

The Impact