What does the school fundraiser dude have to do with my staff retreat?

Does anyone remember the school fundraiser guy who would come speak to your class and get everyone excited? I remember him, the modern day tent revivalist, he was named Buddy with his slick patchy hair and his catalog of prizes you could win if you sold hundreds of dollars worth of candles, magazine subscriptions and wrapping paper.

His job was to make sure us kids were jazzed up about all the stuff we could win if we hit up our parents, family, friends and everyone we knew to purchase this junk. As kids we'd get all excited about the potential for a new boombox listening to him describe it all we had to do was sell 50 twenty-five pound tubs of cookie dough and we were set. He made it sound easy but after going home that evening and learning everyone doesn't want a twenty five pound tub of cookie dough for $60.00 a little doubt crept in. A week later the excitement the energy gone along with my hopes of a boombox I settled for a rubber bouncy ball.

I think a lot of staff retreats work out like this. Bring in Buddy to motivate the troops, offer big promises of things to come, get everyone jazzed up about what they can do if they reach their goals. After a few weeks everyone has forgotten the boombox, the excitement is gone and people are settling for their bouncy ball or whatever gets them through the day.

When we do staff retreats we try to bring excitement, we like to inspire and create energy but the most important thing we do is create action plans equipped with account abilities, timelines and process for evaluating success before we send people out into the world chasing a boombox.

So I guess beware staff retreats big on promises light on the details.