I'll never forget the first time I attended a strategic retreat.

I was very pregnant with twins (they were born the very next month!), and I was a brand spankin' new practice manager with big shoes to fill following my predecessor. As a lifelong perfectionist (working on it!), failing was not an option, and either was being mediocre. 

But I had never been to a strategic retreat before, so I had no idea what to expect, and my social anxiety and the weight of potential failure in my role was making me sweaty-AF as I drove to the meeting site. 

And then... I walked into the most beautiful room I've ever seen. No chandeliers... no swanky furniture... no beautiful color palettes. Nope! Instead, it was all white. Everything was white. The walls, the table, the chairs... the only color to be found in that whole room was a stack of neon sticky notes in the center of the table under a pile of black Sharpie markers. It spoke to the minimalist I so desperately want to be (if only I weren't so damn sentimental).

The facilitator (tall, smiling, also wearing a white shirt) welcomed me to the table, laid the ground rules of the day, and asked us to start writing a list of 20 things no one else in the room knew about us. I won't lie... I thought it was a pretty cliché way to jump in... but you could feel the excitement + authenticity coursing through his veins, so I obliged. And before I knew it, we were taking turns reading each line out loud to one another. I still remember so many of those facts, and to this day, those facts remain some of my favorite details that I know about my bosses' lives! 

We spent the rest of the day navigating a series of carefully curated activities, and I can still remember trying in the moment to take mental photographs of every second, every well designed exercise, every word written on the whiteboards that lined the walls of that square, white room. 

It was so. damn. exciting!

Not only did I fall in love with strategic planning that day, but I also set the tone for the rest of my career in that room. Every second since then has led me to examine systems + companies + workflows + groups of people through the lens of innovation + strategy. That day exemplified the exact way I wanted to approach practice management + the way I defined success in my career.

By the end of the day, I could not believe how much we had accomplished. It felt like we'd done 6 months worth of work in 8 hours, but I was too caught up in the excitement + inspiration to even feel drained by all the work we had done. 

I felt that same excitement the first time I ever facilitated a strategic retreat for others... And I still feel it every single time I lead a strategic retreat, because you cannot deny the buzz of innovation + enthusiasm + "aha!" moments that is inherent to strategic retreats. It's the best kind of "coming full circle" moment in business every damn time.