Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We do this time and time again—hold a retreat, find great ideas, and then have a disaster. When will we learn?

A bunch of us spent the weekend away discussing this and that. We came up with some great ideas that the rest of you will love!

Disaster ensues.

This happens time and time again. I guess that means it happens so often that everyone else would have learned the lesson by now, but for some reason just about none of us have figured it out.

For “the rest of you” to love the ideas found during the weekend retreat, the “rest of you” need to repeat the experience of the weekend retreat. That never seems to happen, so the “rest of you” don’t see the genius in the great ideas, you resist them, and disaster ensues.

If I spend the weekend away with a few persons and we find some great ideas, we have to find a way for the rest of you to experience what we experienced. We have to try really hard. We have to take far more time than we want.

And sometimes we have to admit that some great ideas we came up with may simply be not so great or downright stupid when exposed to the light of day.

Changing how the persons in a group do things and know things isn’t easy. Sometimes the work needed is far more than anticipated. Sometimes the time needed is far more than anticipated.

Have a retreat. Find great ideas. Then work really hard.