The Center of Authentic Leadership & Mindfulness
Retreat Process/Work
A faculty/staff retreat can be an effective yet daring way to address difficult issues that arise in academic departments and/or across the college. Whether the issues deal with developing a hiring plan, restructuring curricula, being an effective instructor, or coping with budget cutbacks, a retreat can flesh-out ideas, resolve conflicts, build consensus, develop solutions, and foster collegiality. A retreat focuses faculty and staff energy on specific goals, which can facilitate and shorten the problem-solving process. An effective retreat requires a well-defined purpose, detailed planning, mechanisms to provoke and facilitate discussion, personal reflection, and camaraderie--Touchstones is just such a retreat.
The "Let Your Life Speak" Retreat is both an individual and professional endeavor involving:
- Nurturing identity and integrity, identifying and honoring gifts; resisting the pressures and projections of others.
- Acknowledging the lifelong process of unfolding and honoring the unique journey of each individual.
- exploring questions which are indeed personal questions but need not be entirely private, and are often best answered in and through community.
- recognizing the we are all engaged in teaching, learning, leading, and serving, no matter the job title, thus deepening our understanding of the truth that "We Teach Who We Are."